their own territory. Zeno also appointed the Ostrogoth Theodoric the Great, who was menacing the borders of the Eastern Empire, to be king of Italy, turning one troublesome ally against another. Theodoric invaded Italy in 489 and by August 490 had captured almost the entire peninsula, forcing Odoacer to take refuge in Ravenna. The city surrendered on 5 March 493. Theodoric invited Odoacer to a banquet of reconciliation; instead of forging an alliance, Theodoric killed the unsuspecting king. Ethnicity Except for the fact that he was not considered Roman, Odoacer's precise ethnic origins are not known. Some scholars believe his origins lie in the multi-ethnic empire of Attila. Most scholars consider him to be at least partly of Germanic descent, while others argue he was entirely Germanic. Early medieval sources such as Theophanes called him a Goth. Likewise, the 6th century chronicler Marcellinus Comes called him "king of the Goths" (Odoacer rex Gothorum). Jordanes associated him with several of the East Germanic tribes of the Middle Danube who had arrived there during the time of Attila's empire, including the Sciri, Heruli, and Rugii. Notability, in several passages he associated him with the Turcilingi, which is a people, or perhaps a dynasty, that is mentioned by no other historical source. Their affiliations are unclear but they may have been Gothic, Hunnic or even precursors of the Thuringii. While in one passage in his Getica, Jordanes describes Odoacer as king of the Turcilingi (Torcilingorum rex) with Scirian and Heruli followers, in another passage (LVII.291), Jordanes mentions Italy during Odoacer's reign being under the tyranny of Turcilingi and Rogii. In his Romana, the same author defines Odoacer as a descendant of the Rugii (or of a person named Rogus, Odoacer genere Rogus) with Turcilingi, Scirian and Heruli followers. It has been pointed out that Attila had an uncle of the name Rogus and suggested that Odoacer may have been his descendant. In a fragment from a history of Priscus, reproduced by John of Antioch, Odoacer is described as a man of the Sciri, the son of Edeco, and brother of Hunuulf who killed Armatus in the eastern Roman empire. Much later, a memorial plate from 1521 found in the catacombe Chapel of St Maximus in Petersfriedhof—the burial site of St Peter's Abbey in Salzburg (Austria)—mentions Odoacer as King of "Rhutenes" or "Rhutenians" (), who invaded Noricum in 477. Due to its very late