Goths And Gothic Identity In The Ostrogothic Kingdom 225
Skeireins contains language of a more idiomatic nature, revealing that Gothic
was indeed a living language.124
Another important document is a Ravenna papyrus from 551 of two deeds
of sale from the cathedral of St Anastasia, part of the ecclesia legis Gothorum,
in which nineteen individuals are listed: fifteen with Germanic names and four
with Roman ones.125 Of these, four signed their names with Gothic characters,
while seven did so in Latin. Some might argue that the writing of Gothic letters
in a 6th-century context suggests that the Gothic language was not a relic of an
earlier period but a living attribute of Gothic culture.126 The counterargument
is that written Gothic was purely religious and ecclesiastical in nature, so it is
unremarkable that the signatories, being representatives of the Gothic church,
would employ their church’s archaic and institutional language.127
But who were the people who signed this document? Goths? Italo-Romans?
Both? Perhaps those with Germanic names were Gothic while those with Latin
ones were Romans.128 It has been pointed out, though, that it is exceedingly dif-
ficult to determine an individual’s ethnicity or group affiliation on the basis of
name alone.129 Recall the Gothic parents who gave their children Latin names.
But even if it is assumed that Germanic names denoted Gothicness, there are
still those with Germanic names who signed in Latin script, suggesting that
they did not know Gothic, or at least how to write it. This has ramifications
for those who associate that language with Gothic identity. Or perhaps those
Goths knew Gothic, but they were illiterate and Latin speakers wrote their
names for them. Additionally, given that this was an official document of the
Gothic church, does this suggest that all of the names belonged to Goths? If
not, that would mean that some of the signatories were Italo-Romans and yet
still belonged to the Gothic church. This raises questions about the nature of
the Gothic church, and what if anything it had to do with Gothic identity.
Gothic Christianity is classified as Arian, though its precise relationship to
the theology of Arius is unclear.130 What seems certain is that the Gothic creed
was a non-Nicene, Homoean form of Christianity deemed heretical by the
124 Green, “Linguistic and Literary Traces”, p. 393; Schäferdiek, “Kirchengeschichtliches”,
p. 447.
125 P. Ital. 34, in Tjäder, Die nichliterarischen, p. 102.
126 Luiselli, “Cassiodoro e la storia”, p. 230.
127 Amory, People and Identity, pp. 253–4.
128 Tjäder, Die nichliterarischen, p. 95.
129 Amory, People and Identity, pp. 251–74.
130 This study, though, at times refers to the Gothic church as Arian to reflect scholarly con-
ventions. See also Cohen’s chapter in this volume.