Thedoric besieged Odoacer in Ravenna, but, too weak to carry the city
by force, he resolved to reduce it by famine. Ravenna, being well
supplied with provisions, and its port being accessible to light barks,
the siege was protracted to two years and a half. Odoacer made frequent
sorties by night, and never returned without having signalized his
courage. Theodoric, master of all the neighbouring country, at length
succeeded in closing the port. Famine then began to be sensibly felt;
a bushel of wheat was worth six pieces of gold (more than three pounds
sterling); and the inhabitants were reduced to the extremity of eating
everything that could be converted into aliment. Odoacer, obliged to
treat with his rival, contented himself with sharing with Theodoric
the title of king. On the 5th of March, 491, the king of the Goths
entered Ravenna. Such was, in Italy, the foundation of the kingdom of
the Ostrogoths, which only subsisted sixty years. Odoacer was treated
for some time with all the respect due to his dignity, but that
prince, worthy of a better fate, was massacred soon after, with his son
Silœnes, by Theodoric himself, in the midst of a banquet.