Zeno seems to have sent for Dietrich the Amal to help him. He came,
but too late. Basiliscus' party had already broken up; Basiliscus
and his family had taken refuge in a church, from whence Zeno enticed
him, on the promise of shedding no blood, which he did not: but
instead, put him, his wife and children, in a dry cistern, walled it
up and left them.

Dietrich the Amal rose into power and great glory, and became 'son-
in-arms' to the Emperor. But the young Amal longed for adventures.
He offered to take his Ostrogoths into Italy, drive out Odoacer, and
seat on the throne of the West, Nepos, one of the many puppets who
had been hurled off it a few years before. Zeno had need of the
young hero nearer home, and persuaded him to stay in Constantinople,
eat, drink, and be merry.

Whereon Odoacer made Romulus Agustulus and the Roman Senate write to
Zeno that they wanted no Emperor save him at Constantinople; that
they were very happy under the excellent Odoacer, and that they
therefore sent to Zeno, as the rightful owner, all the Imperial
insignia and ornaments; things which may have been worn, some of
them, by Augustus himself. And so ended, even in name, the Empire of
Rome. All which the Amal saw, and, as will appear, did not forget.

Zeno gave the Amal all that the One-eyed had had before him, and paid
the Ostrogoths yearly as he had paid the One-eye's men. The One-eyed
was banished to his cantonments, and of course revolted. Zeno wanted
to buy him off, but the Amal would not hear of it; he would not help
the Romans against his rival, unless they swore perpetual enmity
against him.