Gothic War Research Articles

City of Saints. Rebuilding Rome in the Early Middle Ages by Maya Maskarinec

Reviewed by: City of Saints. Rebuilding Rome in the Early Middle Ages by Maya Maskarinec Diane Yvonne Francis Ghirardo Maya Maskarinec, City of Saints. Rebuilding Rome in the Early Middle Ages (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2019 320 pp., ill. Of Rome’s multiple layers of history, perhaps the least apparent—that is, the most difficult for the visitor to locate today—is that of the early Middle Ages, between the fall of the Roman empire and the coronation of Charlemagne in 800. Most of the buildings dating from this period either underwent massive changes, were enclosed within later structures, or simply disappeared. In the first chapter of City of Saints, Maya Maskarinec takes the reader on a walking tour through mid-eighth century Rome, pointing out sites and buildings, some of which exist in part, others that can only be imagined. This lyrical, engaging, direct, and compelling narrative powerfully sets the stage for the chapters that follow. The city she describes is alive with merchants, pilgrims, and clerics, all going about their business while contributing to a vibrant Rome flowering anew following the devastation of the Gothic wars in the fifth and sixth centuries. The unique, sacred topography of the city comes to life in this chronicle of the transformations wrought over the course of the sixth to ninth centuries. It makes for fascinating reading, for the author manages to illuminate a period notoriously described as “dark” in Roman and indeed, Italian history. Key to understanding the author’s goal is the subtitle: Rebuilding Rome in the Early Middle Ages. Maskarinec’s superbly nuanced study shows how diaconiae (charitable institutions), new churches, and translated relics helped reshape Rome into the new capital of Roman Christianity springing from within the depleted imperial city. During this period Roma gradually shifted from secondary status under the Byzantine leadership in Constantinople to its own, burgeoning relevance via a range of agents, from monks to pilgrims to Byzantine administrators who transported saintly relics, especially “foreign” ones, from throughout the Mediterranean to Rome, thereby enhancing and amplifying its sacred topography. The brisk movement of relics could only occur once barriers against such practices had been breached around the very beginning of the period under study. Maskarinec argues that the veneration of foreign saints who had not been martyred in Rome marked the slow process whereby Rome wrested preeminence from the eastern capital, at the same time endowing the city with new saints, new churches, and diaconiae. While the papacy contributed to this change, Maskarinec demonstrates the greater richness and complexity of a process in which the pope constituted only one agent of change. This fresh perspective depends upon analysis of the limited remaining documents, including hagiographies and the Liber Pontificalis, without shortchanging close study of the sites themselves, the buildings, inscriptions, frescoes and decorative apparatus. The author’s command of the sources is impressive, as is her ability to translate and explain obscure texts but especially, bring to life forgotten events. From sites within the Aurelian walls and often atop fragments of classical antiquity, a sacred topography only visible today in highly limited fashion slowly emerges. The early churches in and around the Roman Forum, were established under Byzantine administrators and dedicated to “foreign” saints such as Cosmas and Damian and Teodoro. Eastern saints appeared on the [End Page 234] Palatine and Aventine hills, where individual, local merchant patrons established diaconiae such as that of S. Giorgio al Velabro, and aristocrats underwrote new churches such as S. Sabina. Early on, Byzantine administrators were responsible for the diaconiae, followed by members of the city’s elite, foreign monks, pilgrims, and finally by exponents of Carolingian monks, traders, and rulers over the course of the eighth and ninth centuries. Especially compelling is the analysis of the frescoes at S. Maria Antiqua, where a “panorama of saints” arrayed individual and carefully individualized figures from eastern and western Christendom around an imperial Christ. The specific saints and popes emphasized their role in buttressing the preeminence of the Roman church even while acknowledging the ties to Byzantium. Over time, the efforts of many who brought relics from throughout Christendom to Rome set it up as the home of all saints...

The Apse Mosaics in the Church of San Mauro at Parentium: a Justinianic Interpretation

The mosaics of the church of San Mauro in ancient Parentium are published in an invaluable study by Terry and Maguire (Dynamic Splendor). They accept that bishop Eufrasius, a “Three Chapters” schismatic, was the intellectual author of the mosaics which contain schismatic elements. I contend the church was consecrated before the 559 schism, which was a break with Rome over ecclesial authority, rather than opposition to Justinian’s Fifth Ecumenical Council Constantinople II. I see San Mauro as a rare survival, a Justinianic church of the Theotokos, and an example of imperial/urban renewal in an Istria definitively reconquered in the first months of the Gothic War. The central apse mosaic can be read as a visual statement of three canons from Constantinople II: 1) the doctrine of Theotokos, Mary as mother of the incarnate Word; 2) the oneness of Christ after the hypostatic union; 3) the Theopaschite Formula, “One of the Trinity suffered in the flesh”. The side apses reflect Justinian’s personal devotion to S...

The Danger of the Soft Life: Manly and Unmanly Romans in Procopius's Gothic War

Procopius's Secret History has attracted the attention of a generation of social historians. Yet, the significant, albeit subtler ways, in which gender colors Procopius's most significant work, the Wars, has received far less notice. Seeking to address this imbalance, the present study examines how gender shapes Procopius's presentation of the Goths, East Romans, and Italo–Romans in his Wars. Rather than uncovering the Goths, Byzantines, and Italians as they really were, this paper seeks to unearth some of the purpose and reasoning behind Procopius's gendered depictions and ethnicizing worldview. A careful investigation of Procopius's discussions about the manly and unmanly provides crucial insights into not just the larger narrative but also the historian's knotty authorial agenda. Despite the Gothic War's reliance on classical ethnic and gender patterns, Procopius did not compose his history in a vacuum. Indeed, the gendered discourse, which undergirds much of the Wars, must be understood within the broader context of the political debates reverberating around the late antique Mediterranean at a time when control of Italy from Constantinople was contested.

Gothia Submerged: The Impacts of Severe Flooding on Valens's First Gothic War

According to the standard narrative of the outcome of Valens's First Gothic War, the Goths sued for peace after being subjected to three years of conflict. Yet not only did the Romans fail to engage the Goths in a major battle, but they were also prevented from campaigning in Gothia during the second year of the war due to flooding of the Danube River. This article argues that the natural disaster described by Ammianus played a significant, and hitherto unexplored, role in compelling the Goths to surrender. It demonstrates how the hydroclimatological conditions that cause floods on the Lower Danube also tend to cause equally devastating flood events in other rivers that flowed through Gothia, thereby potentially wreaking havoc on Gothic territory that had remained unscathed by Roman raiding. It further utilizes Western and Central European dendroclimatological proxy evidence to show that the spring months of both 368 and 369 were among the wettest of the entire century, which provides corroboration for Ammianus's account and raises the possibility of additional flooding in the final year of the war. Finally, the article explores the ways in which flooding could have had deleterious impacts on the Gothic agrarian economy and their war effort.

THE PAPACY AND BYZANTIUM IN THE SEVENTH- AND EARLY EIGHTH-CENTURY SECTIONS OF THELIBER PONTIFICALIS

TheLiber pontificalis, the serial biography of the popes running from Saint Peter to the end of the ninth century, first compiled in Rome during the ‘Gothic Wars’ in the sixth century and continued at various stages in the next three centuries, offers a distinctive narrative of the history of Rome and of the papacy in the early Middle Ages. This paper argues that the seventh- and early eighth-century sections, too often simply mined for nuggets of information about church buildings, represent the pope in a particular way both in relation to Byzantium in theological and political terms, and as the successor to Saint Peter in Rome. The papal narrative undermines the usual assumptions about the so-called ‘Byzantine Reconquest’ and the Roman perception, if not the reality, of the degree to which ‘Byzantine rule’ was exercised in Italy between the middle of the sixth and first half of the eighth century. Lastly, these ‘continuations’ have important implications for any interpretation of the purpose and construction of theLiber pontificalis, and of its dissemination beyond Rome in the seventh and eighth centuries.

Audience and Rhetorical Presentation in the Variae of Cassiodorus

This article considers the extent to which Cassiodorus’ epistolary collection, known as the Variae, shows signs of rhetorical adaptation. In particular, the paper suggests that the fall of Ravenna to the emperor Justinian in 540 compelled Cassiodorus to fashion an ideological defense on behalf of the bureaucratic elite who had served the Gothic rulers of Italy. The Variae, as a collection of administrative and legal letters written during Cassiodorus’ public career at the Gothic court, were designed to provide a positive presentation of the record of bureaucratic service at Ravenna. Because the Variae were prepared for circulation in the volatile circumstances of the Gothic War, Cassiodorus had to anticipate audiences that were both receptive and hostile to the idea that the governance of Italy under the Gothic Amals had been successful. This article explores how Cassiodorus navigated audiences with mixed sympathies by examining the prefaces to the Variae and a sampling of the more ideologically charged letters of the collection.

Hedging Disaster

Hedging Disaster

Multi‐proxy study of Holocene environmental change and human activity in the Central Apennine Mountains, Italy

AbstractThis paper describes a multi‐proxy palaeoecological investigation undertaken in conjunction with an archaeological survey of the Upper Sangro Valley in the Abruzzo National Park, Central Italy. Despite being a biodiversity hotspot and regarded as a near‐pristine area, the pollen, spore and diatom data all show major changes in the vegetation extending to over 2000 m a.s.l. during the mid to late Holocene. Although there are changes in ecological composition earlier in the Holocene they are different in type and magnitude from the changes which began about 800 cal a BC. The pollen and diatom evidence do not correlate well with regional palaeoclimate data, or on‐site isotopic evidence, but do appear to be related to Samnite (later Iron Age) clearance and upland grazing associated with transhumance and later annexation (and centuriation) of the lower slopes by Roman surveyors. The greatest change in vegetation was during the period c. AD 500–600 and corresponds with the Byzantine–Gothic Wars, and Lombard–Carolingian settlement reorganization into nucleated hilltop settlements which managed upland grazing. This pattern of intensive land use at all altitudes persisted until the early 20th century and only changed following rural depopulation after World War II. These data illustrate how cultural factors had a profound effect on this mountainous region which, in this case, far outweighed the effects of climatic fluctuations which are known to have occurred from both this study area and the region. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Gothic War: Rome's final conflict in the West

The Gothic War: Rome's final conflict in the West

Rome's Gothic Wars: From the Third Century to Alaric. Key Conflicts in Classical Antiquity (review)

Reviewed by: Rome's Gothic Wars: From the Third Century to Alaric. Key Conflicts in Classical Antiquity Marc Pierce Michael Kulikowski . Rome's Gothic Wars: From the Third Century to Alaric. Key Conflicts in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Pp. xii, 225. $25.00. ISBN 978-521-84633-2. This book provides an introduction to the Goths, their history, and their interaction with the Romans, focusing on two main questions: (1) "How did Gothic history develop in such a way that the unprecedented career of Alaric [the Gothic leader who sacked Rome in 410] became possible" and (2) "how do we know what we think we know about the Goths" (11). In eight thematic chapters, bookended by a prologue and an epilogue, both about Alaric, it strives to answer these questions by discussing the history of the Goths and evaluating the relevant sources of evidence. The first of the questions posed above is perhaps the easier to answer. To do so, Kulikowski traces the history of the Goths, discussing issues like early Gothic raids on Roman territory, the development of Gothic power, and the connections between various Roman emperors and the Goths in the process. Kulikowski argues that the Romans in some sense created the Goths, thanks to "the pressures of life on the Roman frontier" (185), suggesting that "the diverse small groups whom the Romans called . . . Goths because they lived in a particular place and were recruited into particular units of the Roman army eventually became . . . Goths because that was how they were described when they had political dealings with the Roman empire" (69). Thus, the Romans created the Goths and then the ways in which they interacted with them eventually put the Goths into a position to sack Rome. The second question is somewhat trickier. Traditional accounts of the Goths have relied on sources like the Getica of Jordanes, a sixth-century history that draws on a now-lost history of the Goths written by Cassiodorus. Kulikowski evaluates the motivation behind this traditional reliance and argues that that Jordanes' work is not completely reliable, for several reasons (for instance, oral transmission of the stories about Gothic origins that Jordanes presents could mean that the stories have become distorted and inaccurate). Kulikowski does conclude Jordanes's work can lend valuable insights when it is corroborated with data from other sources, but he is generally reluctant to use it. Instead, Kulikowski draws heavily on other sources of information about the Goths and their history, including archaeological evidence. Some [End Page 119] of this archaeological evidence, taken from the Sântana-de-Mures/Cernjachov culture (located in what is now Romania and Ukraine), clearly shows contact between this culture and the Romans (e.g., the use of Roman construction practices in some buildings and the presence of Roman cultural artifacts). In Kulikowski's view, this culture was Gothic and supports his thesis of the Roman creation of the Goths. According to the description given in the front matter of this book, the volumes in this series are intended to summarize "the main events and key characters, the consequences of the conflict, and its reception over time," and to evaluate "the textual and archaeological sources for the conflict" critically. This book fulfills these objectives admirably. Its summary of the conflicts between the Romans and the Goths is lucid and readable and its critical evaluation of the various sources of evidence is valuable. It is engagingly written and does a nice job of synthesizing received wisdom with more debatable views. The book also contains detailed glossaries of biographies and of ancient sources, several maps, and an extensive section on suggested further readings, all of which enhance its usefulness. It should also be noted that production values are high; the maps are well produced (even though three of them are necessarily spread over two pages), the volume is sturdily bound, and typos have been kept to a minimum. The book provides a handy, accessible overview of the subject matter and can therefore be recommended to students and more experienced scholars alike. [End Page 120] Marc Pierce University of Texas at Austin Copyright © 2009 The Classical Association of the Atlantic States, Inc.

Sklenitev rimsko-gotske mirovne pogodbe leta 382

3. oktobra leta 382 je bilo med Rimljani in Goti sklenjeno premirje, ki je zaključilo več kot šest let trajajočo vojno, do katere je prišlo, potem ko so Goti pod Alavivovim in Fritigernovim vodstvom z dovoljenjem cesarja Valensa prešli Donavo in se preselili na rimsko ozemlje. Čeprav je bila sklenitev premirja za obe v spor vpleteni strani nedvomno pomemben dogodek, se ni ohranilo veliko virov, ki bi o njem poročali. Zato so podatki, ki jih danes o sklenitvi in vsebini premirja imamo, skopi in ne dopuščajo, da bi si lahko na njihovi osnovi o dogodku in njegovih posledicah izoblikovali povsem jasno podobo. V razpravi ne bodo predstavljeni vsi problemi, povezani z navedeno tematiko, marveč se bo avtorica podrobneje posvetila predvsem dvema osnovnima vprašanjema: (1) Kako se je rimska stran na podpis dogovora pripravljala? in (2) Kdo bi pri sklenitvi dogovora lahko sodeloval?

What Have Elephants to Do with Sixth-Century Politics?: A Reappraisal of the “Official” Governmental Dossier of Cassiodorus

This study offers a reappraisal of the Variae that demonstrates how Cassiodorus compiled his letter collection as an epistolary apologetic that was responsive to the political vulnerability of the Italian bureaucracy after the fall of the Ostrogothic court at Ravenna. Cassiodorus’ letters sought to illustrate the moral suitability of Italian bureaucrats, particularly their suitability to resume palatine service after the conclusion of the Gothic war, by depicting a specific kind of legal traditionalism as a guiding principle of bureaucratic culture at Ravenna. By emphasizing the confluence of concepts of law and nature, Cassiodorus appealed to the sensitivities of the eastern bureaucracy of Constantinople, from which he sought to win support. In order to bring this theme into proper focus, this article also considers the relationship between the Variae and Cassiodorus’ De Anima , which supplies critical evidence for how readers of the Variae should understand the moral qualities of bureaucratic corporatism. By reading the Variae and De Anima as a thematically integrated whole, one may appreciate Cassiodorus’ epistolary collection as a carefully staged historical and moral model for a community of the bureaucratic elite.

Procopius, De bello Gothico III 38.17-23: A Description of Ritual Pagan Slavic Slayings?<br>Procopius, De bello Gothico III 38.17-23: οpis ritualnih pobojev slovanskih poganov?</br>

Procopius' Gothic War is generally assumed to be the oldest source for the study of pagan Slavic religion. However, only the ethnographic excursus on the Slavs and Antes (Procop. Goth. III 14.22-30) is mentioned in works dealing with that subject, while no attention has been paid to another very interesting passage of the same work (Procop.Goth. III 38.17–23). In that passage Procopius describes the three ways in which the Slavs used to kill their enemies – impalement, tying their hands and feet to four stakes and beating them to death and, finally, burning them together with cattle and sheep. The analysis of the text, as well as the comparison with other sources, shows that those practices can best interpreted as various sorts of ritual slayings.

Rome’s Gothic Wars: From the Third Century to Alaric (review)

Rome’s Gothic Wars: From the Third Century to Alaric (review)

L'ouverture de l'atelier impérial de Cyzique sous le règne de Claude II le Gothique

Cyzicus struck his last provincial coins with Greek inscriptions during the reign of Claudius Gothicus. The mint became at the same time an important imperial mint, the only one in Asia Minor. The new Moneta was established by the transfer of a mint of Asia Minor, created by Gallienus and probably located in Smyrna. The existence of a transitional issue is here analyzed : these coins keep some characteristics of the previous mint but with a new style. Coins of the following issue bear on their reverse the mint-mark M C, and record the official opening of the mint as well as the beginning of the Gothic war. A corpus of these coins is given.

Failure of empire: Valens and the Roman state in the fourth century A.D

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Abbreviations Maps Introduction Chapter 1. The Pannonian Emperors Chapter 2. The Revolt of Procopius Chapter 3. Valen's First Gothic War Chapter 4. Valens and the Eastern Frontier Chapter 5. Religion under the Valentiniani Chapter 6. Administration and Finance under Valentinian and Valens Chapter 7. The Disaster at Adrianople Epilogue Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C Appendix D Bibliography Index

Le gentes d’Oriente fra identità e integrazione

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.

Waffensport, Rauba und Dietrichs Schatten Chud Chonnem Mannum – δοξανεπι τωδραστηριωδιαρκωςεχων(Prokop, Got. IV, 31)

In his 'Gothic War' the historian Prokopios tells of brave soldiers approaching the enemy front before the beginning of the battle, 'provoking' whoever should have the courage to accept the invitation to a duel on horseback, the prize being the dead opponent's armour and the glory of the victor and a raise in salary. In this way Hildebrand, well known for his bravery and a mercenary in the Byzantine army invading Italy after Theoderic's death, meets his opponent, a Gothic soldier, equally bent on glory: Hadubrand. Deriving from the Indo-European 'Fight between father and son' narrative type, the anecdote has been linked by the (Gothic?) poet to 'Theoderic's Flight to the East' in order to provide Hildebrand with an honourable reason for leaving his family in poverty. His tragic return to Italy thirty years later is not linked to Theoderic's return to his realm (Rabenschlacht), nor has the struggle between father and son any other purpose but the thirst for glory.

The Walls and Aqueducts of Rome in the Early Middle Ages, A.D. 500–1000

Our knowledge of the city of Rome after the fall of the Western Empire is largely determined by its position as the seat of the Papacy. Historical studies are based principally upon the Liber Pontificalis and the writings of the popes themselves, while architectural and archaeological research has concentrated on the city's numerous churches, many of which for the period A.D. 500–850 are remarkably well-preserved. The best known modern syntheses in English from each field are probably Peter Llewellyn's Rome in the Dark Ages (1971) and Richard Krautheimer's Rome. Profile of a City (1980). If we look beyond the purely ecclesiastical, however, we find very little Archaeological studies of Rome's urban infrastructure—walls, roads, bridges, aqueducts, sewers, housing—tend to stop, at the latest, with the Gothic Wars of the mid-sixth century. The lack of research, and therefore lack of data, have in turn been interpreted as a sign that early medieval Rome was a city bereft of an artificial watersupply, and of the resources necessary to maintain such structures as the Aurelianic Walls. Studies of medieval urbanism have been affected by this dearth of evidence proposing, for example, settlement models with the population of the city crowded into the Tiber bend in order to obtain water.

Barbarians within the gates of Rome: a study of Roman military policy and the barbarians, ca. 375-425 A.D.

Preface Introduction 1. Valentinian, Valens, and the Battle of Adrianople 2. Theodosius in Action 3. Concluding the Gothic Wars 4. Barbarians and Civil War 5. Stilicho's Transalpine Recruitment Areas 6, Four Generals 7. Alaric and Stilicho: Working Together 8. The Sack of Rome 9. The Settlement of 418: Constantine, Constantius, Athaulf, Wallia, and Rome Conclusion Emperors and Principal Usurpers Chronological Outline Notes Bibliography Index