the Rugians, the most powerful ruler of those
Danubian lands from which the Italian king himself had migrated into
Italy. The Rugian war was short, and Odovacar's success was decisive. In
487 he vanquished the Rugian army and carried Feletheus and his wife
prisoners to Ravenna. In 488 an attempt to raise again the standard of
the Rugian monarchy, which was made by Frederic, the son of Feletheus,
was crushed, and Frederic, an exile and a fugitive, betook himself to
the camp of Theodoric, who was then dwelling at Novae(_Sistova?_), on the
Danube.

When the attempt to weaken Odovacar by means of his fellow-barbarians in
"Rugiland" failed, Zeno feigned outward acquiescence, offering
congratulations on the victory and receiving presents out of the Rugian
spoils, but in his heart he felt that there must now be war to the death
between him and this too powerful ruler of Italy. The news came to him
at a time when Theodoric was in one of his most turbulent and
destructive moods, when he had penetrated within fourteen miles of
Constantinople and had fired the towns and villages of Thrace, perhaps
even within sight of the capital. It was a natural thought and not
altogether an unstatesmanlike expedient to play off one disturber of his
peace against the other, to commission Theodoric to dethrone the
"tyrant" Odovacar, and thus at least earn repose for the provincials of
Thrace, perhaps secure an ally at Ravenna. Theodoric, we may be sure,
with those instincts of civilisation and love for the Empire which had
been in his heart from boyhood, though often repressed and disobeyed,
needed little exhortation to an enterprise which he may himself have
suggested to the Emperor.

Thus then it came to pass that a formal interview was arranged between
Emperor and King (perhaps at Constantinople, though it seems doubtful
whether Theodoric could have safely trusted himself within its walls),
and at this interview the terms of the joint enterprise were arranged,
an enterprise to which Theodoric was to contribute all the effective
strength and Zeno the glamour of Imperial legitimacy.

When the high contracting parties met, Theodoric lamented the hapless
condition of Italy and Rome: Italy once subject to the predecessors of
Zeno; Rome, once the mistress of the world, now harassed and distressed
by the usurped authority of a king of Rugians and Turcilingians. If the
Emperor would send Theodoric thither with his people, he would be at
once relie