Edward Gibbon, an English historian, published The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in six volumes between 1776 and 1788. This is Chapter 39 of that work. He follows Rome from the prosperous age of Trajan and the Antonines, around the year 100, through the fall of the West and on to the Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453.

Chapter 39 takes up zeno and Anastasius, emperors of the East—Birth, education, and first exploits of Theodoric the Ostrogoth—His invasion and conquest of Italy—The Gothic kingdom of Italy—State of the West—Military and civil government—The Senator Boethius—Last acts and death of Theodoric. The footnotes are not in this reading; what you have is the narrative.