The war between Odoacer and Theodoric has caused untold damage in northern Italy to city and countryside alike.

Onoulphus, brother of Odoacer, is killed during the siege of Ravenna by archers while seeking refuge in a church.

Odoacer, blockaded in Ravenna by an Ostrogothic fleet, agrees to an armistice with Theodoric on February 27, 493, and concludes a treaty by which he and Theodoric will rule Italy jointly.

Odoacer admits Theodoric into the impregnable city on March 5, 493.

At the successful conclusion of peace talks with the Ostrogoths, Odoacer and his son and chiefs attend a banquet held ten days later in the palace of Lauretum.

Two Goths, pretending to be suppliants, suddenly seize Odoacer by the hands, and Theodoric cuts him down with a sword, skillfully slicing his body in half in full view of his guests.

Theodoric goes on to murder the dead man's wife and son and to massacre his followers remorselessly throughout northern Italy.

Theodoric is proclaimed the sole ruler of Italy, although he receives no official recognition from Constantinople.

He steadily consolidates his rule and provides security for the local population, effecting the transformation of Italy from being the center of a fractured Roman Empire to a successful and independent Ostrogothic Kingdom.

Theodoric allies with the Franks and marries Audofleda, sister of Clovis I.

He also marries his own female relatives to princes or kings of the Burgundians, Vandals and Visigoths, establishing a political alliance with the Germanic kingdoms of the West.