Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of rulers
- Terminology and vocabulary
- List of abbreviations
- Map of Ostrogothic Italy
- Introduction: Studying the barbarians in late antiquity
- 1 Ethnicity, ethnography and community in the fifth and sixth centuries
- 2 The Ravenna government and ethnographic ideology: from civilitas 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: a translation and chronology
- Appendix 2 The Germanic culture construct
- Appendix 3 Archeological and toponymic research on Ostrogothic Italy
- Appendix 4 Dress, hairstyle and military customs
- Prosopographical Appendix: A prosopography of Goths in Italy, 489–554
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought Fourth Series
2 - The Ravenna government and ethnographic ideology: from civilitas to bellicositas
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of rulers
- Terminology and vocabulary
- List of abbreviations
- Map of Ostrogothic Italy
- Introduction: Studying the barbarians in late antiquity
- 1 Ethnicity, ethnography and community in the fifth and sixth centuries
- 2 The Ravenna government and ethnographic ideology: from civilitas 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: a translation and chronology
- Appendix 2 The Germanic culture construct
- Appendix 3 Archeological and toponymic research on Ostrogothic Italy
- Appendix 4 Dress, hairstyle and military customs
- Prosopographical Appendix: A prosopography of Goths in Italy, 489–554
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought Fourth Series
Summary
The government of Theoderic propagated a stylized ideology of professional identity that used the vocabulary and assumptions of classical ethnography. It was a means of conceptualizing and therefore ordering Italian society along ethnographic lines for the purpose of achieving a consensus of governance among the settlers and the indigenous population. This ideology was to affect both the social roles and the behavior of Theoderic's subjects. It functionally distinguished soldiers (Goths) from civilians (Romans), and philosophically attempted to influence the behavior of individuals thus labeled “Goth” or “Roman.” The philosophy of civilitas, two nations living together in peace but performing different functions, originated in the minds of Theoderic and of his advisers; it was innovative as a synthesis, but drew on earlier Roman ideas of law and ethnography. Civilitas ideology already existed in the 490s, soon after the conquest of Italy, and was thus not a product of the rhetoric of Cassiodorus or Ennodius, but of the king and the people around him throughout his reign.
Beginning in the 520s or earlier, this ideology appears less frequently in governmental sources. At the same period, Ravenna began to stress the history and characteristics of the Gothic people independent of Roman influence. This second approach would increase the distance between those whom the government defined as Goths and those whom it defined as Romans; it would also contribute to souring relations with Byzantium.
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- Chapter
- Information
- People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489–554 , pp. 43 - 85Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997