Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/141

 CHAPTER IX . THE EASTERN EMPIRE AND THE RISE OF MOHAMMEDANISM The separate western empire came to an end in 476 with the deposition of Romulus Augustulus, and the formal recognition by the Senate of Zeno as sole emperor in 479. A few years later Odoacer, patrician and king in Italy, was overthrown by Theoderic the Amaling, of the noblest family among the eastern Goths or Ostrogoths. Theoderic acted avowedly as a lieutenant of the empire. He Theoderic the reigned in Italy from 489 till 526. During this Ostrogoth, time, as we shall see presently, the power of the Franks in the west was rapidly increasing under their king, best known by the name of Clovis. The great question of the future appeared to be whether the Goths or the Franks, or possibly the Langobards, were to be the dominant Teutonic race of the future. In Italy Theoderic made a great effort after unification, ruling with a wide justice and toleration, although his last years were stained by sundry acts of cruelty. He was a statesman, a diplomatist, and a soldier; he had a thorough appreciation of what was good in the Greco-Roman civilisation. Could he have left a successor of equal ability, a great Gothic Empire might have been estab- lished ; but the Imperial court of Constantinople or Byzantium regarded the powerful Ostrogoths with alarm, and encouraged the Franks as their rivals. About the time of the death of Theoderic, the Imperial sceptre passed to the great Emperor Justinian. He is generally regarded, in accordance with tradition, as having been of Slavonic origin ; the emperors now habitually sprang from stocks which were