Introduction 5
Ostrogoths: From the Migration Period to the Sixth Century (2007), offer impor-
tant insights into specific debates and topics, including the economy and
settlement archaeology of Ostrogothic Italy. Moreover, there are a number of
excellent monographs on the period, which provide what our volume does
not: the complete social, religious, and political narrative. Broad studies of
Ostrogothic political and military history include H. Wolfram, History of the
Goths (1979), T. Burns, History of the Ostrogoths (1984), P. Heather, The Goths
(1996), and most recently G. Halsall, Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West
(2007). Additionally, readers may turn to more focused studies on these topics,
such as J. Moorhead, Theoderic in Italy (1992). Important work has also been
done on the period’s Christian ecclesiastical and cultural developments, from
the relevant chapters in J. Richards, Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle
Ages (1979) to T. Sardella, Società, chiesa, e stata nell’età di Teodorico (1996), and
J.J. O’Donnell, Cassiodorus (1979), which also offers extensive treatment of the
period’s intellectual history. P. Amory, People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy
(1997) is a sophisticated treatment of Ostrogothic social history, which further
engages with the thorny issues of ethnicity and identity. And finally, for a nar-
rative of the Gothic War (535–54), one may still fruitfully consult volume 4 of
T. Hodgkin’s Italy and Her Invaders (1880–99) and the more abridged account
in J. Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire (1923).
In contrast to these foundational specialist studies and comprehensive nar-
rative histories, the present volume offers a broader range of topics than pre-
vious collected editions. It also extends consideration of these topics beyond
many of the previously mentioned specialized studies. The following contribu-
tions present entirely new approaches to Ostrogothic history (e.g. Squatriti’s
chapter on Ostrogothic environmental developments and Cohen’s chapter on
religious diversity), dedicated analyses of underexplored topics (e.g. Arnold’s
chapter on Ostrogothic provinces), and revisionist responses to traditional
questions, many of which continue to vex historians (e.g. Bjornlie’s and Sessa’s
respective discussions of the civil administration and Roman church). Most
significantly, many call for a shift in approach to the period of ca. 476–554,
from one oriented around a narrative of rise and fall to one that views the
Ostrogothic kingdom not as a discreet and well-defined historical period but as
a continuation and/or consequence of the policies, developments, and crises
of the late Roman Empire.
Readers, however, will not find complete consensus among the authors
on certain key matters of interpretation, particularly on the question of the
Ostrogothic kingdom’s historical connections with earlier practices and insti-
tutions. Given the discordant nature of Ostrogothic studies in general, such