Reproduction of the original: Theodoric the Goth by Thomas Hodgkin

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Theodoric the Goth: Barbarian Champion of Civilisation" by Thomas Hodgkin. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Theoderic and the Roman Imperial Restoration offers a new interpretation of the fall of Rome and the "barbarian" successor state known as Ostrogothic Italy. Relying primarily on Italian textual and material evidence, Jonathan J. Arnold demonstrates that the subjects of the Ostrogothic kingdom viewed it as a revived Roman Empire and its king, Theoderic, as its emperor. Most accounts of Roman history end with the fall of Rome in 476 or see the Ostrogothic kingdom as a barbarous imitator. This book, however, challenges such views, placing the Theoderican epoch firmly within the continuum of Roman history.

The career of Theoderic the Ostrogoth is one of the great success stories of antiquity. From being a ruler of a barbarian people wandering around the Balkans, he became king in Italy (493-526) and established one of the most powerful of the post-Roman states. Due to its ample documentation, the Italy of Theoderic allows detailed examination of a period on the frontiers of ancient and medieval, Roman and barbarian. And due to his success in attracting the attention of some of the major literary figures of the time, new light is cast on Boethius, Cassiodorus, and Ennodius when they are considered in the context of their connections with the government. Yet Theoderic's reign, so praised by contemporaries, ended amid tension and discord. In this study, Moorhead considers whether the principles with which he governed brought about the impermanence of his achievement.

Cassiodorus—famed throughout history as one of the great Christian exegetes of antiquity—spent most of his life as a high-ranking public official under the Ostrogothic King Theoderic and his heirs. He produced the Variae, a unique letter collection that gave witness to the sixth-century Mediterranean, as late antiquity gave way to the early middle ages. The Variae represents thirty years of Cassiodorus’s work in civil, legal, and financial administration, revealing his interactions with emperors and kings, bishops and military commanders, private citizens, and even criminals. Thus, the Variae remains among the most important sources for the history of this pivotal period and is an indispensable resource for understanding political and diplomatic culture, economic and legal structure, intellectual heritage, urban landscapes, religious worldview, and the evolution of social relations at all levels of society during the twilight of the late-Roman state. This is the first full translation of this masterwork into English.