Italy and neighbouring areas
The king of the Ostrogoths, Theodoric the Great, defeated the forces which had overthrown the last emperor in Rome, the child Romulus Augustus, in 493 CE. Theodoric, who took rule, was ostensibly a subject of the Eastern Emperor in Constantinople with respect to his position in Italy but he was king of his own people and effectively ruled in Italy from 493. The Eastern Emperor Justinian invaded and eventually took back rule in 554.
