The reign of Theodoric, an Ostrogoth, is a little-known but fascinating glimpse at what could have been if Rome and Italy, instead of being devastated by a Byzantine attempt at reconquest, had been allowed to prosper as a barbarian-led kingdom, in the style of Visigoth Spain.

Even with the empire gone, under Theodoric the Colosseum – repaired in 438 after an earthquake – and the Circus Maximus still filled with thousands to see performances (no longer gladiatorial fights or explicitly violent events) and races. In coincidence with the king’s visit in the year 500, the Annona subsidy was restored and again distributed among some of the poor in the city, perhaps as many as tens of thousands or even 100,000 recipients altogether; the Stadium of Domitian, the Basilica Aemilia in the Forum, the Temple of Vesta and other public works were refurbished.

It may have been for Theodoric’s benefit, indeed, that the so-called “Ship of Aeneas,” the hero of the Aeneid and founder of the city, was built by the Tiber and protected by surrounding structure – so that, decades later, the historian Procopius could marvel at the sight of a near-miraculous vessel standing aloof from time itself: “none of its timbers has rotted or gives the least sign of being unsound; intact throughout, as if newly constructed by the hand of its builder – whoever he was – it has retained its strength in a marvelous way up to my own time.”

A rare sense of optimism is evident among those who witnessed Theodoric’s six-month stay in the city, during which he took up residence in the old, restored imperial complex on the Palatine Hill. Some who live in historical twilights come to believe that a new day is born when night approaches, and that was certainly the case for a number of contemporary Italians.

After centuries of weak, uselessly scheming or bloodthirsty rulers, these witnesses finally saw a worthy man, young (ish), strong, benevolent and cultivated, in command of a land that once, in not such a distant past, had itself commanded the known world. Many would have been horrified to learn what the future held: that this was the last time in which a grown man would rule all of Italy, for well over 1,300 years.