DOCSLIB.ORG

Gothia and Romania 1

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Gothia and Romania 1 GOTHIA AND ROMANIA 1 BY J. M. WALLACE-HADRILL, M.A. PROFESSOR OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER N his more relaxed moments, the Visigothic chieftain Athaulf I used to say that he had had the idea to obliterate the " nomen Romanum " and to substitute a Gothic state, with himself as its Caesar Augustus; which was as much as to say " ut vulgariter loquar " in Orosius' words that Gothia should succeed Romania. However, long experience had taught him that his Goths were too barbarous ever to live under law; and since, without law, you cannot have a state, he had decided to leave things as they were and to support the *' nomen Romanum " with Gothic arms.2 What I would like to do is to see, in the light of this curious jest, whether any of Athaulf's successors as kings of Toulouse came within measurable distance of taking seriously that Gothia which Athaulf abandoned; for, like many jests, it had something behind it. It is easy to connect Athaulf's decision in favour of Romania with his marriage with Galla Placidia,3 though Orosius does not put the matter quite in this way. He merely says that she helped him " ad omnia bonarum ordinationum opera persuasu et consilio temperatus "; at most, helped him to see what long experience of his own people's limitations already pointed to. 1 A lecture delivered in the Library series of public lectures. I wish to thank Professor E. A. Thompson, Professor R. E. Keller and Dr. Arnold Ehrhardt for help in its preparation, and friends in Oxford for stimulating me to think again about what I had written. 2 Orosius, Hist. vii. 43. 3 Ludwig Schmidt, Geschichte der deutschen Stdmme bis ztan Ausgang der Volkerwanderung: die Ostgermanen (2nd. edn., 1941), p. 457; J. B. Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire (1923), i. 197; F. Lot, C. Pfister and F. L. Ganshof, Les Destinees de I'Empire en Occident (1940), p. 45; and P. Courcelle, Histoire littfraire des grandes invasions germaniques (1948), p. 69, who goes so far as to connect the remark with an alleged design of Athaulf's that Theodosius, his son by Galla Placidia, should one day become emperor. But if Theodosius had lived, and had become emperor, this need have had no effect on the status of the Visigoths. 213 214 THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY I think we must take the story as it stands. Athaulf knew that he could not subvert Roman authority, even though he entered Gaul without imperial sanction: he could not turn Romania into Gothia. Equally, he is not reported to have envisaged the absorption of Gothia into Romania. The Goths were to act, if Orosius is right, as Romania's shield, whether in Gaul or in Spain. In fact, a kingdom based on Toulouse was not the end of Athaulfs ambition. His successor, Wallia, reluctantly abandoned an attempt to cross from Spain to Africa, and returned to Gaul to negotiate with the patrician Constantius because he could not help it. The most solid achievements of Euric were to be in Spain, not Gaul. This following in the path of the Vandals, not always with hostile intent, is a recurrent theme of Visigothic history for the entire century of their residence in Gaul; the Visigoths were both attracted to and frightened by them. They were not so very distantly related and had much in common. Despite their long contact with the Empire, I do not think that the Visigoths had been any more romanized than had the Vandals, though they may have been tamer. They were homeless cultivators, roaming armed and in search of food, and denied the outlet to Africa which had first been sought through Italy by their leader, Alaric. Two years later, they were brought back from Spain to Gaul in a hurry, to be allotted a settlement- area on the Atlantic seaboard and a guarantee of 600,000 measures of grain. Their need for land and food was met; though the prospect of Spain was still there to haunt them. But what was gained by the Romans, with whom the initiative clearly lay? For it was they who would have drawn up the terms of the subsequent foedtts.1 The settlement of upwards of 100,000 Goths (men, women and children) upon Roman land and at the expense of landlords' rents would be unwelcome, unless there was some threat that the movement of the Goths might counter.2 One such threat 1 Prosper, Chron. s.a. 419 and Hydatius, Chron., chap. 69 provide some facts about the foedus, and others may be inferred from subsequent events; but its terms and their implementation are not clear in detail. 2 In what follows I am heavily indebted to Professor E. A. Thompson, and notably to his article " The settlement of the barbarians in southern Gaul ",.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Signs of the Times, Vol. 12 (1886)
    The Signs of the Times, Vol. 12 (1886) January 7, 1886 "The Ostrogoths and the Visigoths" The Signs of the Times 12, 1 , p. 4. THE peace which Constantine forced upon the Gothic nation in A.D. 331, continued for a period of thirty years. For the proper understanding of the further progress of our subject, it now becomes necessary to clearly define the distinction that existed between the two great divisions of the Gothic nation–the Ostro [Eastern] Goths, and the Visi [Western] Goths. As a matter of act this distinction existed from the earliest times of which we have any knowledge of the nation. "The Ostro and Visi, the eastern and western Goths, obtained those denominations from their original seats in Scandinavia. In all their future marches and settlements they preserved, with their names, the same relative situation."–Dec. and Fall, chap. 10, par. 8, note. Although this distinction was ever observed amongst them as a people, yet in all their wanderings and in all their expeditions, from the time they left the Baltic till the period of which we now treat, A.D. 361,–they were united and acted as one people. Now, however, we shall find them separated, and with the exception of a short interval, never more united. During the thirty years' peace with the Empire (A.D. 331-361), and under Hermanric, the last king of the united nation, the Gothic power was spread from the River Danube and the Black Sea to the Baltic. Of this we read:– "During a peaceful interval of thirty years, the Romans secured their frontiers, and the Goths extended their dominions.
    [Show full text]
  • Fairies, Kingship, and the British Past in Walter Map's De Nugis Curialium and Sir Orfeo
    UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Fairies, Kingship, and the British Past in Walter Map's De Nugis Curialium and Sir Orfeo Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8zh4b6x4 Author Schwieterman, Patrick Joseph Publication Date 2010 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Fairies, Kingship, and the British Past in Walter Map’s De Nugis Curialium and Sir Orfeo by Patrick Joseph Schwieterman A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Maura Nolan, Chair Professor Jennifer Miller Professor John Lindow Fall 2010 Fairies, Kingship, and the British Past in Walter Map’s De Nugis Curialium and Sir Orfeo © 2010 by Patrick Joseph Schwieterman Abstract Fairies, Kingship, and the British Past in Walter Map’s De Nugis Curialium and Sir Orfeo by Patrick Joseph Schwieterman Doctor of Philosophy in English University of California, Berkeley Professor Maura Nolan, Chair My dissertation focuses on two fairy narratives from medieval Britain: the tale of Herla in Walter Map’s twelfth-century De Nugis Curialium, and the early fourteenth-century romance Sir Orfeo. I contend that in both texts, fairies become intimately associated with conceptions of the ancient British past, and, more narrowly, with the idea of a specifically insular kingship that seeks its legitimization within that past. In Chapter One, I argue that Map’s longer version of the Herla narrative is his own synthesis of traditional materials, intended to highlight the continuity of a notion of British kingship that includes the pygmy king, Herla and Henry II.
    [Show full text]
  • The Britons in Late Antiquity: Power, Identity And
    THE BRITONS IN LATE ANTIQUITY: POWER, IDENTITY AND ETHNICITY EDWIN R. HUSTWIT Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Bangor University 2014 Summary This study focuses on the creation of both British ethnic or ‘national’ identity and Brittonic regional/dynastic identities in the Roman and early medieval periods. It is divided into two interrelated sections which deal with a broad range of textual and archaeological evidence. Its starting point is an examination of Roman views of the inhabitants of the island of Britain and how ethnographic images were created in order to define the population of Britain as 1 barbarians who required the civilising influence of imperial conquest. The discussion here seeks to elucidate, as far as possible, the extent to which the Britons were incorporated into the provincial framework and subsequently ordered and defined themselves as an imperial people. This first section culminates with discussion of Gildas’s De Excidio Britanniae. It seeks to illuminate how Gildas attempted to create a new identity for his contemporaries which, though to a certain extent based on the foundations of Roman-period Britishness, situated his gens uniquely amongst the peoples of late antique Europe as God’s familia. The second section of the thesis examines the creation of regional and dynastic identities and the emergence of kingship amongst the Britons in the late and immediately post-Roman periods. It is largely concerned to show how interaction with the Roman state played a key role in the creation of early kingships in northern and western Britain. The argument stresses that while there were claims of continuity in group identities in the late antique period, the socio-political units which emerged in the fifth and sixth centuries were new entities.
    [Show full text]
  • Honorius, Galla Placidia, and the Struggles for Control of the Western Roman Empire, 405-425 C.E
    University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 5-2013 Crisis of Legitimacy: Honorius, Galla Placidia, and the Struggles for Control of the Western Roman Empire, 405-425 C.E. Thomas Christopher Lawrence [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the European History Commons Recommended Citation Lawrence, Thomas Christopher, "Crisis of Legitimacy: Honorius, Galla Placidia, and the Struggles for Control of the Western Roman Empire, 405-425 C.E.. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2013. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/1751 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Thomas Christopher Lawrence entitled "Crisis of Legitimacy: Honorius, Galla Placidia, and the Struggles for Control of the Western Roman Empire, 405-425 C.E.." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in History. Michael E. Kulikowski, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Christine Shepardson, Maura Lafferty, Thomas Burman Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Crisis of Legitimacy: Honorius, Galla Placidia, and the Struggles for Control of the Western Roman Empire, 405-425 C.E.
    [Show full text]
  • On Foederati, Hospitalitas, and the Settlement of the Goths in A.D
    ON FOEDERATI, HOSPITALITAS, AND THE SETTLEMENT OF THE GOTHS IN A.D. 418 This study sets out to re-examine the key concepts of foederati (foedus) and hospitalitas (hospitium) with a view to gaining a fresh in- sight into the procedure of settlement or accommodation of barbarians by the Roman government during the fifth century. Particular atten- tion is given to the establishment of the Visigothic kingdom on Roman territory in 418, this emphasis being justified by the fact that, as the first such barbarian settlement, it provided a test case and a precedent. Such re-examination may be thought timely in view of the recent work of W. Goffart1 who has challenged the theories of E. T. Gaupp2 and F. Lot,3 which effectively held the field from 1844 until 1980. Two key words have been repeatedly used in conjunction with the attitude of the Roman government to barbarian settlements, foederati (and foedus) and hospitalitas (and hospitium). The Goths, for example, were imperial federates who were settled by the Roman government accord- ing to the rules of military hospitalitas. Upon re-examination, however, neither concept provides full understanding of the nature of the agree- ments between the imperial government and the barbarian nations dur- ing the fifth century, above all, of the permanent division and occupa- tion of Roman territory and a tax exemption status. First, there is the question of the applicability of the term foederati to the Visigoths. A standard theory of late Roman history is that the Goths, like all the later barbarians and many others before them, were bound to the Empire by a foedus which made them allies of the Roman empire.
    [Show full text]
  • A History of Rome to 565 A. D. by Arthur Edward Romilly Boak
    The Project Gutenberg EBook of A History of Rome to 565 A. D. by Arthur Edward Romilly Boak This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license Title: A History of Rome to 565 A. D. Author: Arthur Edward Romilly Boak Release Date: May 31, 2010 [Ebook 32624] Language: English ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY OF ROME TO 565 A. D.*** A HISTORY OF ROME TO 565 A. D. BY ARTHUR E. R. BOAK, Ph. D., Professor of Ancient History in the University of Michigan v New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1921 All rights reserved COPYRIGHT, 1921. By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published December, 1921. vii PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA [v] PREFACE This sketch of the History of Rome to 565 A. D. is primarily intended to meet the needs of introductory college courses in Roman History. However, it is hoped that it may also prove of service as a handbook for students of Roman life and literature in general. It is with the latter in mind that I have added the bibliographical note. Naturally, within the brief limits of such a text, it was impossible to defend the point of view adopted on disputed points or to take notice of divergent opinions. Therefore, to show the great debt which I owe to the work of others, and to provide those interested in particular problems with some guide to more detailed study, I have given a list of selected references, which express, I believe, the prevailing views of modern scholarship upon the various phases of Roman History.
    [Show full text]
  • The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
    THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE BY EDWARDGIBBON ,, EDITED BY i J. B. BURY, M.A. WITH AN INTRODUCTION nY THE RT. HON. W. E. H. LECKY VOL. VI NEW YORK FRED DE FAU & COMPANY PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT, Iga7. FRED DE FAU & COMPANY. CONTENTS OF THE SIXTH VOLUME PAGE LISTOF ILLUSTBATIONS . xi CHAPTER XXXIV The Character, Conquests, and Court of Attila, King of the Huns - Denth of Theodosius the Younger -Elevation of Marcien to the Empire of the &st A.D. , 376-433 TheHuns . .......I Their Establishment in modernHungary . 2 433-453 Reign of Attila . -3 H is FigureCharacterHisand . 4 He discovers the Sword of Mars . 6 Acquires theEmpire of Scythia and Germany . .7 430-440 TheHuns invadePersia . .9 41,&c. They attackEasternthe Empire . XI Ravage Europe as far as Constantinople . la The Scythian or TartarWars . , 14 State of the Captives . .x6 446 Treaty of Peace betweenAttila Ad theEastern Empire . 19 Spirit of the Azimuntines . 21 EmbassiesfromAttila to Constantinople . 22 448 The Embassy of Maximin to Attila . ’ 25 The royal Village and Palace . .28 The Behaviour of Attilato the Roman Ambassadors . 30 The royal Feast . .32 Conspiracy of theRomans against the Life of Attila . 34 He re rimands and forgives theEmperor . 35 450 ThdosiusYounger the dies . ’ 36 Is succeededby Marcian . ’ 37 CHAPTER XXXV Invasion of Gad by Attila - He is repulsed by Aetius and the Visigoths - Attila invades and evacrralcs Itdy - The Dealhs of Attila, Aetius, and Vakntinian the Third 450 Attila threatensboth Empires, and prepares to invade Gaul . 39 433-454 Character and Administration of Aetius .
    [Show full text]
  • Emperor Majorian and the Fall of Rome
    The Last Romans: Emperor Majorian and the Fall of Rome A study of the Late Empire and its energetic Emperor University College Tilburg Liberal Arts and Sciences Humanities Major Bachelor Thesis Thesis Supervisor: Prof. Dr. R.C.H. Lesaffer Thesis Author: Janus de Vries Abstract This paper concerns the reign of Emperor Julius Flavius Valerius Majorianus (r. 457-461), placed within the context of the Empire that had started unravelling in the years before his ascension. By analysing the state of Rome during its final period, and the way it faced its barbarian enemies, we can more clearly define and appreciate the sort of task that the last Emperors had to face. In so doing, a case will be presented in which the destruction of Rome was not yet set in stone by the time of Majorian’s reign. From our modern perspective, we are primed to think of the fall of Rome as a long, progressive and inevitable process. This is part of the intellectual heritage of Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Though the ​ ​ paradigm does not hold as much power as it has in the past, as current scholarship includes a dogged debate on whether the fall of Rome was mainly due to internal causes or due to external causes, this paradigm remains highly influential. The linear thinking of progressive decline, or progressive causes of decline, is still well represented in both traditions. The downside of this perspective is that it does not work well with such figures as Majorian who defy the paradigm by embodying success, rather than failure.
    [Show full text]
  • Granholm Genealogy
    GRANHOLM GENEALOGY GOTHS ROYAL ANCESTRY INTRODUCTION The Goths ancestry is unique in how it originates in Sweden and for a few hundred years was an important part of the history of Europe. It ties into our ancestors in the dynasties of the Franks and Hungarians with Attila the Hun (48th great grandfather) , see the books Frank Royal Ancestry and Hungarian Royal Ancestry. Below is a brief description of the Goths followed by ancestry listings with highlighted persons, who are further described. The historian Jordanes claims that the Goths originated in semi-legendary Scandza, believed to be located somewhere in modern Götaland (Sweden), and that a Gothic population crossed the Baltic Sea before the 2nd century. Jordanes also states that the Goths gave their name to the region they colonized, Gothiscandza, which is believed to be the lower Vistula region in Poland. From the middle of the 2nd century onward, groups of Goths migrated to the southeast along the River Vistula. They eventually reached the Black Sea in Ukraine, Romania and Moldova, where they left their archaeological traces in the Chernyakhov culture. The Goths are believed to have crossed the Baltic Sea sometime between the end of this period (ca 300 BC) and AD 100. Early archaeological evidence in the Swedish province of Östergötland suggests a general depopulation during this period. The settlement in today's Poland may correspond to the introduction of Scandinavian burial traditions, such as the stone circles and the stelae especially common on the island of Gotland and other parts of southern Sweden. In the 5th and 6th centuries, the Goths separated into two tribes, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths.
    [Show full text]
  • Ethnicity, Ethnogenesis, and the Vandals: Some Remarks on a Theory of Emergence of the Barbarian Gens*1
    Acta Poloniae Historica 112, 2015 PL ISSN 0001–6892 Robert Kasperski Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences ETHNICITY, ETHNOGENESIS, AND THE VANDALS: SOME REMARKS ON A THEORY OF EMERGENCE OF THE BARBARIAN GENS*1 Abstract There are two objectives behind this article. First, it seeks to trace down the pedigree of a theory described in scholarly discourse as the ‘ethnogenesis model’. As is often believed, the theory originally was, essentially, an innovative concept proposed by Reinhard Wenskus, the German researcher. My article puts forth the idea whereby it was Walter Schlesinger who had laid the foundations for the theory, whose concept was further developed by Wenskus. My other purpose was to verify the basics of the theory itself, based on relevant empirical material; specifi cally, I mainly deal with original sources reporting on the ethnic composition and history of the Vandal people. Keywords: ethnogenesis model, Reinhard Wenskus, Walter Schlesinger, ethnicity of the barbarian peoples, gens, Vandals * My word of thanks goes to Professor Halina Manikowska of the Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, for her valu- able contribution to the discussion on this essay and offer to publish it with Acta Poloniae Historica. I am also indebted to Professor Roman Michałowski of the Insti- tute of History, University of Warsaw, for having focused my attention on the ethnicity problems related to the Slavic peoples in the early Middle Ages. The under- lying papers for this essay were delivered at a Polish-German conference ‘Polish Historiography In the Face of the German Historic Science in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries’, held 26th–27th February 2010 in Łódź, as part of the col- laboration between the Universities of Giessen and Łódź, and at the 11th Inter- disciplinary Historical Seminar of 19th to 21st May in Hermanów.
    [Show full text]
  • Settling the Wandering Kingdom: the Establishment of the Visigothic Kingship Under Ataulf
    Kennon 1 Settling the Wandering Kingdom: The Establishment of the Visigothic Kingship under Ataulf Drakeford Kennon Classics Honors Thesis University of Colorado at Boulder Advisor: Andy Cain, Department of Classics Defense Committee: Scott Bruce, Department of History Diane Conlin, Department of Classics Kennon 2 In this thesis, I argue that Alaric was not the first king of the Visigoths, at least not in the way in which scholars traditionally have envisaged him as being. This title of first king, I argue, belongs instead to Ataulf who was the one to settle the Visigoths in Hispania and pass on a style of rule that was not based on purely military might. Alaric certainly had a decisive role to play in the formation of the incipient Visigothic kingdom but his role had more to do with laying the groundwork for the development within Visigothic society for the idea of a permanent king and royal succession. Kennon 3 Table of Contents Succession of Visigothic Kings....……………………………………… 4 Introduction……………………………………………………………... 5 Chapter 1: Alaric………………………………………………………... 8 Chapter 2: Ataulf………………………………………………………....32 Chapter 3: Wallia…………………………………………………………43 Conclusion………………………………………………………………...47 Kennon 4 Balthi dynasty of Visigothic kings - 1. Alaric I (395–410) 2. Athaulf (410–415) 3. Sigeric (415) • Possibly not a Balthi 4. Wallia (415–419) 5. Theodoric I (419–451) 6. Thorismund (451–453) 7. Theodoric II (453–466) 8. Euric (466–484) 9. Alaric II (484–507) 10. Gesalec (507–511) 11. Theoderic the Great (511–526), regent for Amalaric 12. Amalaric (526–531) Kennon 5 Introduction: Some figures stand large in history overshadowing and even hiding completely from sight those after their death.
    [Show full text]
  • Visigothic Retinues: Roving Bandits That Succeeded Rome
    Department of Economics Working Paper Series Visigothic Retinues: Roving Bandits that Succeeded Rome Andrew T. Young Working Paper No. 15-09 This paper can be found at the College of Business and Economics Working Paper Series homepage: http://be.wvu.edu/phd_economics/working-papers.htm Visigothic Retinues: Roving Bandits that Succeeded Rome† Andrew T. Young College of Business and Economics West Virginia University Morgantown, WV 26506-6025 ph: 304 293 4526 em: [email protected] Latest Version: May 2015 Abstract: I employ a case study of the Visigoths in the fourth and fifth centuries to analyze the collective action problems faced by roving versus stationary bandits. A roving bandit provides exclusive collective goods to its members. A stationary bandit also provides exclusive goods to its members, but it also provides inclusive collective goods to out-group individuals in its domain. The inclusive goods provided to the out-group are an input to the production of the exclusive goods enjoyed by the in-group members. I describe how the transition from the former to the latter likely involves redefinition of the relevant group, its shared interest, and the type of good(s) that it provides. The Gothic retinues of the fourth century were essentially roving bandits. Having been driven across the Danube into the Roman Empire by an invasion of Huns, a group of these retinues formed the Visigothic confederacy. The Visigoths sacked Rome and were subsequently settled in Gaul, eventually becoming the stationary Visigothic Kingdom. I describe how the Visigothic elite came to recognize an encompassing interest in their domain and drew upon the human capital of the Gallo-Roman senators to provide inclusive collective goods.
    [Show full text]