Ostrogoths

(noun)

The eastern branch of the Germanic tribes; they traced their origins to the Greutungi, a branch of the Goths who had migrated southward from the Baltic Sea and established a kingdom north of the Black Sea during the 3rd and 4th centuries.

Related Terms

Examples of Ostrogoths in the following topics:

  • Theoderic the Great

    • Theoderic the Great (454–526) was king of the Ostrogoths (475–526), ruler of Italy (493–526), regent of the Visigoths (511–526), and a patricius of the Roman Empire.
    • Theoderic grew up as a hostage in Constantinople, received a privileged education, and succeeded his father as leader of the Pannonian Ostrogoths in 473.
    • While he promoted separation between the Arian Ostrogoths and the Roman population, Theoderic stressed the importance of racial harmony, though intermarriage was outlawed.
    • The Ostrogoths needed a place to live, and Zeno was having serious problems with Odoacer, the King of Italy who had come to power in 476.
    • The Ostrogothic Kingdom (in yellow) at the death of Theoderic the Great in 526 AD.

  • Justinian and Theodora

    • Next, Justinian sent him to take Italy from the Ostrogoths in 535 CE.
    • Belisarius defeated the Ostrogoths in a series of battles and reclaimed Rome.
    • The army was also afflicted, and the Ostrogoths were able to effectively regain Italy in 546 CE through guerilla warfare against the Byzantine occupiers.
    • Narses finally defeated the Ostrogoths and drove them back out of Italy.

  • The Germanic Tribes

    • Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Lombards made their way into Italy; Vandals, Burgundians, Franks, and Visigoths conquered much of Gaul; Vandals and Visigoths also pushed into Spain, with the Vandals additionally making it into North Africa; and the Alamanni established a strong presence in the middle Rhine and Alps.
    • He initiated three decades of peace between the Ostrogoths and the Romans and united the two Germanic tribes.
    • Bronze statue of Theoderic the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, by Peter Vischer the Elder (1512-13) at the tomb of Emperor Maximilian I in the Court Church in Innsbruck, Austria.

  • Odoacer and the Fall of Rome

    • In his quest to destroy Odoacer, Zeno promised Theoderic the Great and his Ostrogoths the Italian peninsula if they were to defeat and remove Odoacer from power.
    • In 489, Theoderic led the Ostrogoths across the Julian Alps and into Italy.
    • While Odoacer took refuge in Ravenna, Theoderic continued across Italy to Mediolanum, where the majority of Odoacer's army, including his chief general, Tufa, surrendered to the Ostrogothic king.

  • The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

    • The Ostrogothic Kingdom, which rose from the ruins of the Western Roman Empire.

  • The Eastern Roman Empire, Constantine the Great, and Byzantium

    • While the Western Empire was overrun by Germanic barbarians—its lands in Italy were conquered by the Ostrogoths, Spain was conquered by the Visigoths, North Africa was conquered by the Vandals, and Gaul was conquered by the Franks—the Eastern Empire thrived.