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AgoraiosBum t1_it5w2dk wrote

No. Odoacer deposed the last Western Roman Emperor (but spared his life), and had been the head of the Foederati for some time - he knew Roman politics and appealed to the Senate for legitimacy, making the existing Roman Senate more important than it had been in a long time and regularly consulting with it, nominating consuls, etc. So as a Italian elite, you were suddenly doing significantly better; he appointed several prominent old Roman families to important positions and issued new coinage.

The Eastern Roman Emperor (Zeno) was afraid that Odoacer might head East as well and convinced Theodoric the Ostrogoth to take his armies and go attack Odoacer. Theodoric was also a romanized "barbarian" who had been raised in Constantinople with the Emperor's kids as a hostage, and had actually been named as a consul by the Eastern Roman Emperor (although he felt like he was not properly rewarded and his people were betrayed by a newer emperor, Zeno, which put him on the attack).

Anyway, Theodoric beat Odoacer and also upheld roman law and administration, and there was actually a flourishing. He instituted a new building program and expanded out his kingdom and made peace with several key "barbarian" allies. He rebuilt the walls of Rome and the Roman Senate built him a statue in celebration.

Ironically, it was the effort of the Eastern Roman Empire to reconquer Italy after Theodoric's death that led to a substantial depopulation as warring armies traded cities back and forth, subjecting them to repeated sacks.

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