FALL OF ROME: ODOACER.--After the death of _Maximus, Avitus_ was appointed emperor by the king of the Visigoths in Gaul. The barbarians hesitated to assume the purple themselves, but they determined on whom it should be bestowed. Of the emperors that succeeded, _Majorian_ (457-461)--who was raised to the throne by _Ricimer_, military leader of the German mercenaries in the Roman army--presents an instance of a worthy character in a corrupt time. At last another leader of mercenaries (_Orestes_, a Pannonian) made his son emperor,--a boy six years old, called _Romulus Augustulus_ (475). _Odoacer_, who commanded the Heruli, Rugii, and other federated tribes,--mercenaries to whom Orestes refused to grant a third part of the lands of Italy,--made himself ruler of that country. The Senate of Rome, in pursuance of his wishes, in an address to the Eastern emperor _Zeno_, declared that an emperor in the West was no longer necessary, and asked him to make Odoacer _patrician_, and prefect of the diocese of Italy. It was in this character--not as king, but in nominal subordination to _Zeno_, the head of the united Roman Empire--that Odoacer governed (476). For more than a half-century people had been accustomed to see the barbarians exercise supreme control, so that the extinguishment of the Western Empire was an event less marked in their eyes than it seemed to the view of subsequent ages. OSTROGOTHIC KINGDOM OF THEODORIC.--When _Odoacer_ had reigned twelve years, _Theodoric_, king of the Ostrogoths in _Moesia_,--who in his youth had lived at the court of Constantinople, had defended the Eastern emperor, but had been provoked to hostility to him,--was authorized by _Zeno_ to move upon Italy. A host consisting of two hundred thousand fighting-men, together with their families and goods, followed the Gothic leader. Defeated at _Verona_ (489), Odoacer was forced to make a treaty for a division of power, and to surrender _Ravenna_, where he had taken refuge; but very soon, in the tumult of a banquet, he was slain by Theodoric's own hand, either from fear of a rival, or because he suspected that Odoacer was plotting against him. From this time the long reign of Theodoric was one of justice and of peace. More by negotiation than by war, he extended his dominion so that it embraced Illyricum, Pannonia, Noricum, and Rhoetia, and, in the West, Southeastern Gaul (Provence). The Bavarians paid him tribute; the Alemanni invoked his assistance against the Franks, against whom he afforded succor to the Goths of Aquitaine. In his administration he showed reverence for the old imperial system, and for its laws and institutions. He fostered agriculture, manufactures, and trade. Although he could not write, he encouraged learning; and a learned Roman, _Cassiodorus_, he appointed to high offices. He permitted the Goths alone to bear arms. He caused to be compiled from the Roman law a collection of statutes for the Goths and for his new