Post-Roman Transitions: Christian and Barbarian Identities in the Early Medieval West

594 Pages·2013·9.362 MB·English

by  Walter Pohl, Gerda Heydemann

Post-Roman Transitions
CULTURAL ENCOUNTERS IN
LATE ANTIQUITY AND THE MIDDLE AGES
General Editor
Yitzhak Hen, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Editorial Board
Angelo di Berardino, Augustinianum–Instituto Patristico, Rome
Nora Berend, University of Cambridge
Leslie Brubaker, University of Birmingham
Christoph Cluse, Universität Trier
Rob Meens, Universiteit Utrecht
James Montgomery, University of Cambridge
Alan V. Murray, University of Leeds
Thomas F. X. Noble, University of Notre Dame
Miri Rubin, University of London
IDENTITIES IN THE LATIN WEST
Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages were a deci-
sive period for the formation of identities in the Latin
West. Presenting the results of projects and international
collaborations centred in Vienna, this sub-series of vol-
umes within the CELAMA series is devoted to explor-
ing the social context, cultural resources, and political
consequences of these new models for identification.
Series icon: ‘Silver denarius of Charlemagne’, Berlin, Münzkabinett,
Staatliche Museen, c. 800–814. Copyright: bpk / Münzkabinett,
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Photo: Lutz Jürgen Lübke
Previously published volumes in this series are listed at the back of the book.
Volume 14
Post-Roman Transitions
Christian and Barbarian Identities
in the Early Medieval West
Edited by
Walter Pohl and Gerda Heydemann
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Post-Roman transitions : Christian and Barbarian identities in the early medieval West.
-- (Cultural encounters in late antiquity and the Middle Ages ; 14)
1. Ethnicity--Europe--History--To 1500.
2. Ethnicity-- eligious aspects--Christianity.
3. Identity (Psychology)--Europe--History--To 1500.
4. Identification (Religion)--History--To 1500.
5. Political culture--Europe--History--To 1500.
6. Europe--History--476-1492.
7. Rome--History--Germanic Invasions, 3rd-6th centuries--Social aspects.
8. Europe--Social conditions--To 1492.
9. Archaeology and history--Europe.
I. Series
II. Pohl, Walter, 1953- editor of compilation.
III. Heydemann, Gerda editor of compilation.
940.1-dc23

ISBN-13: 9782503543277

© 2013, Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
D/2013/0095/195
ISBN: 978-2-503-54327-7
e-ISBN: 978-2-503-54420-5
Printed on acid-free paper
Contents
Illustrations vii
Preface
WALTER POHL and GERDA HEYDEMANN ix
Christian and Barbarian Identities
in the Early Medieval West: Introduction
WALTER POHL 1
Section 1: Scripts for Identity —
Resources of the Past
Who is Allowed to Pray for the King?
Saint-Maurice d’Agaune and the Creation of a Burgundian Identity
ALBRECHT DIEM 47
Patria, peregrinatio, and paenitentia:
Identities of Alienation in the Seventh Century
ALEXANDER O’HARA 89
Religiones and gentes in Isidore of Seville’s Chronica maiora
JAMIE WOOD 125
Adventus, Warfare, and the Britons in
the Development of West Saxon Identity
JOHN-HENRY CLAY 169
vi Contents
Arrivano i barbari a cavallo! Foundation Myths
and Origines gentium in the Adriatic Arc
FRANCESCO BORRI 215
Tuscans as gens? Shaping Local Identities
and Communities in Early Medieval Tuscany
MARCO STOFFELLA 271
Section 2: Romanness and Otherness —
Signs of Distinction and their Ambiguities
Who Were the Romans?
Shifting Scripts of Romanness in Early Medieval Italy
MAYA MASKARINEC 297
The Fading Power of Images: Romans, Barbarians,
and the Uses of a Dichotomy in Early Medieval Archaeology
PHILIPP VON RUMMEL 365
Remembering the Warriors: Weapon Burials and Tombstones
between Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages in Northern Italy
IRENE BARBIERA 407
Who is the Barbarian?
Considerations on the Vandal Royal Title
ROLAND STEINACHER 437
Die Wahrnehmung der nichtfränkischen Völker
in der merowingerzeitlichen Historiographie
GERALD KRUTzLER 487
Scritture nazionali e aree culturali: le epigrafi tra forme, contenuti
e trasmissioni testuali in Italia e nell’Europa altomedievale
FLAVIA DE RUBEIS 549
Illustrations
Figures
Figure 1, p. 371. ‘The Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus’, Roma, Museo Nazionale
Romano, Palazzo Altemps. c. ad 260.
Figure 2, p. 374. ‘Victory of the Israelites over the Amorites’, Roma, Santa
Maria Maggiore. c. ad 432–40.
Figure 3, p. 382. ‘Roman’ Grave Goods from Grosseto, loc. Grancia.
Figure 4, p. 383. Characteristic ‘Germanic’ Grave Goods from Erpfting, Bavaria.
Sixth century.
Figure 5, p. 392. ‘Togatus from Ostia’, Ostia, Museo Archeologico, Scavi di
Ostia Antica. c. ad 400.
Figure 6, p. 392. ‘Monza-Diptychon’, Monza, Tesore del Duomo. c. ad 400.
Figure 7, p. 395. ‘Silver Plate from the Treasure of Isola Rizza’, Verona, Museo di
Castelvecchio, Inv. 13871. Sixth century.
Figure 8, p. 420. ‘Funerary Epigraphs from Aquileia, depicting horsemen’,
Aquilea, Museo Archeologico Nazionale. Third to fourth century ad.
Figure 9, p. 421. ‘Funerary Epigraphs from Aquileia, depicting soldiers with
shield and lance’, Aquilea, Museo Archeologico Nazionale. Third to fourth
century ad.
viii ILLUSTRATIONS
Graphs
Graph 1, p. 413. Percentage of Graves with Weapons.
Graphs 2a–2e, pp. 414–15. Types of Weapons Distributed in Northern Italy
between the First Century bc and the Ninth Century ad.
Graph 3, p. 419. References to the Status of Soldiers on the Inscriptions from
Aquileia and Concordia.
Maps
Map 1, p. 171. South-West England in the Early Saxon Period, showing major
settlements, roads, and battles recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
Map 2, p. 386. Weapon Furnishings in the Southern German Region.
Tables
Table 1, p. 106. The Ethnic Terms in Jonas of Bobbio’s Hagiography
Table 2, p. 150. The Succession of Kingdoms in the Second Redaction of the
Chronica maiora
Table 3, p. 157. Persia and Persians at the End of the Chronica maiora
Table 4, pp. 428–29. Specific Information Regarding the Cemeteries Surveyed
in this Study.
Preface
Walter Pohl and Gerda Heydemann
This volume traces the interplay between Christianity, ethnicity, and
the formation of political identities in a post-Roman World. Through
a variety of case studies, the papers explore the tenacity and the mal-
leability of Roman and Christian forms of identification and othering in the
barbarian kingdoms of the early medieval West. It is closely connected with
its companion volume, Strategies of Identification: Ethnicity and Religion in
Early Medieval Europe, which appeared as volume 13 in this series. As a collec-
tive effort, these volumes represent a main result of an extraordinary project,
‘Ethnic Identities in Early Medieval Europe’. This research programme, carried
out between 2005 and 2010, was funded by the Wittgenstein prize of the FWF
(Austrian Science Fund), which created the opportunity to build up a team of
young researchers to study the role of ethnic identities in early medieval Europe
in a much broader perspective than had so far been possible.1 The volume was
finalized in the context of the SFB F42–G18, ‘Visions of Community’, also
funded by the FWF since 2011. The Institute for Medieval Research of the
Austrian Academy of Sciences provided an excellent environment and offered
indispensable infrastructure for our research. The project also profited enor-
mously from the facilities and the inspiring atmosphere at the University of
Vienna , both at the History Department and at the Institut für Österreichische
Geschichtsforschung. Both institutions made it possible to integrate the junior
researchers financed through the Wittgenstein project into an open working
group, together with junior scholars on their payroll, with graduate students,
with a number of visiting fellows from abroad, part of whom came with their
1 See also <http://www.oeaw.ac.at/gema/wittg_pro/wittg_pro.htm>.
x Preface
own grants, and with many associated researchers. The two volumes owe much
to the lively atmosphere, the many informal discussions, and the inspiring meet-
ings in the project group, and of course to the new ideas and approaches that
were developed in their course. Most contributions were repeatedly discussed
in the Wittgenstein team at different stages, and efforts were made to link them
to each other and to the central interests of the project, even though they had
been deliberately designed to explore a wide range of very different sources and
questions within the overarching theme of early medieval identity formation.
We are grateful to the institutions that have made the experience of the
Wittgenstein project and the work on the two volumes possible. Many thanks
are due to all friends and colleagues who offered suggestions, advice, and inspi-
ration for this volume, specifically: Richard Corradini, Marianne Pollheimer,
Gerald Krutzler, Francesco Borri, and Hannes Rois helped with the prepara-
tion of the manuscript; John Clay, Jamie Kreiner, Meg Leja, Matthew Gillis,
and Timothy Scott helped with the English. The Museo di Castelvecchio in
Verona has kindly granted permission to reproduce the Silver Plate from the
Treasure of Isola Rizza as a cover image for this book, for which we are grate-
ful.2 Thanks also go to Yitzhak Hen, who accepted the volumes for his series,
and to all those at Brepols who had their share in the publishing process. It has
been a pleasure to work with this group, and we hope that, for many, it will also
be a pleasure to use and read this volume.
2 On the plate, see Philipp von Rummel’s contribution in this volume (Figure 7), and, for
recent work on the treasure of Isola Rizza, see Margherita Bolla, ‘Il tesoro di Isola Rizza’, in
Roma e i Barbari: la nascita di un nuovo mondo, ed. by Jean-Jacques Aillagon (Milano, 2008),
pp. 392–93; and Margherita Bolla, ‘Il “tesoro” di Isola Rizza: osservazioni in occasione del res-
tauro’, in Numismatica e antichità classiche, 28 (1999), 275–303.