for his assistance, but Theudebert proved an untrustworthy ally. The Frankish armies saw the Italian conflict as an opportunity for plunder and a chance to exert their own claims to northern Italy. In the event, the Byzantines were forced to fight the Franks as much as the Ostrogoths.

Theudebert seems to have revelled in his power growing on the European stage. His letters show him laying claim to a vast array of lands around Austrasia, including Byzantine lands. Since the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Frankish kings had always