When the Goths Were in Egypt: A Gothic Bible Fragment and Barbarian Settlement in Sixth-Century Egypt

Abstract

This essay begins with a discussion of a sixth-century Gothic Bible fragment unearthed in Antinoe, Egypt. It argues that a group of barbarians who took lucrative positions as private troops most likely transported the book to Egypt. Procopius, in particular, provides ample evidence for barbarian redeployment across the Mediterranean. This hypothesis is further supported by contemporaneous papyri which reference a Gothic detachment on the Apion family estate in Oxyrhynchus as well as the presence of other barbarians, including Franks, in Egypt around the age of Justinian. These small communities had close relations with the landed elite, were marked by their group identity, and possibly retained their own clergy. Ultimately, the essay asks early medievalists to take a Mediterranean-wide perspective in their narration of barbarian history.