Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Lombards the Ostrogoths, Visigo

Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Lombards 149 CHAPTER THREE THE SUccEssOR STATES IN THE WEST: OsTROGOTHS, VISIGOTHS, AND LOMBARDS The Ostrogoths, Visigoths and Lombards all took shape as peoples in the Roman frontier region of the middle and lower Danube. In their early years, they might also be described as Roman client or even field armies, since they were often in Roman service, large segments of these people stayed loyal to the East Roman Empire, and there was at times little to distinguish them from other field armies in the Balkans that took to arms against the central government during the 5th and 6th centuries. They should therefore be treated together as products of the Balkans military culture, but due to their inability to find satisfactory settlement in the East, they mi- grated into the chaotic West where they finally established the indepen- dent kingdoms with which we are familiar. The survey of East Roman developments in the previous chapter will show that there was more to unite the Mediterranean than to divide it, and that patterns of military organization could change at a similar pace throughout the former Roman world. 3.1 The Ostrogoths, 493-554 Theoderic’s Ostrogothic kingdom lasted only two generations, from 493 to 554, but during its heyday, it was the most successful and thoroughly Ro- manized of all the successor states. There is a general consensus that an- cient social structures, such as a high degree of urbanization and a complex economic system, survived very well during this period. The Ostrogoths absorbed surviving Roman administrative structures and collaborated closely with the Roman senatorial class. Boethius and Cassiodorus are only the most famous of these, while the latter’s official correspondence is the most important source for the inner workings of the remarkably Roman Ostrogothic administration.1 1 The Roman character of the administration has been well known for a very long time, see e.g. Hodgkin’s introduction to his translation of Cassiodorus’ Variae. See further Goffart 150 chapter three 3.1.1 Ostrogothic Ethnogenesis The Ostrogothic state in Italy, Pannonia and Dalmatia originated from a combination of Roman and semi-Roman field armies in the Balkans.2 One group had been integrated into the East Roman army at least since the 460s as foideratoi, but may have been settled in Thrace since the 420s with sub- sequent new additions in the following decades. Another group, previ- ously Hunnic clients, sought settlement in the Roman Empire after Attila’s empire disintegrated in the 450s. By the 470s, the two were competing for Roman patronage. The Thracian Goths had been enjoying this for decades, and their leader, Theoderic Strabo, at times held the office of magister militum, but conflict with the emperor Zeno (474-91) opened the way for the “Hunnic” Goths. From 474, these were led by Theoderic the Amal, later called the Great (c. 451-526), who had been given as a Gothic hostage to the Romans and therefore educated at Constantinople in the 460s.3 In the following years he held a royal Gothic title as well as Roman commands, and was used by Zeno to keep Strabo at arm’s length. All of these Goths depended on payment and supplies from the Roman government, and were willing to take up arms against the Roman state when this was not forthcoming.4 They even joined forces against Zeno in 479. When his fore- most Gothic rival died in an accident in 481, Theoderic the Amal gained control over both Gothic groups, and soon forced Zeno to give him high command in the Roman army in 484-86, when he was appointed to lead Gothic and Roman troops against the rebels Illus and Leontius in Anatolia. He was removed early in the campaign when Zeno feared disloyalty, and Theoderic openly revolted against the Roman government again in 487. 1980 and 2006 for his contribution to the debate on how the Ostrogoths were settled in Italy (cf. chapter 1.2.2). 2 For the early history of the Ostrogoths, see Heather 1991: 227-308 and Wolfram 1988: 248-78. 3 The degree of Roman influence from his decade at court is debated, but it appears from Theoderic’s achievements that his educators were very successful in fostering his ambitions: cf. Theoderic’s letter to Anastasios (Variae 1.1): “We above all, who by Divine help learned in Your Republic the art of governing Romans with equity … Our royalty is an imitation of yours, modeled on your good purpose, a copy of the only Empire.” The issue is treated extensively in Heather 1996 and mentioned briefly in Wolfram 1988: 262f and Moorhead 1992: 14 and n. 34 with references to more specialized discussions. The ethno- graphic perspective is treated exhaustively in Amory 1997. Heather 1991, 1996, and 2007 has a different conception of the Gothic “core” population, but agrees that the Roman environ- ment played a fundamental role in Ostrogothic ethnogenesis. 4 See e.g. in CO: *Singidunum (captured 472 from the Sarmatians), *Ulpiana, *Stobi, and other Illyrian cities (in 473, although PLRE 2 s.v. Theodericus 7, p. 1080 dates this to 479)..

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