Res Gestae

Meanwhile, as the servant of God had predicted to him, as soon as Odoacar entered Italy he received the royal power. At that same time, after becoming king, Odoacar recalled the prophecy which he had heard from the holy man, and at once addressed to him a friendly letter, wherein he respectfully offered to grant his wish, should he think there was anything worth while to ask. Accordingly the man

After that, King Odoacar made war on the Rugi,[*](Living in what was in modern times Austria and Moravia.) and in a second campaign vanquished and utterly destroyed them. Then, since he was a man of good intentions and favoured the Arian[*](The correct spelling is Arian, from Arius, but the ignotus auctor, as well as some other late writers, spelled it Arrius, after the analogy of numerous Roman gentile names (T.L.L. ii. 507, 59). It seems best to use Arrius in the text. Arius in the translation. On his sect, see note, p. 569.) sect, it happened that once, when in the presence of the holy man many nobles, as often happens, were praising and flattering the said king, as men will do, he asked what king they had extolled with such high commendations. And when they replied Odoacar, he said Odoacar is safe for between thirteen and fourteen years, thus, of course, indicating the years of his safe reign.

Zeno accordingly rewarded Theodoric for his support, made him a patrician[*](See § 36, note 3.) and a consul, gave him a great sum of money, and sent him to Italy. Theodoric stipulated with him, that if Odoacar should be vanquished, in return for his own labours in Odoacar’s place he should rule in his stead only until the arrival of Zeno. Therefore, when the patrician Theodoric came from the city of Nova with the Gothic people, he was sent by the emperor Zeno from the regions of the Orient, in order to defend Italy for him.

As Theodoric was on his way, Odoacar met him at the river Sontius,[*](The modern Isonzo.) engaged in battle with him

Theodoric the patrician went on to Mediolanum, and the most of Odoacar’s army surrendered to him, including Tufa, his general-in-chief, whom Odoacar had appointed, along with his other high officials, on the 1st of April. In that same year Tufa, the commanding general, was sent by Theodoric to Ravenna against Odoacar.

Tufa came to Faventia,[*](A town of Gallia Cispadana on the via Aenmilia, modern Faenza.) and with the army with which he had been sent besieged Odoacar. The latter left Ravenna and came to Faventia, where Tufa handed over to him the high officers of the patrician Theodoric, who were put in irons and taken to Ravenna.

The consulship of Faustus and Longinus.[*](490.) When these were consuls, King Odoacar marched out from Cremona and went to Mediolanum. Then the Visigoths came to the help of Theodoric, and a battle was fought on the 11th of August on the bank of the river Addua,[*](A large river of Gallia Transpadana, flowing through Lake Larius (Como) into the Po, modern Adda.) where many fell on both sides; Pierius, commander of the household troops, was slain, and Odoacar fled to Ravenna. The patrician Theodoric soon followed him, came to the Pine Grove,[*](See § 37, note 3.) and made a camp there; then he kept Odoacar in a state of siege for three

The consulship[*](491.) of Olybrius, vir clarissimus. In his consulship King Odoacar sallied forth from Ravenna by night, entered into the Pine Grove with the Heruli, and attacked the fortified camp of the patrician Theodoric. The losses were great on both sides, and Levila, Odoacar’s commander-in-chief, fled and lost his life in the river Bedens[*](Also called Bidens, the modern Bedese, or Ronco.) ; Odoacar was defeated and fled to Ravenna on the 15th of July. Then Odoacar was forced to give his son Thelanes to Theodoric as a hostage, first receiving a pledge that his blood would be spared.[*](See § 43, note 6. Here neither spirit nor letter was kept.)

So Theodoric entered Ravenna, and after several days Odoacar laid a snare for him: but Theodoric discovered him in the palace and forestalled him, then caught him off his guard and with his own hand slew him with a sword as he was coming into the Laurel Grove.[*](Apparently in, or near, Ravenna; cf. Pinetam, and see § 57, below, which implies that Theodoric killed Odoacar in Ravenna. According to A. Sleumer, Kirchenlatein. Wörterbuch (1926), s.v., Lauretum was a city near Ancona, but he does not cite this passage.)

On the same day, all of Odoacar’s army who could be found anywhere were killed by order of Theodoric, as well as all of his family. This same year the emperor Zeno died at Constantinople, and Anastasius was made emperor.

Now Theodoric had sent Faustus Niger as an envoy to Zeno. But when the news of the latter’s

For he was a most brave and warlike man, whose father, Walamir, was called King of the Goths; but Theodoric was his natural son; his mother was called in Gothic Ereriliva,[*](Jordanes calls her Erelieva. With Gothica sc. lingua. ) but being a Catholic received at her baptism the name Eusebia.

Hence Theodoric was a man of great distinction and of good-will towards all men, and he ruled for thirty-three years. In his times Italy for thirty years enjoyed such good fortune that his successors also inherited peace.

For whatever he did was good. He so governed two races at the same time, Romans and Goths, that although he himself was of the Arian[*](See note on § 94 (p. 569), and for spelling, on § 48.) sect, he nevertheless made no assault on the Catholic religion; he gave games in the circus and the amphitheatre, so that even by the Romans he was called a Trajan or a Valentinian, whose times he took as a model; and by the Goths, because of his edict, in which he established justice, he was judged to be in all respects their best king. Military service for the Romans he kept on the same footing as under the emperors. He was generous with gifts and the distribution of grain, and although he had found the public treasury nothing but a haystack,[*](Literally, consisting of hay; i.e. he found nothing there but hay; cf. Catull. 13, 7 f., Catulli plenus sacculus est aranearum. ) by his efforts it was restored and made rich.

Although untrained in letters, he was nevertheless so wise that even now some of his sayings

A certain man died, leaving a wife and a little son who did not know his mother. Her son, when a small boy, was taken from her by some one, carried to another province, and there brought up. When he became a youth, he somehow returned to his mother, who had now become betrothed to another man. When the mother saw her son, she embraced him, thanking God that she had seen her son again, and he lived with her for a month. And behold! the mother’s betrothed came, and seeing the young man, asked who he was. She replied that he was her son. But when her betrothed learned that the youth was her son, he began to ask the return of the earnest-money[*](As his part of the agreement of betrothal; arra is derived from a Hebrew word.) and to say: Either deny that he is your son, or I certainly depart hence. The mother yielded to her betrothed and began to deny her son, whom she herself had before acknowledged, saying: Leave my house, young man, since I took you up as a stranger. But he kept saying that he had come back to his mother and to the house of his father. To make a long story short, while this was going on the son appealed against his mother to the king, who ordered her to appear before him. And he said to her: Woman, your son appeals against you; what have you to say? Is he your son, or not? She replied: He is not my son, but I

Afterwards Theodoric took to wife[*](accepta uxore is perhaps an example of the participle as a finite verb.) a Frankish woman named Augoflada. For before he began to reign he had a wife,[*](Her name was Ermenberga.) who had borne him daughters. One of these, called Areaagni, he gave in marriage in Gaul to Alaric, king of the Visigoths, and another daughter of his, Theodegotha, to Sigismund, son of King Gundebadus.[*](Jordanes mentions two natural daughters, Theudigotha and Ostrogotha, who also were married.)