Goths And Gothic Identity In The Ostrogothic Kingdom 209
under Hunnic control was settled in Roman Pannonia under the leadership of
Theoderic’s uncle Valamer.27 These people had retained a distinct Gothic iden-
tity under Hunnic domination and reasserted it once in Roman lands. They
were by no means homogenous, however.28 Valamer’s following consisted of
various Gothic and barbarian warbands whom he united under his leadership.
Gothic was the identity of both the ruling elite and the majority, but many
retained their own separate identities (Hun, Alan, etc.) or later changed their
identities to become Goths.29 Over the next three decades, these Pannonian
Goths fought with and against the emperors, and variously sought their favour
and concessions.30
Valamer’s group also competed with another large group of Goths in Thrace
who had been part of the eastern Roman military apparatus for decades.31
This group served and sometimes sought exactions from the emperor, but
generally enjoyed better relations with the empire than did the Pannonian
Goths. To strengthen their own position, the emperors Leo and Zeno pitted
the two Gothic groups against each other, and in 483/4, in a move motivated
by mutual self-preservation, the two Gothic groups merged under the lead-
ership of Theoderic the Amal.32 Before their unification the two groups had
had separate histories for at least several generations, and potentially for
centuries.33 It is their union that marks the emergence of the Ostrogoths that
would eventually conquer Italy. Before this time, it is anachronistic to refer
to this particular group as the Ostrogoths, though Jordanes’ neat Ostrogoth/
Visigoth division has been so influential that many historians project it into
the past.34 It has also been suggested that more than material calculation
and immediate advantage motivated the merging of the two large and inde-
pendent Pannonian and Thracian Gothic groups. Either group, especially the
Thracians, might have melted back into the imperial military establishment,
but chose perhaps a riskier path that preserved their autonomy as a Gothic
political unit. The operation of an active and shared sense of Gothicness might
27 Heather, “Gens and Regnum”.
28 Moorhead, Theoderic, p. 20.
29 That the majority had Gothic identities: Heather, Goths and Romans, ch. 7–9; Wolfram,
Goths, p. 300.
30 Pannonian Goths: Jordanes, Getica 262 f.; Valamer: Getica 199–200, 252–3; Romana 331, ed.
Mommsen.
31 Thracian Goths: John of Antioch: frags., ed. Roberto; Malchus, frags., ed. Blockley.
32 For a fuller account, Heather, Goths and Romans, part III; id., Restoration of Rome, ch. 1.
33 id., Restoration of Rome, p. 99.
34 For the terms ‘Ostrogoth’ and ‘Visigoth’ and their use or non-use by those eponymous
groups, Gillett, “Jordanes and Ablabius”, appendix.