THEODORIC

died 1102, near Cava de' Tirreni, near Salerno, Duchy of Apulia antipope from 1100 to 1102. As cardinal bishop of Santa Ruffina, he was elected pope by the faction headed by the Holy Roman emperor Henry IV during the struggle between empire and papacy, but in 1101 he was seized by the supporters of the legitimate pope, Paschal II, who had him confined in a monastery, where he died. born AD 454 died Aug. 30, 526, Ravenna Late Latin Theodoricus, byname Theodoric The Great king of the Ostrogoths (from 471), who invaded Italy in 488 and completed the conquest of virtually the entire peninsula and Sicily by 493, making himself king of Italy (493526) and establishing his capital at Ravenna. In German and Icelandic legend, he is the prototype of Dietrich von Bern ( q.v.). Additional reading No good biography of Theodoric has been published in English in recent years, and we must still rely on Thomas Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, vol. 34 (1885), which, however, is excellent. See also Wilhelm Ensslin, Theoderich der Grosse (1947), a sound, reliable work.