
Theoderic the Great
King of Goths, Ruler of Romans
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Narrated by:
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Julian Elfer
In the year 493, the leader of a vast confederation of Gothic warriors, their wives, and children personally cut down Odoacer, the man famous for deposing the last Roman emperor in 476. That leader became Theoderic the Great (454-526). This engaging history of his life and reign immerses listeners in the world of the warrior-king who ushered in decades of peace and stability in Italy as king of Goths and Romans. Theoderic transformed his roving "warrior nation" from the periphery of the Roman world into a standing army that protected his taxpaying Roman subjects with the support of the Roman elite. With a ruling strategy of "integration through separation," Theoderic not only stabilized Italy but also extended his kingdom to the western Balkans, southern France, and the Iberian Peninsula.
Using sources as diverse as letters, poetry, coins, and mosaics, Hans-Ulrich Wiemer brings listener into the world of Theoderic's court, from Gothic warriors and their families to the notables, artisans, and shopkeepers of Rome and Ravenna to the peasants and enslaved people who tilled the soil on grand rural estates. This book offers a fascinating history of the leader who brought peace to Italy after the disintegration of the Roman Empire.
©2018 Verlag C.H.Beck oHG, München; English translation copyright 2023 by Yale University (P)2023 TantorListeners also enjoyed...




















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incredible breadth of detail describing a lost world.
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Lessons for the present
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interesting in places and dry in others
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The scholarship and the narration.
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Thorough and comprehensive
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Astonishing ruler!
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Clear and concise
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The narrator does a good job with the Gothic names and the German and French words. He strives to make this dry kindling interesting, but even he sounds bored for long stretches. I cannot blame the narrator for that. However, he has an annoying habit of dropping the volume of his voice for parentheticals or clauses. If you are listening on anything other than headphones in a quiet room, you will miss many or most of these asides.
This book was reviewed in the Wall St. Journal in the July 17, 2023 edition. The generally positive review was written by a professor. I now see that this is a book for prfessors and grad students.
More for historians than general readers
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One thing this book does really well is drill home the idea that there was no "fall of Rome" in 476. I understand better than ever before that there was certainly a continuity through at least the 6th century of both Roman institutions and Roman identity. Theodoric was not a barbarian who destroyed Rome, but probably saw himself as an inheritor and tried to maintain a similar way of life in Italy, which seemed to work for a time. It was more the later invasion of the Lombards that set Italy on its path of medieval fracturing. If this book had treated that as its main point and focused less on all the jots and tittles, it would've been a lot better.
This is not a book
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Unbearably dry and boring
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