People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489–554
People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489–554
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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.
- Challenges one of the last strongholds of implicit nationalist or racist thought in modern historical scholarship
- Tackles the barbarian question by looking at fascinating personal evidence, the most detailed body of evidence of its kind
- The first book in any language to focus exclusively on the history of Ostrogothic Italy
Product details
April 2011Adobe eBook Reader
9780511822612
0 pages
0kg
1 map
This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.
Table of Contents
- 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.
