Ostrogoths

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The Ostrogoths (Latin: Ostrogothi, Austrogothi) were a Roman-era Germanic people who, in the 5th and 6th centuries, established one of the two major Gothic kingdoms within the Western Roman Empire. The Ostrogoths were associated with the earlier Greuthungi mentioned by Roman authors such as Ammianus Marcellinus, and later identified by the historian Jordanes with the realm of Ermanaric in the 4th century. Ancient sources often referred to them simply as "Goths," but modern scholarship distinguishes them as one of the two main branches of the Gothic peoples, alongside the Visigoths. They drew on large Gothic populations settled in the Balkans and rose to prominence under Theodoric the Great, who in 493 founded the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy after defeating Odoacer. Theodoric belonged to the Amal dynasty, which had gained power in Pannonia after the collapse of Attila's Hunnic empire. Backed by the Byzantine emperor Zeno, Theodoric invaded Italy and established his rule from Ravenna, preserving...

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