Rather than review Peter Heather’s The Restoration of Rome directly, I’m doing to try something a little different; I’m going to summarize the lives of three major leaders, Theoderic, Justinian, and Charlemagne, who attempted to recreate the Western Roman Empire. Roman history is good for the soul! For those interested in the book as a whole, I’m not wild about Peter Heather as an author (he’s a little too certain of his opinions for me), but the book is one of his better efforts, except for the final section on the Catholic Church as a new Roman Empire, which I found neither convincing nor particularly insightful.

Anyway, on to Theoderic. Born in 454 AD, he spent 10 years of his youth in Constantinople (modern Istanbul, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire) as a hostage for the good behaviour of his father, a Goth leader, in return for which his father was sent 300 pounds of gold each year. Durin this time, the Western Roman Empire would fall, breaking apart into independent regions controlled by various Germanic, Goth, or Vandal groups. The Eastern Roman Empire would continue, but the loss of the West was painful.

After Theoderic’s father’s death, he would take his troops towards Constantinople, exploiting his insider knowledge, and wander around demanding bribes and payments. Constantinople, in the meantime, would attempt to get him to fight another large group of Goths in the same area, hoping to kill two birds with one stone.

All the political manoeuvering came to nought, however, by one of the coincidences that makes history interesting. The other leader of the Goths (also named Theoderic; it meant King of the People in Gothic, so it was a popular name) attempting to mount his horse, fell onto a spear and died. Lacking a clear heir, the other Goths joined up with our Theoderic, and suddenly he was a force to be reckoned with, to Constantinople’s dismay.

After some quick thinking by Constantinople, the two sides agreed that Theoderic would go to capture Italy, thereby getting rid of him. He promptly did so, defeating the leader of Italy, agreeing to share power with him, and then ten days later at a feast running at him with a sword and killing him. Mission accomplished. Once he was in power, however, Theoderic didn’t stop. For the next 33 years, he would conquer and ally with various states until he controlled Italy, Spain, Southern France, the Dalmatian Coast, and indirectly North Africa. He was seen as a wise ruler and the spiritual heir to the Roman Empire, and the Roman nobility in Italy hailed him as such. It may seem strange to modern eyes that Italian Romans would so quickly accept a Goth leader as emperor, but at the time it seemed natural: many Roman emperors had come from distant parts of the Empire, and the promise of restoration to their former glory was a powerful incentive.

After his death, though, it all fell apart. Without him, Goth unity could not be maintained and so their control of other lands also disappeared. Only a few years later, therefore, another attempt would be made to restore Western Rome, this time by the new Eastern Roman Emperor, Justinian. We’ll discuss him next!