Page 6 - GC-JULY-AUGUST-2026

Meet the Barbarians: The Ostrogoths

By Martin Ederer as the eastern court – where intrigue some respects was more Roman part of serious imperial talent in
s noted in the last article on and extravagant plots were endemic than the existing leadership in the Constantinople.
the Visigoths, Gothic ori- – played Gothic factions against one West, Theodoric did a credible job After Justinian became emperor
Agins are shrouded in mys- another. While the Roman plan of of creating some sense of cohesion in Constantinople in 527, he wanted
tery. Best guesses put their origins keeping the Goths at each other’s among the numerous Germanic his title of Roman Emperor to mean
in Scandinavia and an originally throats through complicated, shift- kingdoms – Burgunds, Visigoths something. That meant nothing less
southeastern migration pattern out ing alliances was designed to be and Franks among them – through a than the reconquest and reunifica-
of Scandinavia. There is serious dis- good for Rome, the outcomes did combination of warfare and diplo- tion of the West with the East. That
agreement over what exactly not always work out that way. macy. series of wars to at least regain Italy
“Visigoth” and “Ostrogoth” meant, By the 400s in the western half Theodoric also successfully (How can a Roman Emperor not
and to what extent the two groups of the Roman Empire was in a sorry managed to establish good working control the city of Rome?) only un-
were related at all. Visigoths ended political state. A simple look at the relations with the papacy that had derscored how far the two halves of
up in Spain, the Ostrogoths in Italy. list of Roman emperors in the west defaulted into a political leadership the Roman Empire had drifted apart.
The Romans generally took few tells the story: a lot of short reigns of role in Italy once the West had be- Justinian wanted to reunify the Ro-
pains to be consistent about any nobodies. By the 400s real power in gun to fragment. That was no easy man empire. The Ostrogoths were
designation beyond “Goth”. There the West was in the hands of the task. The Ostrogoths were Arian defending their version of Rome
is some evidence that the term “Os- Magistri Militum, the commanders Christians. Theodoric’s solution against what they regarded as for-
trogoth” predated that of Visigoth; of the western armies, Roman citi- was a dualistic system. The Catholic eign aggressors. In the process the
by about 400 the Romans were us- zens with luscious barbarian names Roman Italians and the Arian Os- wars between “Greek Romans” ver-
ing both terms, albeit rather impre- such as Stilicho, Ricimir and Odo- trogoths were simply to maintain sus “German Romans” did more
cisely. Ostrogoths tended to be vakar. parallel religious and legal struc- damage to Italy than all other previ-
associated with the Greuthungi and The so-called “fall of Rome” The Mausoleum of Theodoric the tures and religious toleration. Ironi- ous barbarian invasions combined.
the Tervingi (Thuringians?), both (actually only in the West) in 476 Great, in Ravenna, Italy. CC BY- cally, Theodoric’s relationship with In Italy Justinian only managed
Gothic peoples. occurred when Odovakar (a Roman SA 3.0 User:Newsleep the eastern emperors ended up being to hang onto southern Italy and Sic-
It was not until Cassiodorus in citizen) simply deposed the last the bigger challenge, as they sought ily and the Adriatic Coast (think
the 500s, that the terms “Ostrogoth” Western Emperor, Romulus Augus- trogoths. In 489, Zeno sent The- a more stringent religious unity. Puglia and Veneto). In any event,
and “Visigoth” came to have the tulus, with the approval and bless- odoric’s Ostrogothic armies to Still, Theodoric’s rule meant a good the conflicts destroyed the Os-
respective “eastern” and “western” ing of the eastern Emperor Zeno. confront the errant Odovakar. In the re-stabilization of Italy as well as trogothic Kingdom, creating power
meanings that they have had ever The plan was to topple Romulus process Theodoric invaded Italy. He parts of the West. Theodoric died in vacuums in Italy that other barbar-
since, designations based on who Augustulus to create unified imperi- trapped Odovakar in Ravenna and 526. ians could exploit. A Germanic
was settled where: the Visigoths in al rule under only one powerful em- killed him in 493. Ultimately what doomed the Os- kingdom with promising potential
Spain ended up further west than the peror (now residing in At that point Theodoric served trogothic Kingdom of Italy was to reassemble the West had come to
Ostrogoths, who eventually settled Constantinople) as in the (sort of) as the emperor’s representative in Theodoric’s successors who lacked naught.
in Italy. Geography and politics good old days. The reality was that the West, but it had also become the sophistication to balance all the The fun footnote to all of this is
may have played a greater role than Odovakar had his own agenda to clear that he had established a prom- not-entirely-compatible coalitions that the Ostrogoths introduced trou-
ethnicity in the nomenclatures. rule the West. Other Germanic ising new Ostrogothic political or- Theodoric cobbled together for Italy sers to Italy. Every time we put on
In any case the Huns played a chieftains in the West with their der in the West as the new king of – as well as big ambitions on the our pants one leg at a time, we have
role in Gothic migrations and the own agendas did likewise and the Italy. A sophisticated figure who in the Ostrogoths to thank.
complex diplomacy that arose in West broke up. In any event, Odo-
that context. Sometimes the Os- vakar and Zeno ended up on a colli-
trogoths served as vassals to the sion course.
Huns, but ultimately, they got better Enter Theodoric, an extremely U.S., German collaborative grows under-
– if still shabby – deals from the cultured Ostrogoth with a deep love
Romans. We know of the Os- for classical learning and impressive
trogoths having settled as an inde- leadership abilities. Zeno thought standing of how dormant cells awaken
pendent tribe in Roman Pannonia Theodoric would be perfect for
(present-day Hungary) and Roman teaching Odovakar a long overdue Previously Unknown Trigger change, such as when nutrients run and cryogenic electron microscopy.
Thrace as the Hunnic threat subsid- lesson in political respect. Theodor- Named in Honor of Sleepy low or cells experience stress,” said These powerful tools can produce
ed after Attila the Hun’s death in the ic was born around 454, shortly af- Pokemon Jomaa, part of UVA Comprehen- 3-D images of the tiniest cellular
mid-400s. For a time, the Os- ter the death of Attila the Hun and University of Virginia School of sive Cancer Center. “We’ve identi- structures down to the level of indi-
trogoths served the eastern Magister shortly before the Vandal sack of Medicine scientists have discovered fied a key part of that restart switch, vidual atoms.
Militum (Master of the Military) Rome. These were hazardous times. an important trigger that allows dor- something cells use to wake their “By combining imaging directly
Aspar the Alan (Alans were a cen- Because of all the intrigues mant cells, such as in cancer or hi- protein-making machinery after inside cells with high-resolution
tral Asian tribe). This was the clos- within the Gothic factions and with bernating animals, to awaken – and these periods of stress. Because this structural methods, we were able to
est the prosperous eastern half of the the eastern court, Theodoric spent they’ve named it SNOR, after a ‘sleep and wake’ cycle exists across see how ribosomes are held in a
empire came to having a barbarian his childhood and youth as a diplo- sleepy Pokemon, Snorlax. biology, from microbes to humans, dormant state and how they are pre-
Magister Militum, which in the matic hostage of the Romans in The new research was co-led by it gives us a new way to think about pared to restart,” said Mattei, team
West had become the common situ- Constantinople and made the most Ahmad Jomaa, PhD, of UVA’s De- how cells survive tough conditions. leader at the EMBL Imaging Centre
ation. of it. He received an impressive partment of Molecular Physiology In the long term, this could help us and co-senior investigator of the
After the Eastern Emperor Leo education as well as an intense ad- and Biological Physics, and collab- find ways to prevent harmful cells, study. “This allowed us to capture a
II died, politics turned against the miration for all the Greeks and Ro- orators from EMBL Heidelberg in like cancer cells, from reawakening, key transition in the life of the ribo-
Ostrogoths under the new Emperor mans had accomplished. In addition Germany, with key contributions or to better control recovery from some and visualize how cells pre-
Zeno who disliked Aspar. Long sto- to having several Roman titles con- from collaborations at Vanderbilt stress and infection.” serve their protein-making
ry short, it became the Romans’ job ferred on him, he also ascended to University and Cornell University. Surviving the Toughest Battles machinery during stress and then
to make life difficult for the Goths the position of King of the Os- Their discovery sheds important Snorlax is a very large, rotund ready it for rapid reactivation when
light on how cells can resume func- Pokemon (or “Pocket Monster”) conditions improve.”
tioning after nutrient deprivation or who appears in the long-running The work also involved the
other stressors that could otherwise video game, anime, movie and trad- group of Kathy Gould, PhD, at Van-
halt growth or threaten survival. ing card mega-franchise. He is derbilt and Heather Feaga, PhD, at
Cancer cells, for example, can go known for sleeping all the time, Cornell.
dormant during treatment only to awakening only to eat. That inspired While working in yeast, Jomaa
awaken months, years or even de- the UVA scientists to name their and his colleagues have already
cades later, allowing the cancer to new discovery in his honor. confirmed SNOR exists in most
return. The identification of an un- fungi. The evidence, he says, sug-
The findings advance the under- known “factor” that restarts cellular gests that it occurs in a wide variety
standing of a critical biological pro- engines known as ribosomes that of eukaryotic cells, the type found in
cess that occurs in a vast variety of have gone dormant in a bid to con- plants, animal and people. That
living organisms, from protozoa to serve their resources. Ribosomes makes it an attractive target for de-
plants and people. The insights translate our cells’ genetic instruc- veloping new treatments for cancer
could inform the development of tions into proteins that drive cellular and drug-resistant fungi.
new and better treatments not just functions, and their reactivation is “This is an early step in the re-
for cancer but for dangerous drug- an essential step in the process of start process, but many details are
resistant fungi, an increasing health waking up a sleeping cell. still missing,” Jomaa said. “Our
threat around the world. This typically occurs when a next goal is to understand how ribo-
“All living cells need a way to nutrient source has become avail- somes are fully reactivated and how
pause and restart when conditions able or other cell-threatening stress this process is controlled under dif-
has passed. In essence, the cell de- ferent conditions.”
termines it has weathered the storm
or survived the famine and that it is
safe to resume normal operations.
Working with a team led by Si- I think we live in a period of
mone Mattei, PhD, at EMBL profound transformation.
Heidelberg, the UVA scientists Very similar to when we
January - February identified a previously unknown had a transition from
March - April factor, which they’ve dubbed agricultural societies to
May - June SNOR. They were able to do this by
July - August using high-tech imaging tools, in- industrial societies.
September - October cluding cryo-electron tomography Angela Merkel
November - December
6 • THE GERMAN CITIZEN • July - August 2026