THE UNIVERSITY OF SHUMEN THE FACULTY OF HUMANITIES THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY STUDIA ACADEMICA ŠUMENENSIA THE EMPIRE AND BARBARIANS IN SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE IN LATE ANTIQUITY AND EARLY MIDDLE AGES edited by Stoyan Vitlyanov and Ivo Topalilov Vol. 1, 2014 The University of Shumen Press STUDIA ACADEMICA ŠUMENENSIA THE UNIVERSITY OF SHUMEN THE FACULTY OF HUMANITIES THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY edited by Stoyan Vitlyanov and Ivo Topalilov ISSN 2367-5446 THE UNIVERSITY OF SHUMEN PRESS Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................5 The portrait of Flavius Aetius (390-454) from Durostorum (Silistra) inscribed on a consular diptych from Monza ....................................................................7 Georgi Atanasov And now, what’s going to happen to us without barbarians? ........................22 Monika Milosavljević German discoveries at Sucidava-Celei in the 6th century ..............................39 Dorel Bondoc Mirela Cojoc The beginnings of the Vandals settlement in the Danube area ......................51 Artur Błażejewski Observations on the Barbarian presence in the province of Moesia Secunda in Late Antiquity ...................................................................................................65 Alexander Stanev Two bronze late antique buckles with Christian inscriptions in Greek from Northeast Bulgaria ............................................................................................87 Totyu Totev Barbarians and Philippopolis, Thrace, in the second half of the 6th century (on archaeological data) ...................................................................................94 Ivo Topalilov Barbarian raids and Late Antique production tradition in the Low Danube area in 6th – 7th century ................................................................................. 114 Stoyan Vitlyanov The rise and fall of the Dalmatian ‘Big-men’: Social structures in Late Antique, Post-Roman and Early Medieval Dalmatia (ca. 500-850) ..............................127 Danijel Dzino The establishment of the Bulgarian state under Gostun-Gast-Organs ........................................................................................153 Nedelcho Nedelchev Introduction by Stoyan Vitlyanov and Ivo Topalilov This is the first volume of a new annual periodical that the Department of History and Archaeology of the University of Shumen has started entitled Studia academica Šumenensia (SAŠ). The main purpose of this periodical is to allow various topics of the history and archaeology of the Balkans and South– Eastern Europe which are quite often highly controversial to be discussed by the broader scholarly of the region. This is why the periodical will be focused on topics of general interest throughout the region and scholars from various countries will be invited to contribute to discussion. This is why the SAŠ will be published entirely in international languages – English, German, French, Italian, Russian and Spanish. In order to broaden the range of the discussion, an interdisciplinary approach will be employed and historians, archaeologists, classicists, epigraphists etc. will be invited and most welcomed. In this first volume of SAŠ the reader will find contributions on some aspects of the huge topic of uneasy imperial-barbarian relations in Late Antiq- uity and Early Middle Ages in South-Eastern Europe. The papers contained in this volume are focused on four themes, which cover the vast Danube region south of ancient Pannonia dealing with the impact on both directions – of the Empire and of the barbarians respectively upon lands within the Empire or that once belonged to it. The first theme is presented by the paper of Georgi Atanasov dedicated to one of the most prominent personalities and statesmen born in the region during Antiquity – Flavius Aetius. The second theme is concentrated on some aspects of the material culture of the barbarians within the limits of the Empire and on the Danube limes. This section is opened by the paper of Monika Milosavljević dealing with the question of how the bar- barian presence in the past can be identified based on material culture, and the practice of associating the processes of barbarization, disintegration and destruction with particular ethnicities based on the archaeological record. In the next article of Dorel Bondoc and Mirela Cojoc are treated two large brooches of the first half of the 6th century made of silver and gold, found recently in Sucidava-Celei and assigned to German foederati. In the third pa- per Artur Błażejewski is dealing with the archaeological evidence for Vandal settlements in the Danube area which existed until the beginning of the 5th century emphasizing the intercultural links with some local tribes. The fourth 5 paper in this theme belongs to Alexander Stanev and it focuses on certain el- ements of costume which – once correlated with the historical data – reveal that throughout Late Antiquity in Moesia Secunda there existed certain areas of persistent Germanic presence with a predominant Gothic element. The third theme focuses on the intercultural links between the empire and the barbarians, and the impact in both directions. The paper of Totyu Totev presents what may well be the penetration of Christianity in a possible barbarian enclave, located near Abritus, or among the local inhabitants. More clearly identified is the impact of the barbarians on the topography and urbanization of Philippopolis, the capital of the province of Thrace in the second half of 6th century as revealed in the paper of Ivo Topalilov. The barbarian threat eventually would lead to the end of the Early Byzantine city. This theme is closed by the paper of Stoyan Vitlyanov dealing with the process of adoption of some separate elements of the already settled old culture by the new-comers and the new state, viz. the Bulgarians. The fourth theme is connected with the newly established states on the former territory of the empire. The paper of Danijel Dzino treats social structures in Dalmatia from the 6th to mid-9th century which were modified in the 7th century after changes in the Dalmatian elite starting in the 5th and 6th century, rather than, as has been assumed, by massive migration and settlement of the Slavs. The next paper in this theme of Nedelcho Nedelchev is advancing the idea that in fact the Bulgarian state was established under Gostun-Organas, the predecessor of Kurt-Kubrat, and that the state system was preserved after the breakup of Old Great Bulgaria. We would like to acknowledge the work of Dr. Katie Low and Dr. James Hargrave who with patience and good nature contributed to the English proofs of the texts, but also made valuable comments on the draft. The present volume would never have been published in this way without their assistance. We also owe thanks to the advisers Ivan Karayotov and Angel Nikolov. Shumen, March 2014 STUDIA ACADEMICA ŠUMENENSIA 1, 7-21 © 2014 by the University of Shumen Press The portrait of Flavius Aetius (390-454) from Durostorum (Silistra) inscribed on a consular diptych from Monza Georgi Atanasov Abstract: Born in Durostorum (modern Silistra) around 390 the Roman commander (magister militum), consular and patrician Flavius Aetius could be related to the consular diptych from the treasure house in Monza cathedral (Italy) (figs. 1, 2). I personally deny its one-sided identification as a record with the image of Stilicho as I have come to that conclusion studying the images on the medallion of the warrior shield (figs. 5, 6). On the upper surface of the medallion two images are engraved with the names of an empress with a crown with propenduls and a young emperor who I associate with Galla Placidia and the juvenile emperor Valentinian III. During their mutual reign of the empire in 432 Flavius Aetius for the first time was promoted a consular, which was an event coinciding with the date of the diptych. Aetius’s wife and his son Karpilio (fig. 4) as a young tribunus et notaries are engraved on the reverse side. Key words: consular, diptych, Durostorum, late antiquity, medallion One of the most universally famous figures in the nineteen hundred years Durostorum-Drustar-Silistra’s history is Flavius Aetius. He was born in 390 in Durostorum, to a noble family descended from the aristocratic general Gaudentius, who started his military career in the XIth Claudian legion.1 We have already had the opportunity to be acquainted with the intriguing life of Aetius, although it is rather surprising that there is no biography of one of the most outstanding and divisive personalities of late antique history.2 The fact that for a period of thirty years Aetius was a chief commander (magister militum) of the Roman army, a prime patrician, three times a councillor and practically a prime minister in Rome, has made it necessary for his image to 1 Seeck 1894, 701-703; Mommsen 1901, 516-547; Lippold 1979, 105-106. 2 Atanasov & Ivanov 2006, 399-407. 7 Georgi Atanasov be thoroughly examined. Additionally, during that epoch it was common practice, after a person had been elected as a councillor in the Roman senate, for them to be depicted in formal costume and then for this image to distributed on councillor diptychs, made mainly of ivory.3 Moreover, it was typical for members of the supreme aristocracy, as well as the emperors elected as councillors, to be depicted in councillor costumes and the insignia that displayed