The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Ostrogoths

(East Goths), a Germanic tribe, the eastern branch of the Goths. In the third century they settled in the steppes of the northern Black Sea region, and partly in the Crimea (Crimean Ostrogoths). In the second half of the fourth century they formed a tribal confederation headed by Ermanaric, which included other Germanic tribes, as well as Scythian-Sarmatian and Slavic tribes. In 375 the confederation was defeated by the Huns, and most of the Ostrogoths migrated westward and settled in Pannonia. Under Theodoric the Ostrogoths moved on to Italy in 488, defeating the forces of Odovacar and forming their own kingdom in 493 with Ravenna as its capital. At its height the kingdom included Italy, Sicily, the Cisalpine regions, Dalmatia, and Provence. Most of the Ostrogoths settled in northern and eastern Italy.

The vestiges of Roman social, governmental, and legal institutions exerted a strong influence on the social system of the Ostrogoths, who had reached the stage of disintegration of the clan system at the time of their conquest of Italy. Some of the Ostrogoth elite merged with the Roman-Italic aristocracy. The policies of Theodoric (ruled 493–526), strongly opposed by some Ostrogoths and Italo-Romans, represented an attempt to reach a compromise between the Ostrogoth and Roman-Italic elites. The murder of Amalasuntha, Theodoric’s daughter (ruled 526–534), who had favored an alliance with the Roman aristocracy, served as a pretext for the invasion of Italy by the army of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) emperor Justinian I in 535. The Ostrogoths were defeated in the early stage of the war by the Byzantine general Belisarius. The next Ostrogoth king, Totila (ruled 541–552), united all the enemies of the Eastern Roman Empire, including slaves and coloni (bondmen), whom he accepted into his army and emancipated, and won a series of brilliant victories over the Byzantine forces. In 552, however, the Ostrogoths were defeated by the Byzantine general Narses at Tagina. By 554 most of the Ostrogoth kingdom was conquered by Byzantium and ceased to exist.

REFERENCE

Udal’tsova, Z. V. Italiia i Vizantiia v VI veke. Moscow, 1959.

Z. V. UDAL’TSOVA

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

See further Federico Marazzi, "The Last Rome: From the End of the Fifth to the End of the Sixth Century," in Barnish and Marazzi (eds.) The Ostrogoths, pp.

Italy in the twilight of the empire: the decline of Roman law and culture under Theoderic the Great (c. 493-526)

Through the history that Arnaldi sketches, the Italian cultural heritage emerges as the product of hybridizations and creolizations brought about by the often violent encounters with Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Longobards, Franks, Arabs, Berbers, Normans, Hungarians, Austrians, Spaniards, French, Provencals, and Swiss, among others.

Italy and its invaders: a case for re-reading

Aetius, alarmed at these developments, knew that his legions could not hope to defend Rome against the combined might of the Hunnic horde and the host of Germanic allies--the Gepids, Alans, Ostrogoths, and Burgundians among them--marching under Attila's standard.

The battle of Chalons: in confronting the Huns under Attila, the man known as "the last Roman" led the remnant forces of Western civilization against the rampaging barbarian horde

Some of its crowning statues appear to have been hurled down onto invading Ostrogoths in the sixth century; and Charlemagne stationed his troops here when he came to be crowned in Rome in AD 800, while later in the ninth century Pope Leo IV made the Castel a key element in his fortified Vatican.

Hadrian's hall: Charles Freeman visits the eternal city, and finds the Castel Sant'Angelo, home to emperors and popes, to be the clue to unravelling its fabulously rich and complex history

The available discontinuous historical evidence paints a picture of early sixth-century Italy as overrun by a number of invading northern tribes, like the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Vandals, taking advantage of a corrupt and crumbling Roman Empire (Collins, 1991, pp.

Are we monks, or are we men? The monastic masculine gender model according to the Rule of Benedict

In more-distant epochs, invited and uninvited guests included Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Arabs, Normans, Franks, Longobards, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Muslims, Vikings, and Magyars; in the modern era, which this book covers, the invaders were the French, the Spanish, and the Austrians.

A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present

In one section, the speaker of this epic steals report cards, roasts lizards, and does "360s off the lip." A few phrases later, however, she addresses her readers with a clever, mock-heroic salutation: "Come all ye Visigoths of Alaric / Huns of Attila, of the / Ostrogoths & Lombards, of hummingbird / & tigrillo." This layering is never symmetrical or organized.

The Book of Jon

The second part covers the history of the Visigoths between AD 378 and 507, and the third that of the Ostrogoths, from AD 378 to 540.

Cassiodorus, Jordanes, and the History of the Goths: Studies in a Migration Myth

One of the most important military figures from Byzantium was the eunuch general Narses, who saved Catholicism 1500 years ago by driving the Ostrogoths out of Italy.

Eunuch power in old Byzantium

We had some of the Ostrogoths round for dinner in July and I spent at least two days slaughtering goats.

Perspective: Hi Hun, another typical Christmas round here