General Notes

Alias:<ALIA> Thiudariks /Thiudareiks/, King of the People
Cause of Death:<CAUS> dysentery
Interesting note with photo om an article by Dave Olson from the Farmers'
Forum (Farm Section of the Forum newspaper, Fargo, ND on Friday June
16,2000): " Fergus Falls, Minn.- Fifteen-hundred years ago, a barbarian
powerhouse by the name of Theodoric the Great consolidated his rule over
the remains of the western Roman empire by inviting his chief rival,
Odoacer, to dinner and then cleaving him in two with a sword.  Strange as
it may sound, the Ostogothic king can still claim a power base, of sorts,
a few miles north and a few miles west of Ferugs Falls on the Otter Tail
River.  The Taplin Gorge hydro station built by Otter Tail Power Co. in
1925 is a structural dead-ringer for the mausoleum of Theodoric, an
impressive example of late-Roman architecture that still stands in
Ravenna, Italy, Theodoric's former captial. Vernon Wright, one of the
founders of Otter Tail Power and the company's first president, visited
Theodoric's tomb while vacationing in Italy in the 1920s. An architect as
well as an entrepreneur, Wright was so taken by Theodoric's final resting
place that he borrowed its design for the Taplin Gorge station."