[UNREADABLE] Goths and Romans 332–489

382 Pages·1994·3.021 MB·English

by  Peter Heather

Goths and Romans 332–489
Peter Heather
Print publication date: 1994
Print ISBN-13: 9780198205357
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: Oct-11
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205357.001.0001
Title Pages
Goths and Romans 332–489
(p.iv)
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Goths and Romans 332–489
Peter Heather
Print publication date: 1994
Print ISBN-13: 9780198205357
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: Oct-11
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205357.001.0001
Preface
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205357.002.0004
This monograph is a direct descendant of my doctoral thesis, ‘The Goths
and the Balkans AD 350–500’. Much of the action, especially of Parts II and
III, is still set in the Balkans, but the change of title reflects a genuine shift
of emphasis. The provincial communities of the Balkans, in my original
conception, were to be a major topic for consideration, and there is indeed
more than sufficient material available to explore the ways in which their
reactions to immigrant tribal groups, and particularly the Goths, differed
from those of emperors and their advisers based in Constantinople and
Ravenna. My studies have been hijacked over the years, however, by the
Goths themselves. This had already happened to a considerable extent
by the time I completed the thesis, and when I eventually decided—with
much regret—that there was simply no room in this book to deal properly
with the Balkan provincials, and hence to omit them, it was the final
acknowledgement of a long-standing change of direction.
The Goths are not, of course, a neglected subject. A fine tradition of German
scholarship stretches back over a hundred years or more, and Schmidt’s Die
Ostgermanen remains quite indispensable. For the Anglo-Saxon audience,
the many works of Edward Thompson have made the subject accessible and
proved a constant source of inspiration. There has also been a considerable
amount of recent work. In the past few years have appeared the very
welcome English translation of H. Wolfram’s History of the Goths, two major
contributions to the history of the Ostrogoths by T. S. Burns, together with a
re-evaluation of the career of Alaric by J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz. What follows
owes a tremendous amount to all these scholars.
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My main justification for producing yet another book on the Goths, and
the main reason why the Balkan provincials lost out to them as my studies
progressed, is that I have been led to undertake a thorough reconsideration
of the work of Gothic history composed in c. 550 by one Jordanes, the De
origine actibusque Get arum or Getica. Part I in particular is devoted to this
task and develops a number of related lines of argument. Chapter 1 attempts
to show (p.viii) that all modern accounts of Gothic history between the third
and sixth centuries—from their arrival in what is now the southwestern
USSR to the foundation of Gothic successor states in western Europe—to a
very considerable extent follow an interpretative framework that Jordanes
supplies. More contemporary sources suggest, however, that this framework
is quite misleading in its account of the history of Gothic political groupings
and of the dynasties who ruled them. In particular, the Hunnic invasions
(from c.370 onwards) emerge as a complete watershed in Gothic history, one
social and political order among the Goths being destroyed, and a new one
created. In the course of these invasions, a number of Gothic groups moved
into the Roman Balkans in two major waves (I use the word deliberately,
although it is currently unfashionable), one in the late fourth century, the
other in the third quarter of the fifth. The constituent groups of these waves
had no history of close political association in the immediate past, but, once
inside the Empire, eventually united themselves to create respectively the
Visigoths and Ostrogoths who founded successor states to the Roman Empire
in western Europe. New dynasties also emerged at this time to lead the new
political units.
Chapter 2 attempts to establish why the Getica should contain a quite
different view of Gothic history, in which both the Visigoths and Ostrogoths
are held to have existed before the Hunnic invasions, with Amals and
Balthi already at their head. To do this, the chapter considers its sources,
the methods of composition employed, and the influences at work upon
its author, or perhaps authors. For Jordanes drew on the now lost Gothic
History of Cassiodorus, and a further, much more mysterious work on the
same subject by a certain Ablabius. The Getica contains many such twists
and turns, and has provoked much scholarly interest. To do justice to both
Jordanes and this scholarship, I have not confined myself simply to the
question of why its vision of Gothic history should be so misleading, but have
attempted to develop an answer in the context of a broader interpretation
of the Getica as a whole. This is particularly necessary because since
Momigliano’s compelling study (‘Cassiodorus and the Italian Culture of
His Time’) much of the debate concerning the Getica, it seems to me, has
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focused on just a few passages of the text, and not taken the work as a
whole.
(p.ix) Parts II and III investigate the two phases in Gothic history which
emerge from Part I as criticial to the reordering of Gothic society. After
examining the Goths before the Hunnic invasions, Part II deals with the forty
or so years after 376 in which the Visigoths were created, largely in the
Balkans, out of a number of Gothic (and some other) groups who united
to preserve their independence and integrity in the face of hostile Roman
power. Part III deals with the events in the same region c.450–90, which
saw the creation of the Ostrogoths. The approach followed in both parts
is essentially the same, using detailed contemporary sources to explore
exactly how and why Gothic groups re-formed themselves in this way. The
importance of Roman interference and Gothic responses to it, it is argued,
are crucially important to the process, so that the discussion operates within
a framework of diplomatic history. The date-limits of this study have been
chosen with this in mind. Constantine’s treaty with the Goths (332) marks
the opening of the first phase of Gotho-Roman relations about which we are
at all well informed. The choice of 489 for the lower limit is meant to dampen
any expectation in the mind of the reader that I shall deal in any substantial
way with the history of the independent Gothic kingdoms after the fall of the
western Roman Empire. This monograph is firmly devoted to the prehistory
of Visigothic Gaul and Ostrogothic Italy.
The three parts of the study are to a considerable extent self-contained,
and can, I hope, be read by themselves. At the same time, the many cross-
references underline the fact that they are also closely related; it is the re-
evaluation of Jordanes which generates the need for a closer examination
of the Balkan phases of Gothic history. The conclusion also attempts to pull
together the main threads common to the three parts, and to set them in
the context of recent scholarly debate on the nature of the tribal groups
that invaded the Roman Empire from the late fourth century onwards. The
argument is neither comprehensive nor conclusive at this point, but the re-
evaluations of Jordanes and the Balkan phases of Gothic history undertaken
here do suggest some lines of thought which differ in significant ways from
some of those currently in vogue.
A note on names is more than usually necessary. There were of course
no standard transcriptions of Gothic names into Latin and Greek, and the
sources present a bewildering number of variants (p.x) for most names.
I have generally used the Latinized forms which will be familiar to most
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readers and which are enshrined in PLRE. For names offering the choice of
endings -mer or -mir, I have adopted the former (-mer =‘famous’). I discuss
the likely original Gothic names only when some historical point is at issue,
and any reader requiring further guidance should consult M. Schönfeld,
Wörterbuch der altgermanischen Personen- und Völkernamen. Faced with
the particular problem of two Theoderics fighting one another in the 470s
and 480s, I have been persuaded by wise heads to call the leader of the
Thracian Goths by his nickname Strabo, the Squinter. I hope that this will
clarify the action. For the sake of any undergraduate readers, I quote most
sources in translation. The classicizing historians Eunapius, Olympiodorus,
Priscus, and Malchus are quoted in the translation of R. C. Blockley, Ammia-
nus Marcellinus in that of J. C. Rolfe, and Jordanes in that of C. C. Mierow; I
have on occasion modified their translations. Other translations either are
my own, or are credited at the appropriate point.
My final and deeply pleasurable task is to thank all those from whom I
have received help and encouragement in the course of the decade or so
in which I have been working, in one way or another, on this project. The
trustees of Dumbarton Oaks awarded me a Pre-Doctoral Fellowship for
the academic year 1985/6, without which the doctoral thesis on which this
study is based would probably not have been completed. Since 1987 I have
been extremely fortunate in holding the Robert Henry Murray Fellowship in
History at Worcester College, Oxford. I should like to express my gratitude
to the trustees of the endowment and to the Fellows of the College for my
appointment, and, in particular, to thank the latter for providing a highly
stimulating, but at the same time relaxed and enjoyable environment for
work. Many thanks too to the staff of the Bodleian and Ashmolean libraries,
who are always ready to help.
On a more personal note, I owe an enormous amount to Dr J. D. Howard-
Johnston and Dr J. F. Matthews, the supervisors of the thesis on which this
monograph is based, who kept both me and it on the rails. James Howard-
Johnston also first inspired me to take up research, and John Matthews’s
sense of humour is so strong that he managed to read it all again as sub-
editor for the Oxford Historical Monographs Committee. Many thanks too
to (p.xi) Henry Mayr-Harting for wise advice and for recommending my
thesis to the committee for publication. My examiners, Professor J. H. W. G.
Liebeschuetz and Mr B. Ward-Perkins, made many pertinent observations
and suggestions, which have been gratefully received. Wolf Liebeschuetz
also very kindly let me see a typescript of Barbarians and Bishops before
publication. Many friends have read large parts of what follows, and/or
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discussed its contents with me to my great benefit. In particular I should
like to thank John Hudson, Neil McLynn (whose influence on Part II is much
greater than might appear), Bryan Ward-Perkins, Mary Whitby, Michael
Whitby, Mark Whittow, and Mark Vessey. Last, but not least, my copy-editor
Leofranc Holford-Strevens has saved me from much inelegance and many
errors, for all of which I would like to express my gratitude.
This book is dedicated to my kin group by blood and marriage, who are much
more harmonious than some of their Gothic counterparts, and particularly to
Gail and my soon-to-be offspring (whether she or he).
Worcester College, Oxford
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Goths and Romans 332–489
Peter Heather
Print publication date: 1994
Print ISBN-13: 9780198205357
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: Oct-11
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205357.001.0001
Figures
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205357.002.0005
1. The Amal genealogy 20
2. The emergence of a Visigothic ruling dynasty 29
3. The Sîntana de Mureş–Cernjachov culture and Valens’ first Gothic
war, 367–9 85
4. The Gothic war from Ad Salices to the conclusion of peace, 377–
82 143
5. Alaric’s Balkan campaigns, 395–407 203
6. The Pannonian Goths, c.450–73 243
7. Campaigns of Theoderic the Amal, 476–9 276
8. Gothic campaigns of the early 480s 295
Page 1 of 1 Figures
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Goths and Romans 332–489
Peter Heather
Print publication date: 1994
Print ISBN-13: 9780198205357
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: Oct-11
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205357.001.0001
Abbreviations
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205357.002.0006
• AM
Ammianus Marcellinus
• Blockley
R. C. Blockley, The Fragmentary Classicising Historians of the Later
Roman Empire: Eunapius, Olympiodorus, Priscus and Malchus, 2
vols. (Liverpool, 1981, 1983)
• Chrysos
E. K. Chrysos, Tò Bυζάντιον ĸαἰ οἱ Γóτθοι (Thessalonica, 1972)
• Demougeot
E. Demougeot, La Formation de l’Europe et les invasions barbares:
i. Des origines germanique s à l’avènement de Dioclétien (Paris,
1969); ii. De l’avènement de Dioclétien (284) à l’ occupation
germanique de l’Empire romain d’ Occident (début du VIe siècle)
(Paris, 1978)
• JAH
Journal of African History
• Jones
A. H. M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire: A Social, Economic and
Administrative Survey, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1964)
• JRAI
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
Page 1 of 2 Abbreviations
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• Maenchen-Helfen
O. J. Maenchen-Helfen, The World of the Huns (Berkeley, 1973)
• Mommsen
Th. Mommsen, edn. of Jordanes (MGH AA v. 1; Berlin, 1882)
• Paschoud
F. Paschoud, Budé edn. of Zosimus, 3 vols, in 5 (Paris, 1971–89)
• RgA
Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, 2nd edn. (Berlin,
1973–)
• Schmidt
L. Schmidt, Geschichte der deutschen Stämme bis zum Ausgang
der Völkerwanderung: Die Ostgermanen, 2nd edn. (Munich, 1933)
• SCIV
Studii şi cerchetǎri de istorie veche şi arheologie
• Stein
E. Stein, Histoire du Bas-Empire, ed. and trans. J. R. Palanque, 2
vols. (Paris, 1949, 1959)
• Wolfram
H. Wolfram, History of the Goths (Berkeley, 1989)
Page 2 of 2 Abbreviations
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