Page:A general history for colleges and high schools (Myers, 1890).djvu/429



FIRST PERIOD.—THE DARK AGES.

(FROM THE FALL OF ROME, A.D. 476, TO THE ELEVENTH CENTURY.)

THE TEUTONIC KINGDOMS.

Introductory.—In connection with the history of the break-up of the Roman empire in the West, we have already given some account of the migrations and settlements of the German tribes. In the present chapter we shall relate briefly the political fortunes, for the two centuries following the fall of Rome, of the principal kingdoms set up by the German chieftains in the different provinces of the old empire.

Kingdom of the Ostrogoths (A.D. 493–554).—Odoacer will be recalled as the barbarian chief who dethroned the last of the Western Roman emperors (see p. 348). His feeble government in Italy lasted only seventeen years, when it was brought to a close by the invasion of the Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths) under Theodoric, the greatest of their chiefs, who set up in Italy a new dominion, known as the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths.

The reign of Theodoric covered thirt-three years—years of such quiet and prosperity as Italy had not known since the happy era of the Antonines. The king made good his promise that his reign should be such that "the only regret of the people should be that the Goths had not come at an earlier period."

The kingdom established by the rare abilities of Theodoric