Goths And Gothic Identity In The Ostrogothic Kingdom 211
Theoderic ravaged Thrace in 486 and a year later marched on Constantinople.38
In circumstances that are not clear, Zeno and Theoderic arrived at a mutually
beneficial arrangement whereby the Goths would wrest control of Italy from
Odovacer and rule there in some capacity in the emperor’s stead.39 Zeno was
spared the continued nuisance of the Goths, and Theoderic avoided the risks
of a struggle against a more powerful rival and gained the opportunity to estab-
lish his own kingdom in a less dangerous part of the world. Theoderic and his
following struck out for Italy in 488.40
But who went with him? This is yet another flashpoint of debate. Was it just
Theoderic and his army that went to Italy or were there warriors accompanied
by women, children, and non-combatants, a group of perhaps 100,000 people?41
The answer has considerable implications for how one envisions the place
of the Goths in Italian society. Without families of their own, Gothic warriors
would have intermarried with the indigenous population, an action that would
have quickly blurred the lines between Goths and Italians. Evidence for this is
yielded by a few prosopographical examples of such intermarriage.42 At least
one influential commentator has considerable doubts that Theoderic brought
with him a large immigrant population.43 The picture of an entire people
on the move comes from Procopius, an East Roman historian writing 60 years
after the fact, whose account, it is argued, is inflected by an ethnographic
migration trope and is not to be trusted. Further, building upon the arguments
of Walter Goffart, who suggested that Theoderic did not grant his Goths a
third of Italian lands but actually a third of tax revenues, it is held that Goths
then bought land throughout the peninsula where they ensconced themselves
38 Theoderic in the Balkans: Malchus, frags.
39 Count Marcellinus, Chronicle s.a. 489; Malalas, Chronographia 15.9; Anonymus Valesianus
49; Procopius, Wars 5.1.10–11; Ennodius, Panegyric 6.25; Evagrius, Historia Ecclesiastica
3.27; Theophanes, AM 5977; John of Nikiu, Chronicle 115; Fredegar, Chronicle 2.5.7.
40 For the journey to Italy: Wolfram, Goths, pp. 279–81; Heather, Restoration of Rome, ch. 1.
41 Halsall’s chapter in this volume also addresses this question. Population based on Malchus
frag. 17 f (Blockley 18.4.20); John of Antioch frag. 211; Burns, “Calculating Ostrogothic
Population”; Moorhead, Theoderic, pp. 66–8; Wolfram, Goths, p. 279; Heather, “Merely an
Ideology?”, pp. 36–40; Schäfer, “Probleme”, pp. 182–3.
42 Cassiodorus, Variae 5.32 shows two instances of Gothic men marrying Italian women:
Brandila and Procula and Patza and Regina. Though, it must be said that the Roman
identity of these women and the Gothicness of their husbands is conjectural and based
on assumptions about those bearing Roman and Germanic names. See Bjornlie, “Law,
Ethnicity and Taxes”.
43 Amory, People and Identity.