Le gentes d’Oriente fra identità e integrazione

Abstract

Mazzarino’s considerations on the 3rd century Syriac political thought make a good standpoint for a research on Oriental gentes and their relationship with the Roman Empire after the Constitutio Antoniniana. This complex question requests a multiple approach, at the same time juridical, social and ethnological. Some cases of integration, such as the Palmyrene Septimius Vor¯od, the Arab Imru’al- Qays, and especially the Armenian Gilakios (a chieftain serving under Justinian during the Gothic war) are hereby analyzed. A cross-comparison of historiographical and juridical texts allows us to put the bases for a non-formalistic study of the evidence.