He extended his influence to other western kingdoms through marriage alliances, for example sending his niece, Clotilde, to the Frankish king Clovis with a substantial dowry and 5,000 troops.
How did Theodoric use marriage to strengthen political alliances? Who did he send to Clovis?
A much earlier pandemic with the same cause seems to have coincided with the spread of the Yamanya into Europe, so this is a pestilence that has been killing humans for millennia.
The same disease might have appeared way earlier, when the Yamnaya people moved into Europe about 5,000 years ago. So this plague has been around killing humans for thousands of years.
In that role he had overseen trade, border negotiations, and had coordinated mutual defense against threats such as the Vandals in North Africa.
As Justin’s advisor, justinian managed trade and diplomacy. The vandals were a Germanic people who had taken control of parts of North Africa and were seen as enemies of the empire.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, which although its capital was Ravenna still considered the ancient city of Rome as its spiritual center, the people Romans had described as "barbarians" established kingdoms and occupied many territories where their descendants live to the present day.
Even though the Western Empire’s government had shifted to Ravenna for security reasons, Rome remained symbolically the heart of the empire. The so called “barbarians” were non roman peoples who founded the early medieval kingdoms of Europe.