Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T07:02:13.395Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Ostrogothic Italy and the Lombard invasions

from PART I - THE SIXTH CENTURY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

Paul Fouracre
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
Get access

Summary

late antique italy

The situation of Italy during the period now often called ‘late antiquity’ was not always a happy one. The economy was in transition: the number of occupied rural sites began to fall in the third or even the second century, agri deserti were becoming a common feature of the landscape, and towns were losing population. The construction of urban public buildings, one of the distinguishing characteristics of classical civilisation, dried up, and in the early sixth century it was recognised that the population of Rome was much smaller than it had been. As Cassiodorus, a man with long experience in the civil service, wrote: ‘The vast numbers of the people of the city of Rome in old times are evidenced by the extensive provinces from which their food supply was drawn, as well as by the wide circuit of their walls, the massive structure of their amphitheatre, the marvellous bigness of their public baths, and the enormous multitude of mills, which could only have been made for use, not for ornament.’ The role Italy played in the economic life of the Roman Empire diminished, imported African pottery having come to dominate the Italian market as early as the second century, and its political fortunes were similar. While Rome remained for centuries the capital of a mighty empire, there were very few Italian emperors after the first century, and the advent of Constantinople as the ‘second Rome’ from the time of Constantine early in the fourth century saw the eastern and wealthier portion of the Empire become independent.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amory, P. (1997), People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, Cambridge
Anonymus Valesianus, ed. König, I., Aus der Zeit Theoderichs des Grossen: Einleitung, Text, Übersetzung und Kommentar einer anonymen Quelle, Darmstadt (1997)
Archi, G. (ed.) (1978), L’Imperatore Giustiniano: storia e mito: giornate di studio a Ravenna, 14–16 Ottobre 1976, Milan
Barnish, S. (1990), ‘Maximian, Cassiodorus, Boethius, Theodehad: literature, philosophy and politics in Ostrogothic Italy’, NMS 34Google Scholar
Barnwell, P. (1992), Emperor, Prefects and Kings: The Roman West, London
Bognetti, G. (1966–68), L’età Longobarda, 4 vols., Milan
Brown, T. S. (1984), Gentlemen and Officers: Imperial Administration and Autocratic Power in Byzantine Italy ad 554–800, London
Burns, T. (1984), A History of the Ostrogoths, Bloomington, IN
Cameron, Av. (1985), Procopius and the Sixth Century, London
Cassiodorus, , English trans. Barnish, S. J. B., Cassiodorus: Variae (Translated Texts for Historians 12), Liverpool (1992)
Cassiodorus, , Variae, ed. Fridh, Å. J. (CCSL 96), Turnhout (1973)
Chastagnol, A. (1966), Le Sénat romain sous le règne d’Odoacre: recherches sur l’épigraphie du Colisée au Ve siècle, Bonn
Christie, N. (1995), The Lombards, Oxford
Chrysos, E. and Schwarcz, A. (eds.) (1989), Das Reich und die Barbaren, Vienna
Croke, B. (1983), ‘The context and date of Priscus fragment 6’, Classical Philology 78Google Scholar
Delogu, P., Guillou, A. and Ortalli, G. (1980), Longobardi e bizantini (Storia d’Italia 1), Venice
Durliat, J. (1981), Les Dédicaces d’ouvrages de défense dans l’Afrique byzantine, Paris
Ensslin, W. (1947), The oderich der Grosse, Munich
Gïardina, A. (ed.) (1986), Società Romana e imperio tardoantico, 4 vols.: i: Istitutioni, ceti, economie; ii: Roma: politica, economia, paesaggio urbano; iii: Le Merci, gli insediamenti; iv: Tradizione dei classici, trasformazioni della cultura, Rome and Bari
Goffart, W. (1980), Barbarians and Romans, A.D. 418–584: The Techniques of Accommodation, Princeton, NJ
Goffart, W. (1980), Barbarians and Romans ad 418–584: The Techniques of Accommodation, Princeton, NJ
Harrison, D. (1993), The Early State and the Towns: Forms of Integration in Lombard Italy, Lund
Hartmann, L. M. (1897), Geschichte Italiens im Mittelalter, Leipzig
Hessen, O. von (1983), ll materiale altomedievale nelle collezioni Stibbert di Firenze, Florence
Hodgkin, T. (1896), Italy and Her Invaders, iv and v, Oxford
Hudson, P. and Rocca, Hudson M. C. (1985), ‘Lombard immigration and its effects on north Italian rural and urban settlement’, in Malone, C. and Studdart, S. (eds.), Papers in Italian Archaeology, iv. 4: Classical and Medieval Archaeology, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Menis, G. C. (ed.) (1990), I Longobardi, Milan
Menis, G. C. (ed.) (1991), Italia Longobarda, Venice
Meyer-Flugel, B. (1992), Das Bild der ostgotisch-römischen Gesellschaft bei Cassiodor, Berne
Moorhead, J. (1992), Theoderic in Italy, Oxford
Stein, E. (1949), Histoire du Bas-Empire, ii, Paris and Bruges
Stroheker, K. F. (1965), Germanentum und Spätantike, Zurich and Stuttgart
Sundwall, J. (1919), Abhandlungen zur Geschichte des ausgehenden Römertums, Helsinki, Lund and Stockholm
Tonnies, B. (1989), Die Amalertradition in den Quellen zur Geschichte der ostgoten Untersuchungen zu Cassiodor, Jordanes, Ennodius und den Excerpta Valesiana, Hildesheim
Ward-Perkins, B. (1984), From Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages: Urban Public Building in Northern and Central Italy ad 300–850, Oxford
Wenskus, R. (1961), Stammesbildung und Verfassung:Das Werden der frümittelalterlichen Gentes, Cologne
Wes, M. A. (1967), Das Ende des Kaisertums im Westen des römischen Reichs, The Hague
Wickham, C. (1981), Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society, London
Wolfram, H. (1988), History of the Goths, trans. Dunlap, T. J., Berkeley, CA
Wolfram, H. and Schwarcz, A. (eds.) (1988), Anerkennung und Integration: Zu den wirtschaftlichen Grundlagen der Völkerwanderungzeit (400–600) (Denkschriften der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, phil.-hist. Kl. 193, 201), Vienna

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×