Ostrogothic Provinces 75
assassination in 480. Consequently, Dalmatia was invaded and conquered in
481/2 and its fictive unity with Italy gave way to an actual political union.4
Odovacer’s expansion into Dalmatia, however, may have raised some
concerns in Constantinople and contributed to Zeno’s decision to send the
neighbouring Rugi against him in 486. The attack, led by King Feletheus,
was crushed the following year and met with a counter-attack and invasion
of Noricum in 487/8. The region was occupied briefly, but then evacuated of
its Roman population and abandoned as indefensible in 488.5 That same year
Theoderic and Zeno came to the agreement that the former should invade
Italy and depose Odovacer. Save for the Gepids established at Sirmium and
some wandering Sarmatians, Theoderic and his Goths encountered little resis-
tance in their march through Illyricum, suggesting that Odovacer had tempo-
rarily abandoned the region in order to concentrate his forces in Italy.6 Other
temporary losses during the ensuing conflict are better evidenced and include
Sicily, which the Vandals seized, only to be defeated by Theoderic’s army in 491.
Subsequently, they not only agreed to relinquish all claims to the island but
also abandoned their demands for tribute.7
Hence, when Theoderic assumed control over a war-torn Italy in 493, his
kingdom consisted of little more than the two dioceses of Italy, minus the
Vandal-held islands of Corsica and Sardinia and the Alpine regions of Raetia
and Noricum. Dalmatia might or might not have been part of this kingdom, but
soon it and other Illyrian territories were added, becoming a staging ground for
Theoderic’s first acts of imperial restoration.
Dalmatia and Pannonia Savia
When exactly Theoderic assumed control over Dalmatia and neighbouring
Pannonia Savia is uncertain. As a former territory of Odovacer’s kingdom,
however, Dalmatia probably fell to Ostrogothic rule shortly after Theoderic’s
victory, if not sooner, while expansion into Savia was a logical step, conform-
ing to the defensive policy established along the Ostrogothic kingdom’s other
frontiers (discussed below). Both provinces, at any rate, had come under the
4 Stein, Bas-Empire 2, pp. 46–52; Wilkes, Dalmatia, pp. 421–2; Moorhead, Theoderic, pp. 9–10;
and Arnold, Theoderic, pp. 61–3.
5 Stein, Bas-Empire 2, pp. 52–4; Alföldy, Noricum, pp. 224–6; Wolfram, Goths, pp. 278–9; and
Moorhead, Theoderic, pp. 10–11.
6 See Ennodius, Pan. 28–35, ed. Rohr, with Wolfram, Goths, pp. 279–80.
7 Stein, Bas-Empire 2, p. 57; Clover, “Bluff ”, p. 239.