Gothus: Konstruction und Rezeption von Gotenbildern in narrativen Schriften des merowingischen Gallien by Christian Stadermann

Abstract

Reviewed by: Gothus: Konstruction und Rezeption von Gotenbildern in narrativen Schriften des merowingischen Gallien by Christian Stadermann Erica Buchberger Gothus: Konstruction und Rezeption von Gotenbildern in narrativen Schriften des merowingischen Gallien Christian Stadermann Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2017. Pp. 601. ISBN 978-3-515-11695-4 Scholarship on the construction of early medieval identities has grown tremendously in recent years, with a number of edited collections, monographs, and articles examining ethnicity, religion, and the strategies of identification used by contemporary authors to situate themselves in a changing post-Roman landscape. The majority of these, however, focus on self-reflection: Franks concerned with Frankish identity, or Goths concerned with Gothic identity. Christian Stadermann's Gothus is a particularly interesting and useful book precisely because it breaks out of this mold by investigating Gallic and Frankish views of their Gothic neighbors. As Stadermann illustrates, an outsider's perspective is just as much about constructing one's own identity as that of an insider, and therefore his examination of Merovingian views of the Goths provides unique insights into the Merovingians themselves. Gothus arises from the author's 2014 University of Tübingen dissertation and, as he admits in the forward, it has been modified little from its original form. As it stands, it is a large and impressively thorough work. Stadermann proceeds chronologically through narrative works written in Gaul from the fourth century through the eighth century, beginning each chapter with a detailed review of the sources used and the goals of their authors before turning to the evidence of those sources. In the process, he draws clear connections between later authors and their earlier sources of information, highlighting the rewriting that occurred to bring stories about the Goths up-to-date for a new context. In chapter 1, Stadermann lays out the theoretical framework for his monograph. He addresses ethnicity as a social construct, ethnogenesis theory, and scholarship on perception, interpretation, and narrative. He finishes with the questions he will ask of his sources throughout this work: what characteristics authors perceived as distinctive for Goths; on which expectations, knowledge, and wishes these perceptions were based; to what extent these perceptions changed over time; what of these came from collective memory of ethnic, social, or religious groups in the Merovingian kingdom; and whether it is possible to speak of a collective memory among the people of the Merovingian kingdom that is manifested in their historiography. Chapter 2 covers the way in which Goths were described by authors of the western Roman Empire during the fourth [End Page 446] and fifth centuries. In turn, Stadermann discusses Ambrose of Milan, Christian apologetic and homilies (Orosius, Augustine, Jerome, and Salvian), Paulinus of Pella, Sidonius Apollinaris, and the chroniclers Hydatius and Prosper of Aquitaine. Although not all were based in Gaul, their works were highly influential on later Gallic authors, both in terms of the events they witnessed which later authors retold and in terms of their portrayals of the Goths. Among their most important influences, Stadermann highlights Ambrose's focus on the Goths' Arianism and Salvian's equation of Roman and barbarian with Catholic and heathen or heretic. It is with these earlier authors that Stadermann sees the activation of barbarian and heretic stereotypes that will be repeated and developed by later Gallic authors. Chapter 3, the longest chapter, explores the narrative sources of Merovingian Gaul in the sixth century. It begins with an introduction to Gregory of Tours, Venantius Fortunatus, Marius of Avenches, and hagiographers, and then explores particular themes across all these sources, such as the cultural connotations of barbarian identity, the Arians as a gens, and the role of Goths in Toulouse as enemies of Frankish kings. Stadermann notes one key change that distinguishes sixth-century authors from their fifth-century counterparts: a concern with religion. While fifth-century authors such as Sidonius Apollinaris emphasized the social and economic disruption that came from conflict with and rule by the Goths, Gregory of Tours and other sixth-century authors chose to highlight the Goths' Arian religious identity, depicting them as a persecutors and a threat to Catholics. By the late sixth century, Stadermann also sees Merovingian historians identifying more with Frankish kings...