Romans, Barbarians, and the Transformation of the Roman World: Cultural Interaction and the Creation of Identity in Late Antiquity

400 Pages·2011·52 MB·English

by  Ralph W. Mathisen

Romans, BaRBaRians, and the
tRansfoRmation of the Roman WoRld
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Romans, Barbarians, and the
transformation of the
Roman World
Cultural interaction and the Creation of identity in
late antiquity
Edited by
Ralph W. mathisen
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

and
danuta shanzeR
Universität Wien, Austria
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
© Ralph W. mathisen, danuta shanzer and contributors 2011
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise
without the prior permission of the publisher.
Ralph W. mathisen and danuta shanzer have asserted their right under the Copyright, designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
published by
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Romans, barbarians, and the transformation of the Roman world: cultural interaction and the creation
of identity in late antiquity.
1. Rome – Civilization – Foreign influences – Congresses. 2. Rome – History – Empire, 284–476
– Congresses. 3. social change – Rome – history – Congresses.
i. mathisen, Ralph W., 1947– ii. shanzer, danuta. iii. shifting frontiers in late antiquity Conference
(6th: 2005: University of Illinois)
937’.08–dc22
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Biennial Conference on Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity (6th: 2005: University of Illinois (Urbana-
Champaign campus))
Romans, barbarians, and the transformation of the Roman world: cultural interaction and the creation
of identity in late antiquity / edited by Ralph W. mathisen and danuta R. shanzer.
p. cm.
Papers originally delivered at the 6th Biennial Conference on Shifting Frontiers of Late Antiquity,
held at the university of illinois, urbana-Champaign, in mar. 2005. includes index.
ISBN 978-0-7546-6814-5 (hardcover: alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-4094-1243-4 (ebook)
1. Rome – Civilization – Congresses. 2. Rome – Civilization – Foreign influences – Congresses. 3.
Rome – History – Empire, 284–476 – Congresses. 4. Immigrants – Rome – Congresses. 5. Aliens
– Rome – Congresses. 6. Acculturation – Rome – Congresses. I. Mathisen, Ralph W., 1947– II.
shanzer, danuta. iii. title.
dG272.B47 2010
937’.08–dc22
2010021523
ISBN 9780754668145 (hbk)
ISBN 9781409412434 (ebk)
V
Contents
List of Figures and Table ix
Abbreviations xiii
Notes on Contributors xv
introduction 1
Ralph W. Mathisen, Danuta Shanzer
PART I: ConsTRuCTIng ImAges of The ImPACT AnD IDenTITy
of BARBARIAns
A. Literary Constructions of Barbarian Identity
1 Catalogues of Barbarians in late antiquity 17
Ralph W. Mathisen
2 augustine and the merciful Barbarians 33
Gillian Clark
3 Reguli in the Roman empire, late antiquity, and the early medieval
Germanic Kingdoms 43
Steven Fanning
4 Were the sasanians Barbarians? Roman Writers on the “empire of the
persians” 55
Scott McDonough
5 A Roman Image of the “Barbarian” Sasanians 67
Jan Willem Drijvers
B. Political and Religious Interpretations of Barbarian Activities
6 Banditry or Catastrophe?: History, Archaeology, and Barbarian
Raids on Roman Greece 79
Amelia Robertson Brown
7 John Rufus, timothy aelurus, and the fall of the Western Roman
empire 97
Edward Watts
vi Romans, Barbarians, and the Transformation of the Roman World
C. Imperial manipulation of Perceptions of Barbarians
8 Imperial Religious Unification Policy and its Divisive Consequences:
diocletian, the Jews, and the samaritans 109
Yuval Shahar
9 hellenes, Barbarians, and Christians: Religion and identity politics
in diocletian’s Rome 121
Elizabeth DePalma Digeser
10 Barbarians as spectacle: the account of an ancient “embedded
Reporter” (Symm. Or. 2.10–12) 133
Cristiana Sogno
PART II: CuLTuRAL InTeRACTIon on The RomAn/BARBARIAn
fRonTIeRs
A. Becoming Roman: movements of People across the frontier and the
effects of Imperial Policies
11 the ius colonatus as a model for the settlement of Barbarian
prisoners-of-War in the late Roman empire? 147
Cam Grey
12 Spies Like Us: Treason and Identity in the Late Roman Empire 161
Kimberly Kagan
13 the “Runaway” avars and late antique diplomacy 175
Ekaterina Nechaeva
B. Becoming Roman: social and economic Interchange
14 Captivity and Romano-Barbarian interchange 185
Noel Lenski
15 Barbarian Raiders and Barbarian peasants: models of ideological
and economic integration 199
Hartmut Ziche
C. A new era of Accommodation
16 Kush and Rome on the Egyptian Southern frontier: Where Barbarians
Worshipped as Romans and Romans Worshipped as Barbarians 223
Salim Faraji
Contents vii
17 petra and the saracens: new evidence from a Recently discovered
epigram 233
Jason Moralee
18 elusive places: a Chorological approach to identity and territory
in Scythia Minor (Second–Seventh Centuries) 241
Linda Ellis
19 Barbarian Traffic, Demon Oaths, and Christian Scruples (Aug.
Epist. 46–47) 253
Kevin Uhalde
PART III: CReATIng IDenTITy In The PosT-RomAn WoRLD
20 Visigothic settlement, Hospitalitas, and army payment
Reconsidered 265
Andreas Schwarcz
21 Building an ethnic identity for a new Gothic and Roman nobility:
Córdoba, 615 AD 271
Luis A. García Moreno
22 Vascones and Visigoths: Creation and transformation of identity in
northern spain in late antiquity 283
Scott de Brestian
23 identity and ethnicity during the era of migrations and Barbarian
Kingdoms in the light of archaeology in Gaul 299
Patrick Périn, Michel Kazanski
24 text, artifact, and Genome: the disputed nature of the anglo-
saxon migration into Britain 331
Michael E. Jones
PART IV: ePILogue: moDeRn ConsTRuCTIons of BARBARIAn
IDenTITy
25 auguste moutié, pioneer of merovingian archaeology, and the
Spurlock Merovingian Collection at the University of Illinois 343
Bailey Young, Barbara Oehlschlaeger-Garvey
Index 359
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list of figures
6.1 The central area of late Roman Corinth, courtesy American School
of Classical studies excavations at Corinth. 86
6.2 A late nineteenth-century portrayal of a skin-clad Alaric in Greece:
“alaric at athens,” by ludwig thiersch, from John h. haaren, a.B.
poland, Famous Men of the Middle Ages (New York/Cincinnati/
Chicago, 1904). 91
15.1 “plomb de lyon,” the lead proof of a non-extant gold medallion
showing barbarian families entering the Roman empire at mainz. 206
18.1 Map of Scythia Minor showing Greek and Roman cities and major
trade routes. 244
23.1 Černjahov culture and the find spots of combs of Thomas III type
associated with the Černjahov culture: M. Kazanski, in M. Larrieu,
La nécropole mérovingienne de La Turraque, Beaucaire-sur-Baïse
(Gers) (Toulouse, 1985), p. 268. 301
23.2 a typical representation of the movements of a supposedly culturally
homogeneous Vandal people during the course of their travels over
hundreds of years and thousands of miles: p. périn, “archéologie
et art des Vandales,” in Encyclopaedia Universalis (1989), at
http://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/X927802/Vandales_
aRCheoloGie_et_aRt_des.htm, accessed 2 august 2010. 303
23.3 funerary artifacts from the grave of a Visigothic woman from the
cemetery at duraton: a. molinero-perez, La necropolis visigoda de
Duraton (Segovia) (Madrid, 1948), pl. 27. 307
23.4 inscribed lance head from Bourges, with legends “Regius” and
“Patricius”; late fifth century: Pierre Bailly, “A propos d’une
mention de ‘patrice’ dans une sépulture du Ve siècle à Bourges,” in
Actes du XLIIIe Congrès de la Fédération des sociétés savantes du
Centre (Guéret, 6, 7 et 8 mai 1983) = Etudes creusoises 5 (1984):
39–43, at p. 40. 309
23.5 findspots and appearance of military belts from the second half
of the fourth century: h.-W. Böhme, Germanische Grabfunde des
4. bis. 5. Jahrhunderts zwischen unterer elbe und loire, vol. 2
(Munich, 1974), map 11. 311
23.6 Example of deformed skull, Saint-Prex (Switzerland): R.
moosbrugger-leu, Die Schweiz zur Merowingerzeit, 2 vols. (Bern,
1971), 2.11. 313