Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/785

O D O O D O 727 of the East, begging his aid in the reconquest of Italy. These ambassadors met a deputation from the Roman senate, sent nominally by the command of Augustulus, really no doubt by that of Odoacer, the purport of whose commission was that they did not need a separate emperor. One was sufficient to defend the borders of either realm. The senate had chosen Odoacer, whose knowledge of military affairs and whose statesmanship admirably fitted him for preserving order in that part of the world, and they therefore prayed Zeno to confer upon him the dignity of patrician, and entrust the " diocese " of Italy to his care. Zeno returned a harsh answer to the senate, requiring them to return to their allegiance to Nepos. In fact, how ever, he did nothing for the fallen emperor, but accepted the new order of things, and even addressed Odoacer as patrician. On the other hand, the latter sent the orna ments of empire, the diadem and purple robe, to Con stantinople as an acknowledgment of the fact that he did not claim supreme power. Our information as to the actual title assumed by the new ruler is somewhat confused. He does not appear to have called himself king of Italy. His kingship seems to have marked only his relation to his Teutonic followers, among whom he was " king of the Turcilingi," "king of the Heruli," and so forth, according to the nationality with which he was dealing. By the Roman inhabitants of Italy he was addressed as " dominus noster," but his right to exercise power would in their eyes rest, in theory, on his recognition as patricius by the Byzantine Augustus. At the same time, he marked his own high pretensions by assuming the prefix Flavius, a reminiscence of the early emperors, to which the barbarian rulers of realms formed out of the Roman state seem to have been peculiarly partial. His internal administration was probably, upon the whole, wise and moderate, though we hear some complaints of financial oppression, and he may be looked upon as a not altogether unworthy pre decessor of Theodoric. In the history of the papacy Odoacer figures as the author of a decree promulgated at the election of Felix II. in 483, forbidding the pope to alienate any of the lands or ornaments of the Roman Church, and threatening any pope who should infringe this edict with anathema. This decree, a strange one to proceed from an Arian sovereign, was probably suggested by some of the Roman counsellors of the king, and seems to have been accepted at the time with out protest. It was, however, loudly condemned in a synod held by Pope Symmachus (502) as an unwarrantable inter ference of the civil power with the concerns of the church. The chief events in the foreign policy of Odoacer were his Dalmatian and Rugian wars. In the year 480 the ex-emperor Nepos, who ruled Dalmatia, was traitorously assassinated in Diocletian s palace at Spalato by the counts Viator and Ovida. In the following year Odoacer invaded Dalmatia, slew the murderer Ovida, and reannexed Dal matia to the Western state. In 487 he appeared as an invader in his own native Danubian lands. War broke out between him and Feletheus, king of the Rugians. Odoacer entered the Rugian territory, defeated Feletheus, and carried him and " his noxious wife " Gisa prisoners to Ravenna. In the following year Frederick, son of the captive king, endeavoured to raise again the fallen fortunes of his house, but was defeated by Onulf , brother of Odoacer, and, being forced to flee, took refuge at the court of Theo doric the Ostrogoth, at Sistova on the lower Danube. This Rugian war was probably an indirect cause of the fall of Odoacer. His increasing power rendered him too formid able to the Byzantine court, with whom his relations had for some time been growing less friendly. At the same time, Zeno was embarrassed by the formidable neighbour hood of Theodoric and his Ostrogothic warriors, who were almost equally burdensome as enemies or as allies. In these circumstances arose the plan of Theodoric s invasion of Italy, a plan by whom originated it would be difficult to say. Whether the land when conquered was to be held by the Ostrogoth in full sovereignty, or administered by him as lieutenant of Zeno, is a point upon which our infor mation is ambiguous, and which was perhaps intentionally left vague by the two contracting parties, whose chief anxiety was not to see one another s faces again. The details of the Ostrogothic invasion of Italy belong properly to the life of Theodoric. It is sufficient to state here that he entered Italy in August 489, defeated Odoacer at the Isontius (Isonzo) on the 28th of August, and at Verona on the 30th of September. Odoacer then shut himself up in Ravenna, and there maintained himself for four years, with one brief gleam of success, during which he emerged from his hiding-place and fought the battle of the Addua (llth August 490), in which he was again defeated. A sally from Ravenna (10th July 491) was again the occasion of a murderous defeat. At length, the famine in Ravenna having become almost intolerable, and the Goths despair ing of ever taking the city by assault, negotiations were opened for a compromise (25th February 493). John, archbishop of Ravenna, acted as mediator. It was stipu lated that Ravenna should be surrendered, that Odoacer s life should be spared, and that he and Theodoric should be recognized as joint rulers of the Roman state. The arrangement was evidently a precarious one, and was soon terminated by the treachery of Theodoric. He invited his rival to a banquet in the palace of the Lauretum on the 15th of March, and there slew him with his own hand. " Where is God 1 " cried Odoacer when he perceived the ambush into which he had fallen. " Thus didst thou deal with my kinsmen," shouted Theodoric, and clove his rival with the broadsword from shoulder to flank. Onulf, the brother of the murdered king, was shot down while attempting to escape through the palace garden, and Thelan, his son, was not long after put to death by order of the conqueror. Thus perished the whole race of Odoacer. Literature. The chief authorities for the life of Odoacer are the so-called "Anonymus Valesii," generally printed at the end of Ammianus Marcellinus ; the Life of Scvcrinus, by Eugippius ; the chroniclers, Cassiodorus and " Cuspiniani Anonymus" (both in Roncalli s collection) ; and the Byzantine historians, Malchus and John of Antioch. A fragment of the latter historian, unknown when Gibbon wrote, is to be found in the fifth volume of Miiller s Fragmcnta Historicorum Grtfcorum. Among modern students, Pallmann (Gcschichte dcr Volkcrwandcrung, vol. ii. ) has investi gated the history of Odoacer the most thoroughly. (T. H. ) O DONNELL. (1) HENRY JOSEPH (1769-1834), count of La Bisbal, a native of Spain, Avas descended from the O Donnells who left Ireland after the battle of the Boyne ; l he early entered the Spanish army, and in 1810 became general, receiving a command in Catalonia, where in that year he earned his title and the rank of field-marshal. Henry Joseph afterwards held posts of great responsibility under Ferdinand VII., whom he served on the whole with constancy; the events of 1823 compelled his flight into France, where he was interned at Limoges, and where he died in 1834. (2) LEOPOLD (1809-1867), Duke of Tetuan, Spanish general and statesman, the second son of Henry Joseph O Donnell, was born at Santa Cruz, Teneriffe, on 12th January 1809. He fought in the army of Queen Christina, where he attained the rank of general of division ; and in 1840 he accompanied the queen into exile. He failed in an attempt to effect a rising in her favour at Pamplona in 1841, but took a more successful part in the movement which led to the overthrow and exile of Espartero 1 A branch of tlie family settled in Austria, and General Karl O Donnell, count of Tyrconnel (1715-1771), held important commands during the Seven Years War. The name of a descendant figures in the history of the Italian and Hungarian campaigns of 1848 and 1849.