# Ostrogothic Rule in Malta (c. 493–535)

URL: https://allhistories.com/malta/timeline/493-ostrogothic-rule-in-malta
Location: Malta
Themes: Rulers & Successions

Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, invaded Italy in 489 at the invitation of the Eastern emperor Zeno. After years of war he captured Ravenna and killed Odoacer in 493, founding an Ostrogothic kingdom that ruled Italy and Sicily while preserving much of the Roman administration and culture. Historians believe that the Maltese islands, as dependencies of Sicily, passed to Theodoric with the rest of Odoacer's realm, making the period from about 493 or 494 to 535 one of Ostrogothic rule. Little is known about Malta in these decades; the islands appear to have continued under local Roman institutions, with a Latin- and Greek-speaking Christian population and commercial links to Sicily, Italy and Africa. Archaeological finds from the catacombs and harbours show continuing activity. Ostrogothic rule ended when the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I launched his wars to reconquer the West. After the fall of the Vandal kingdom in 533–534, Belisarius invaded Ostrogothic Sicily in 535, and Malta came under Byzantine control at around the same time, beginning more than three centuries of Byzantine rule.

## Why it matters
The Ostrogothic period was the last phase of Germanic rule in Malta before the Byzantine reconquest.

Ruler at the Time: [Vandal and Ostrogothic rule](https://allhistories.com/malta/rulers/vandal-and-ostrogothic-rule)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Ostrogothic Kingdom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrogothic_Kingdom)
- [Wikipedia — Theodoric the Great](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodoric_the_Great)
- [Wikipedia — Roman And Byzantine Malta (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_Malta)