Table Of ContentDid the cultural transformation of the later Roman Empire really
involve migrating barbarian tribes bearing a distinguishable Germanic
culture? Previous studies of this question have begun from the assump-
tion that barbarian groups were ethnic groups or the seeds of ethnic
groups. In contrast, this case-study of the Goths of Italy in the late fifth
and early sixth century begins from the assumption that the ethno-
graphic language used to describe the barbarians makes them look like
ethnic groups to twentieth-century observers.
Since this ethnography was classicizing, biblical and, above all, ideo-
logical, the ancient texts that use it must be constantly questioned and
compared with other evidence for ancient communal behavior. Ostro-
gothic Italy provides a large and comparatively neglected body of data
on individual behavior and group allegiances. The prosopographical
appendix to this book groups together evidence for 379 individuals who
could be considered "Goths" under various institutional ideologies at
play in sixth-century Italy. The chapters successively examine these
ideologies and their impact upon "Goths" and "Romans," that is, the
Italians who inhabited the regions of Italy in a time of political, social
and religious upheaval.
The inquiry suggests new ways of understanding the appearance of
barbarian groups and the end of the Western Roman Empire, as well
as proposing new models of regional and professional loyalty and group
cohesion in the period.
Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought
PEOPLE AND IDENTITY IN
OSTROGOTHIC ITALY, 489-554
Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought
Fourth Series
General Editor:
D. E. LUSCOMBE
Leverhulme Personal Research Professor of Medieval History, University of Sheffield
Advisory Editors:
R. B. DOBSON
Professor of Medieval History, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Christ's College
ROSAMOND McKITTERICK
Reader in Early Medieval European History, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of
Newnham College
The series Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought was inaugurated
by G. C. Coulton in 1921; Professor D. E. Luscombe now acts as General
Editor of the Fourth Series, with Professor R. B. Dobson and Dr Rosamond
McKitterick as Advisory Editors. The series brings together outstanding work
by medieval scholars over a wide range of human endeavour extending from
political economy to the history of ideas.
For a list of titles in the series, see end of book.
PEOPLE AND IDENTITY
IN OSTROGOTHIC ITALY,
489-554
PATRICK AMORY
II CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 IRP
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, United Kingdom
40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA
10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia
© Cambridge University Press 1997
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 1997
Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge
Typeset in Monotype Bembo 11/12 pt
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data
Amory, Patrick, 1965-
People and identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489—554
Patrick Amory.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN o 521 57151-0 (he)
1. Goths-Italy-History. 2. Italy-History-476-774. I. Title.
DG504.A56 1997
945'.oi-dc2O 96-2952 CIP
ISBN o 521 57151 0 hardback
For my parents
What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?
The barbarians are due here today.
Why isn't anything going on in the senate?
Why are the senators sitting there without legislating?
Because the barbarians are coming today.
What's the point of senators making laws now?
Once the barbarians are here, they'll do the legislating.
Why did our emperor get up early,
and why is he sitting enthroned at the city's main gate,
in state, wearing the crown?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and the emperor's waiting to receive their leader.
He's even got a scroll to give him,
loaded with titles, with imposing names.
Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today
wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas?
Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts,
rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds?
Why are they carrying elegant canes
beautifully worked in silver and gold?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and things like that dazzle the barbarians.
Why don't our distinguished orators turn up as usual
to make their speeches, say what they have to say?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and they're bored by rhetoric and public speaking.
Why this sudden bewilderment, this confusion?
(How serious people's faces have become.)
Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,
everyone going home lost in thought?
Because night has fallen and the barbarians haven't come.
And some of our men just in from the border say
there are no barbarians any longer.
Now what's going to happen to us without barbarians?
Those people were a kind of solution.
C. P. Cavafy, "Waiting For The Barbarians"
(trans. Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard)
CONTENTS
page
Preface xi
List of rulers xiii
Terminology and vocabulary xiv
List of abbreviations xviii
Map of Ostrogothic Italy xxii
Introduction: Studying the barbarians in late antiquity i
1 Ethnicity, ethnography and community in the fifth and
sixth centuries 13
2 The Ravenna government and ethnographic ideology:
from civilitas to bellicositas 43
3 Individual reactions to ideology I: names, language and
profession 86
4 Complementary and competing ideals of community: Italy
and the Roman Empire 109
5 Individual reactions to ideology II: soldiers, civilians and
political allegiance 149
6 Catholic communities and Christian Empire 195
7 Individual reactions to ideology III: Catholics and Arians 236
8 The origin of the Goths and Balkan military culture 277
Conclusion 314
Appendix 1: The inquiry into Gundila's property: a
translation and chronology 321
Appendix 2: The Germanic culture construct 326
Appendix 3: Archeological and toponymic research on
Ostrogothic Italy 332
Appendix 4: Dress, hairstyle and military customs 338
Prosopographical Appendix: A prosopography of Goths in
Italy, 489-554 348
Bibliography 487
Index 515
ix
