<Tr> <Td> Anonymus Valesianus, Excerpta II 59 - 60 </Td> </Tr> <P> Like Odoacer, Theoderic was ostensibly a patricius and subject of the emperor in Constantinople, acting as his viceroy for Italy, a position recognized by the new Emperor Anastasius in 497 . At the same time, he was the king of his own people, who were not Roman citizens . In reality, he acted as an independent ruler, although unlike Odoacer, he meticulously preserved the outward forms of his subordinate position . </P> <P> The administrative machinery of Odoacer's kingdom, in essence that of the former Empire, was retained and continued to be staffed exclusively by Romans, such as the articulate and literate Cassiodorus . The Senate continued to function normally and was consulted on civil appointments, and the laws of the Empire were still recognized as ruling the Roman population, though Goths were ruled under their own traditional laws . Indeed, as a subordinate ruler, Theoderic did not possess the right to issue his own laws (leges) in the system of Roman law, but merely edicts (edicta), or clarifications on certain details . </P> <P> The continuity in administration is illustrated by the fact that several senior ministers of Odoacer, like Liberius and Cassiodorus the Elder, were retained in the new kingdom's top positions . The close cooperation between Theoderic and the Roman elite began to break down in later years, especially after the healing of the ecclesiastical rift between Rome and Constantinople (see below), as leading senators conspired with the Emperor . This resulted in the arrest and execution of the magister officiorum Boethius and his father - in - law, Symmachus, in 524 . </P>

The byzantine empire wiped out the ostrogothic kingdom of italy after a brief campaign