Waiting for the barbarians: the frontiers of the Ostrogothic Kingdom during the reign of Theoderic
From Firenze University Press Book: Carolingian Frontiers: Italy and Beyond
Marco Cristini, University of Florence
During Antiquity, the defence of Italy’s land borders represented an essential necessity for achieving a stable control of the peninsula, especially from the second half of the fifth century onwards, when the Alps once again marked the border between the Roman world and territories occupied by populations that were regarded as barbarians. The gradual transition from the imperial hegemony to a multipolar international order that occurred in Europe during these years was accompanied by the appearance of new political entities (e.g. the kingdoms of the Franks, Visigoths, Burgundians, Gepids), which were based in the former provinces of the empire and often had little internal cohesion, a feature that made it more difficult to prevent attacks and incursions through diplomatic initiatives. The risks arising from this situation became evident between 489 and 493, during the conflict between Odoacer and Theoderic when, in the space of four years, the Alps were crossed by Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Burgundians, not to mention the smaller contingents of other peoples that probably took part in the conflict. After defeating his rival, Theoderic gradually consolidated his power through military and political initiatives aimed at securing the support of the senatorial aristocracy and of the Italian population3. One of the pillars of Theoderic’s political programme was the defence of Italy from the peoples living beyond the Alps who, in recent decades, had represented a factor of increasing insecurity, especially for the inhabitants of Northern Italy. The military dimension of the defence of the Italian borders was soon complemented by a careful political communication strategy, which made use of traditional concepts such as the savage barbarian or the soldiers considered as the shield of Italy, and by a set of administrative measures, which enabled Theoderic’s troops effectively to guard the main strongholds of the Alpine border. This paper will examine the borders of the Ostrogothic Kingdom in the light of these three perspectives (i.e. from a military, administrative, and ideological point of view) by focusing on a few letters taken from Cassiodorus’ Variae. Before proceeding further, however, a brief contextualisation of this work is in order. The Variae is a collection of 468 letters, edicts and formulas written by Cassiodorus on behalf of the Ostrogothic rulers between 507 and 537/538, when he left the Court. Cassiodorus had probably already started collecting the letters that he considered most significant during the last years of his public activity and circulated his collection before the conquest of Ravenna by Belisarius (540). Recently, there has been a lively debate on the circumstances leading to the publication of the Variae. It has been suggested that Cassiodorus worked on his collection of letters while living in Constantinople after 540 and that he edited several documents to facilitate his return to the political fray in either Italy or Byzantium4. However, these conjectures do not take into due consideration both Cassiodorus’ will to devote himself entirely to the writing of religious works after leaving the Court of Ravenna, and the preface of the Variae, from which it can be deduced that Cassiodorus’ main intention was to stress the fundamental political importance assumed by the rhetoric and style in the Ostrogothic Kingdom, as argued by Giardina5. It is highly unlikely that Cassiodorus made major revisions of several letters by altering official documents with the aim of obtaining personal advantages, which are incompatible with what all of his works written after 538 unanimously state, namely that he regarded his public career as something shameful and only desired to seek salvation by turning to Christ6. Therefore, it is conceivable that the letters included within the Variae are mostly a faithful transcription of the royal correspondence, and Cassiodorus’ revisions concern almost only the exclusion of those formulaic expressions that opened and closed each document, as well as (in some cases) the names of the persons mentioned in the letters.
DOI: 10.36253/979–12–215–0416–3.07
Read Full Text: https://books.fupress.it/chapter/waiting-for-the-barbarians-the-frontiers-of-the-ostrogothic-kingdom-during-the-reign-of-theoderic/15100
