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			The History of Italy
	In AD 476 the last independent Roman emperor of the West, Romulus Augustulus, was dethroned by the invading Germanic chieftain Odoacer, who thereupon succeeded to the throne. In 488 Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, invaded Italy and, after defeating and slaying Odoacer, became the sole ruler in Italy. Theodoric ruled until his death in 526. In 535 Justinian I, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, dispatched the great general Belisarius to expel the Germanic invaders from Italy. A fierce war ensued, ending in 553 with the death of Teias, the last of the Gothic kings. The Byzantine rule was of short duration, however, for in 572 Italy was invaded by the Lombards, another Germanic tribe. Alboin, their king, made Pavia the capital of his realm, and from that city he launched a series of campaigns that eventually deprived the Byzantine power in Italy of everything except the southern portion of the province and the exarchate of Ravenna in the north. The country's most important religious leaders of the time were the archbishops of Ravenna. Religious Conflict After the death of Alboin in 572, the Lombards for a time had no king. Separate bands thereupon united under regional leaders known as duces. The Lombards, like the Goths before them, espoused the heretical creed called