He achieved a solid diplomatic coup by inducing the Vandal King Gaiseric to cede to him Sicily.
Noting that "Odovacar seized power in August of 476, Gaiseric died in January 477, and the sea usually became closed to navigation around the beginning of November", F.M.
When Julius Nepos was murdered by two of his retainers in his country house near Salona (May 480), Odoacer assumed the duty of pursuing and executing the assassins, and at the same time established his own rule in Dalmatia.
[citation needed] As Odoacer's position improved, Zeno, the Eastern Emperor, increasingly saw him as a rival.
Theodoric had his own reasons to agree to this offer, as he had enough experience to know (or at least suspect) that Zeno would not, in the long term, tolerate his independent power.
He withdrew to Verona, reaching its outskirts on 27 September, where he immediately set up a fortified camp.