to the headwaters of the Doubs and the Saone in the north, from the Alps
and the Jura to the sources of the Loire.

(3) Italy was less fortunate than Gaul; in the fifth century she was
ravaged more persistently, since Rome and Ravenna were the most tempting
prizes that the West could offer to conquerors seeking a settlement or
to mere marauders; and for yet another two centuries her soil was in
dispute between the Eastern Empire and the Teutons. The strategic
importance of the peninsula, the magic of the name of Rome, the more
recent tradition that Ravenna was the natural headquarters of imperial
bureaucracy in the West, were three cogent reasons why the statesmen of
Constantinople should insist that Italy must be recovered whatever
outlying provinces of the West were abandoned. For sixty years after the
deposition of Romulus Augustulus (476) Italy was entirely ruled by
barbarians; then for more than two hundred years there was an Imperial
Italy or a Papal Italy continually at feud with an Ostrogothic or a
Lombard Italy. It would have been better for the Italians if either the
Ostrogoths or the Lombards had triumphed decisively and at an early
date.

The Ostrogoths entered Italy from the north-east in 489, under the lead
of Theodoric, the first and last statesman of their race. They came from
the Middle Danube, where they had settled, with the leave of the Empire,
after the death of Attila and the dissolution of his army. They were now
in search of a more kindly habitation, and brought with them their
wives, their children, and their household stuff on waggons. Their way
was barred by Odoacer the Patrician--general of the Italian army and
King of Italy in all but name. It cost them four years of hard fighting
to overthrow this self-constituted representative of the Empire. After
that they had no overt opposition to fear. To the Italians there was