Theoderic the Great Audiobook Libro.fm

In the year 493 the leader of a vast confederation of Gothic warriors their wives and children personally cut down Odoacer the man famous for deposing the last Roman emperor in 476 That leader became Theoderic the Great 454526 This engaging history of his life and reign immerses readers in the world of the warriorking who ushered in decades of peace and stability in Italy as king of Goths and Romans Theoderic transformed his roving warrior nation from the periphery of the Roman world into a standing army that protected his taxpaying Roman subjects with the support of the Roman elite With a ruling strategy of integration through separation Theoderic not only stabilized Italy but also extended his kingdom to the western Balkans southern France and the Iberian Peninsula

Using sources as diverse as letters poetry coins and mosaics HansUlrich Wiemer brings listener into the world of Theoderics court from Gothic warriors and their families to the notables artisans and shopkeepers of Rome and Ravenna to the peasants and enslaved people who tilled the soil on grand rural estates This book offers a fascinating history of the leader who brought peace to Italy after the disintegration of the Roman Empire