Ostrogothic Kingdom

The Ostrogothic Kingdom, officially the Kingdom of Italy, was the barbarian state that the Ostrogoths held in Italy and neighbouring lands between 493 and 553. Theodoric the Great founded it by killing Odoacer, the Germanic foederatus who had deposed Romulus Augustulus in 476, and under Theodoric it reached its zenith from southern France to western Serbia, preserving most of the social institutions of the late western empire. He called himself king of the Goths and Romans, styling himself a ruler for both peoples. After Theodoric, Amalasuntha and then a string of Amal kings held Italy only briefly. Under Justinian I, the Byzantine Empire moved to reconquer it in 535: Witiges could not hold the kingdom and was captured when the capital Ravenna fell, but the Ostrogoths rallied round Totila and largely undid the conquest, only to be beaten in the end, with Teia the last king. The war of twenty years left Italy ruined, and the Gothic kingdom was erased from the peninsula.