People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489–554

A new view of the Goths of Italy, challenging racist, nationalist assumptions about barbarian groups.

Patrick Amory (Author)

9780521571517, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 June 1997

548 pages, 1 map
23.6 x 15.8 x 4 cm, 0.957 kg

'This is a marvellous book.' History

The barbarians of the fifth and sixth centuries were long thought to be races, tribes or ethnic groups who toppled the Roman Empire and racist, nationalist assumptions about the composition of the barbarian groups still permeate much scholarship on the subject. This book proposes a new view, through a case-study of the Goths of Italy between 489 and 554. It contains a detailed examination of the personal details and biographies of 379 individuals and compares their behaviour with ideological texts of the time. This inquiry suggests wholly new ways of understanding the appearance of barbarian groups and the end of the western Roman Empire, as well as proposing new models of regional and professional loyalty and group cohesion. In addition, the book proposes a complete reinterpretation of the evolution of Christian conceptions of community, and of so-called 'Germanic' Arianism.

Preface
Map of Ostrogothic Italy
List of rulers
Introduction: studying the barbarians in late antiquity
1. Ethnicity, ethnography and community in the fifth and sixth centuries
2. The Ravenna government and ethnographic identity: from civitas to bellicositas
3. Individual reactions to ideology. I: names, language and profession
4. Complementary and competing ideals of community: Italy and the Roman empire
5. Individual reactions to ideology. II: soldiers, civilians and political allegiance
6. Catholic communities and Christian empire
7. Individual reactions to ideology. III: Catholics and Arians
8. The origin of the Goths and Balkan military culture
Conclusion
Appendix 1: the inquiry into Gundila's property
Appendix 2: the Germanic culture construct
Appendix 3: archaeological and toponymic research on Ostrogothic Italy
Appendix 4: dress, hairstyle and military customs
Prosopographical appendix: a prosopography of the Goths in Italy, 489–554.

Subject Areas: Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], European history [HBJD]