Hi everybody, welcome to another episode of the Fall of Rome.

As always, I'm your host Patrick Weiman.

Thank you for joining me today.

In the last several episodes, we've discussed the political history of the Roman Empire

in the 5th century, the period that in the classical formulation witnessed the disintegration

of the structures and institutions that had held the Empire together.

What replaced the Roman Empire as a political unit was a series of successor kingdoms,

barbarian kingdoms that set up shop and what had once been the provinces of the Empire.

The Anglo-Saxons carved up Britain, the Franks, Burgundians, and Visigoths took Gaul, the

Sue waves, and then eventually the Visigoths took Spain, the Vandals occupied North Africa,

and eventually the Austro-Goths took Italy.

Last time, we discussed the Visigoths, the first barbarian group to transform themselves

from a mobile army into an incipient kingdom around the city of Toulouse in southwestern

Gaul.

Today, we'll discuss their Gothic cousins, the Austro-Goths, who took a much different

path in establishing themselves as the rulers of Italy.

There was to be no hostile sack of Rome at the hands of the Austro-Goths, unlike the Visigoths.

Instead, the Austro-Goths were happy to present themselves as the defenders of Rome.

The great Austro-Gothic king Theodoric and his successors ruled from Ravenna, much as

the Emperor's had.

They had an administrative system directly adapted from that of the Imperial Court.

They collected taxes, appointed officials, paid an army, repaired infrastructure, dealt

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