• General Notes

  # Note: Thanks to Wayne R Davy [wrdavy@megavision.com], for providing the following interesting historical piece from 'Archeaology Odyssey':
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  # Note: Thought you might be interested in this which I've taken from the Odyssey magazine which I received last week, and might want to add it to your notes for Theodoric. If you have access to this magazine, I think its a very interesting piece.
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      According to 6th century Gothic historian Jordanes, Goths originated in Scandinavia. In 4th cent, B.C.E. they were living along the shores of the Black Sea, and by the end of the 2nd cent C.E. they had migrated to the Danube. About 375 C.E. the
      Huns destroyed the Gothic settlements along the Black Sea and many of the Goths fled to territories controlled by the Romans. In 378 C.E. Goths killed the Roman Emperor Valens in a battle near the city of Adrianople, Turkey. At about 400 C.E.
      Alaric united the Goths in a group called the Visigoths. They marched west and established kingdoms in Spain and Gaul. In 507 the Franks conquered the Goths in Gaul. Visigoths rule in Spain lasted until 711.
  
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      After the death of Attila, the leader of the Huns, in 453, the eastern Goths united and were called the Ostragoths. They settled in the area south of Vienna, Austria and coexisted with the Roman Byzantine empire. Theodoric was sent to
      Constantinople where he received a Roman education and became a favorite at court. He became king of the Ostragoths in 471 and decided to carve out a kingdom in Italy which was then ruled by the barbarian, Odoacer. He led about 100,000
      (including 75,000 non-combatants) into Italy and fought Odoacer's forces from 488 to 493. He convinced Odoacer to accept joint rule and then murdered him at the celebratory banquet. Thus he became sole ruler with his capitol at Ravenna. His 33
      year reign was characterized by peace, prosperity and tolerance. He maintained most of the old Roman laws and appointed Romans to civil offices. He recognized the authority of the Emperor in Constantinople. He left an architectural legacy,
      constructing public buildings and repairing roads. Several of his structures remain standing in Ravenna today, including the church of Sant' Apollinare Nuova, an Arian baptistry, and his mausoleum.
  
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      Built to withstand eternity, his mausoleum resembles no other building in the Roman-Byzantine world. The tomb's domed roof is 36 feet in diameter, weighs about 300 tons and is carved from a single block of marble that was carved on the Istria
      peninsula in modern Croatia. They do not know how the roof was cut, transported and hoisted into place. The purpose was apparently to discourage vandalism. The roof locks the Lower blocks into place so that would-be vandals would bring the
      structure down on their head if they tampered with it. To increase the stony security, Theodoric included another protective feature which was a system of interlocking masonry joints. The tomb's walls seem to consist of regular ashlars of
      squared masonry blocks but in fact many of them are not of standard size and therefore are not interchangeable. The ashlars have joints or protrusions that neatly interlock with the adjacent stones. These irregular, interlocking joints make it
      extremely difficult, if not impossible to dismantle the structure. This fitted stonework makes the building like a Chinese puzzle. One particular piece must be removed before the subsequent pieces are chosen and unless the correct piece is
      chosen, the whole structure remains intact , a solid interlocked mass.
  
  # Note: (Excerpts from "The Mystery of Theodoric's Tomb Solved" by Harry Rand,
  # Note: Archaeology Odyssey, Nov-Dec 2003, p 47-53, 57-58)
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  # Note: Title: Encyclopedia Britannica, Treatise on
  # Note: Page: Theodoric
  
  http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=tamer&id=I20371

Details of Theodoric's family with Andelfieda Audeflede Meroving Franks