Barbarians societies, Late Antiquity, Ethnogenesis, Funerary World, Goths, Vandals, Sueves, Alans

Procopius's Secret History has attracted the attention of a generation of social historians. Yet, the significant, albeit subtler ways, in which gender colors Procopius’s most significant work, the Wars, has received far less notice. Seeking to address this imbalance, the present study examines how gender shapes Procopius’s presentation of the Goths, East Romans, and Italo-Romans in his Wars. Rather than uncovering the Goths, East Romans, and Italians “as they really were,” this paper seeks to unearth some of the purpose and reasoning behind Procopius’s gendered depictions and ethnicizing worldview. A careful investigation of Procopius’s discussions about the manly and unmanly provides crucial insights into not just the larger narrative but also the historian’s knotty authorial agenda. Despite the Gothic War’s reliance on classical ethnic and gender patterns, Procopius did not compose his history in a vacuum. Indeed, the gendered discourse, which undergirds much of the Wars, must be understood within the broader context of the political debates reverberating around the late antique Mediterranean at a time when control of Italy from Constantinople was contested.

The purpose of the present study is to describe the struggle against paganism and pagan survival in Spain up to the fall of the Visigothic kingdom in 712. By paganism is here meant not only the worship of the pagan gods, but also the practices associated with pagan worship, such as astrology and magic. An attempt will be made to show the part that political, social and religious factors played in pagan survivals as well as to point out the various manifestations of paganism. This study, it is hoped, will throw light upon a phase of early Spanish history that has not hitherto been adequately treated. It will enable the reader to compare the paganism of Spain with that found in Africa, France, Germany and Italy, in as far as the extant sources and modern studies make such comparison possible.

The paper asks the question what the Romans really meant, when the used the term "barbarian". The evidence shows that the Romans had been often uneasy with this greek word, as in the end they themselves would be Barbarians, too. Further, the paper focuses also on the non-biological (or even "racial") approach of the Romans. Barbarians can become citizens, if they accept Roman paideia and a cultural set of Romanitas. The Dacians and Tracians are used in this context as examples from a rather neglected zone of the Empire.

From "The English Historical Review", 115, no. 463 (2000), p. 1093: In a rigorous and minute analysis of the much debated appearance (unique of its kind) of the temr 'romani' in a Lombard document of 767, A. Ghignoli argues convincingly that it resalts, in fact, from a mistranscription by the baffled tweltfth-century notary responsible for the copy in wich the document survives of the contextually much more fitting word 'massari'.

During the first decades of the 21th century the study of the Migration period continues to develop under the dictate of presupposed theories and stereotypes. Because since the very beginning the Migration period has been studied by the means of the political, military and/or ecclesiastical history, the history of the economy remained underestimated in the explanation of the complex processes that formed the medieval world. At the other hand this has left broad space for the archaeological research, whose studies recently outlined a situation that is somehow different from the paradigms of the written sources.
This paper will argue that the existing economic models that were crashed and transformed in the Migration period have not been static but flexible and varied greatly. The opposition “antique-barbaric” and “sedentary-nomad” has traditionally directed the discussion concerning the interaction between the Romans and the Goths and the Goths and the East nomad tribes (Reitervölker). One of the main obstacles to the development of the methodology of the study of the migration processes is the predetermined definition that the economy of the tribes in North Pontic steppe zone prior the Hunnish invasion were generally agricultural one and after the beginning of their migrations towards the Roman empire they tried to continue this economic model. The archaeological evidences and especially in the case of the Ostrogoths however firmly reject such preposition. The main source for the Gothic material culture of 5th and 6th cc remained the grave finds. The complex of Ostrogothic finds (or finds of Ostrogothic type) from Pannonia, the Balkans and Italy originates mainly from single graves or graves constituting very small cemeteries. The complexes usually are located near major roads and some visible markers as ancient cemeteries. This assumes some kind of mobility of culture as some members of the Ostrogothic society preferred to live in motion, living of some kind of animal husbandry, probably transhumance. This kind of economy is vital to the geographical circumstances of the areas mentioned above and actually reflects the most outlined by the ancient and modern historians “Gothic” feature – the militancy and desire for robbery.

The major seven Latin chronicles of the 5th and 6th centuries provide 63 mentions about Vandalic Africa, between 429 and 534 AD. Their authors emphasize on five kinds of events: Vandalic conquest, relationship with the Roman emperors, Vandalic piratery, religious fact (with the prominent persecution of Huneric), and Justinian’s reconquista. The chroniclers have obviously selected events reflecting a conflictuous relationship with a destructor and persecutor people, and the fact that reconquering Africa closed a deplorable time. As a matter of fact, Latin chronicles seem to transmit the memory of a secular plague, assimiling African Romans with the Jewish people, prisoner of tyrants, and their recovered freedom as God’s plan.

This short essay (550 words) discusses the Lex Salica enacted by king Clovis of the Franks in 507. The articles themselves are used to underline the shift from Roman to Frankish law and the issues they address give us a glimpse of the identity that the Franks would provide to transform Gaul into Francia.

L’oeuvre d’Orose est une des multiples exemples à l’heure de parler de la vision que les Romains chrétiens avaient des barbares au Ve siècle. Ceux-ci sont indomptables, féroces et inhumains, mais pour Orose les barbares suivent le plan de Dieu, lequel se verra reflété dans le sac de Rome en l’an 410 AP. J.-C, interprété comme un avertissement pour faire prendre conscience aux Romains de la vérité chrétienne. Dans le barbaricum, au commencement du IVe siècle, on trouve quelques peuples converties au christianisme. Dans ce travail nous analyserons la conception romaine de la figure du barbare et les stratégies d’adaptation et assimilation religieuse qu’adoptèrent les deux peuples barbaro-chrétien, principaux acteurs des Histoires d’Orose : Les Goths et les Burgondes.

In 475 Clermont-Ferrand is besieged and Provence is invaded by the Goths. In a bid to liberate Provence, Graecus of Marseilles negotiates to surrender Clermont-Ferrand to the Goths, much to the dismay of Sidonius Apollinaris. The latter is Clermont's bishop and defender of the city, whose only choice resides in writing a letter to Graecus to convince him not to surrender his city. This short essay (1100 words) discusses Epistulae VII.VII in which the might of the Roman rhetoric and the feeling of a crumbling Roman world are laid out powerfully by Sidonius in his call for help against the barbarians.


When Justinian became the Eastern Roman Emperor in 527 and started reforming the state, not everybody welcomed these changes with open arms. Procopius of Caesarea in particular was fiercely against them and set about creating a pamphlet to highlight all the disasters these had caused to the empire. This short essay (549 words) discusses his Secret History which directly links contemporaneous upheavals with Justinian.

A. V. Mastykova, G. L. Zemtsov
A «princely» female burial in the Mukhino-2 settlement
from the Hunnic period in the upper reaches of the River Don
Abstract. This article focuses attention on female burial № 1 discovered in the multilevel
settlement of Mukhino-2 (Zadonsk District of the Lipetsk Region) on the left bank of the River Snova not far from the point where it flows into the River Don (Fig. 1). The burial
from Mukhino contained a striking range of grave goods: facings made of gold leaf of
various shapes and gold long beads; a metal lunular pendant, a mirror, a toilet set, tweezers
and a bracelet; an iron knife faced with embossed gold leaf; glass and amber beads
(Figs 3–4). A range of female jewellery of this kind complete with gold appliques would
have originated from the North Pontic region. The burial numbers among the «princely»
finds from the Hunnic period. The burial from the Mukhino-2 settlement can be dated to
either the end of the D2 period or to the beginning of the D2/D3 period of «barbarian»
European chronology, i.e. to approximately 430–450 AD. Anthropological examination of
the skeletal remains has revealed that they belong to a woman aged between 20 and 29.
The absence of any enamel hypolplasia of teeth shows that her childhood had been a fairly
prosperous one. Atomic absorption analysis made it possible to assume that the woman
had spent most of her life in rather arid landscapes. This is still the only «princely» burial
from the Hunnic period which has been found in the upper reaches of the Don. It substantially
changed our ideas about the spread of prestigious cultures centred on «leaders» of
the Untersiebenbrunn type.
Keywords: Hunnic period, Untersiebenbrunn horizon, «princely» female burial, Late
Classical centres of the North Pontic zone.

Sarmatian tamga-signs studied in three big contact zones: with Goths in Poland and Western Ukraine, with the tribes of upper Oka Basin near Moscow, with local population of Dacia before and after Roman invasion.
1. The Sarmatian tamgas on the Germanic ritual spears of the 2nd-3rd cc. CE is known in 17 points, mainly on the territory of Poland and the border areas of Ukraine (Fig. 1). Most of these finds were made in the basin of the Oder and its left tributaries (Fig. 2, Ns. 3-8) and in the upper reaches of the Vistula (Fig. 2, Ns. 9, 12, 16-17). Usually they were found in graves, they have different preservation. In 12 cases the tamgas of Sarmatian types are accompanied by runic texts, often with symbols of the sun and moon and ornaments. In Bozdanowo, a spear with tamga No 32 was stuck in the cut of the grave, point up. Voronyatov S.V. and Machinsky D.A. (2010, p. 66) offer three variants for the purpose of these spears: 1) magic weapons made by sorcerers; 2) these are the tops of battle banners; 3) these are items for counting the number of killed enemies. All these versions seem equally unlikely. 25 signs are known on the spears, there are usually identical to those of the nomads of the Middle Sarmatian Culture of the 1st – early 2nd cc. CE, for later time – only four (Ns. 24, 25, 28, 38) (Fig. 3). 89 % of the signs used by the Sarmatians BEFORE the appearance of the Germans in the area of residence of the Sarmatian nomads. Most of the types of tamg nomads were used by the Sarmatians of the Lower Don (7) and the Crimea (4) – the most remote territories from the Germans and there they were used by the local elite only. A special importance had the Sarmatian signs of the Lower Don: they are found in 10 points, and some signs are met three times (Gotland Island); tamgas Ns. 22, 24 are especially popular. Most of tamgas came to the Goths when they were still weak, and Sarmatian groups were very powerful. The Goths gained the right to use Sarmatian signs as allies and as a result of elite marriages. The version of S. V. Voronyatov about "trophy tamgas" has no historical analogues and is not supported by facts.
2. The Sarmatian tamgas in the late Dyakovo Culture (to the north, near Moscow) and partly in the early Moshchiny Culture (to the south, near Kaluga) in the Upper Oka Basin in Forest Zone (Fig. 4). Here the signs are represented on the bronze ornaments of women's costume (most often belts) and they appeared in the 2nd century AD. The most active tamgas' usage we see in Lukovnya I settlement. Probably, at first, the tamgas of the Sarmatians of the Bosporan Kingdom came to the north, and a little later, after the middle of the 2nd century AD, the tamgas of the Western Ukrainian nomads came to the south. These tamgas got to the deep regions of the Forest Zone together with the Sarmatian wives. The allied relations with the far northern tribes were needed by the Sarmatians to more reliably control the tributary tribes of the Forest-Steppe Zone.
3. The Sarmatian tamgas of the local population of Dacia. Usually the colleagues believe that such signs were used only before the occupation of this territory by Rome in 106 CE, but this cannot be accepted. The most important to clarify the situation of the settlement, where large series of signs are identified. The concentration of signs is marked between the Seret and Prut Rivers on the border with Sarmatian Steppes (Fig. 5). Almost all signs that are reliably associated with a specific region and period for Sarmatians are found in Poiana settlement. Here we see a wide variety of Sarmatian tamgas from the Lower Don up to the Western Ukraine, from the early 1st to the mid. 3rd cc. CE. Most often these tribes lived far from the borders of Dacia. The emergence of Sarmatian tamgas in Romania was the result of various types of contacts – the military alliances, the sedentarization of Sarmatian small groups, with Sarmatian wives, after trade and other reasons.
KEY WORDS: tamga-signs of Sarmatians, the 1st - 4th cc. CE, use by a neighbouring peoples, Goths, tribes of the upper Oka River, Dacians.
         
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS:
Fig. 1. German gala spears of the 2nd-3rd cc. CE with Sarmatian tamga-signs (based on: Yatsenko, Dobrzhanska, 2012, fig. 2-3; Voronyatov, 2014, fig. 8; 2015, fig. 2-3): 1 – Valle; 2 – Mos; 3 – Medow; 4 – Müunchenberg-Dahmsdorf; 5 – Jankowo; 6 – Bozdanowo; 7 – Wresńia; 8  – Zadowice; 9  – Strycowice; 10  – Rozwadów; 11  –  Suzyczno; 12  – Kamienica; 13  – Nedobjewicy; 14  – private collection (the find point is known approximately); 15  –  Mušov; 16  –  Podloduw; 17 – Gach.   
Fig. 2. The distribution area of German gala spears of the 2nd-3rd cc. CE with Sarmatian tamga-signs and distribution of their types in complexes (the map base: Voronyatov, 2015, fig.11).
Fig. 3. Forms of the identical marks on the German spears of the 2nd-3rd cc. CE: 1-45  – the “printed” forms of signs; A-E  – the groups of forms probably genetically related to each other.
Fig. 4. Sarmatian tamgas on the metal costume accessories of the Dyakovo and the early Moshchiny Cultures of the Upper Oka Basin of the 1st-4th cc. CE (the circles of dots are circled products with one row of punctures made by kapernick).
Fig. 5. The mains find points of Sarmatian tamgas from the Lower Danube Basin (the future Dacia Inferior) in Pre-Roman period  (based on: Voronyatov, 2014, figs. 4-6): 1-4  – the points are not specified; 5-6  – Dumbrava; 7  – Brad; 8  –  Synsimion; 9-22  – Poiana.

In 2006 and 2007 the expedition of the Department of Archaeology, University of Wrocław, has excavated
the multi-cultural site at Wrocław–Zakrzów. Among numerous features from different periods, four cremation graves of the
Przeworsk culture were found.
From the explored pit-graves we know very few pottery fragments. Most of the artifacts are typical for the beginning of stage
C of the Roman period. Probably we deal with the initial stage of cemetery, but the population moved away for unknown
reasons. The small necropolis found at the excavated site no 29 has practically no direct relations with the famous princegraves
from Wrocław–Zakrzów (it is 120 years younger). The new-found cemetery is connected to the northern part of the
Bystrzyca–Oława settlement region of the Przeworsk culture.

Abstract
This article examines the longstanding rivalry of Rome and Parthia, which began as an unintended consequence of Crassus’ decisive defeat at Carrhae in 53 BCE. It synthesizes the accounts and opinions of numerous Graeco-Roman writers from the Augustan Age to late antiquity in order to help illustrate the new and interconnected post-Carrhae world and its legacy. The rivalry of the Romans and Parthians became a primary focus of their foreign policies and drastically expanded their perceptions of the world in which they interacted. Even after the fall of the Parthians to the rebellious Sassanid Persians in the 220s CE, the Romans continued to find their three-century-long rivalry with the Parthians of interest and relevant to the changing world of late antiquity.

F. Cenerini - I. G. Mastrorosa (ed.), Donne, istituzioni e società fra tardo antico e alto medioevo, Lecce-Brescia, Pensa Multimedia, 2016  -  Collection of papers focusing on some aspects and historical events in order to ascertain the evolution of women’s attitudes and possibility of intervention in Late Antiquity as well as to demonstrate that through various methodological approaches, gender history can offer a pluralistic interpretation of society of such an important period of transition.

This article explores two late antique and early medieval texts: The Apocalypse of Peter, dated to about the second century CE, and the Apocalypse of Paul, dated to approximately the fourth century CE. I will examine the extant manuscript transmission of both texts in Latin, from the sixth century to about 1000 CE, in order to see how these texts circulated and why they gained the popularity that they did across the centuries. I will argue that the many versions of the texts were copied and used to different aims in different regions and times, according to the immediate needs and messages that the copyists wanted to convey to their readers.

This paper looks at the place of the sixth-century Byzantine general Narses (c. 480–573) in the history of Byzantine gender. Certainly, it has always been important for ancient and modern historians to emphasise Narses’ eunuchism. Indeed, for many modern scholars, Narses’ identity as a castrate has been more important for study than his military deeds and political achievements that proved ephemeral. For some, the presence of a eunuch in such an essential military role indicates a turning away from codes of generalship based on traditional martial courage and manliness. This paper questions such a view, suggesting that Byzantium had a much more flexible notion of eunuchs’ gender status than some recent scholarship allows. Indeed, it suggests that Narses fits into a continuing hegemony of traditional masculine values based on the supremacy of Byzantine men’s martial virtues.

The aim of this article is: on the one hand, to examine the state of research on the archaeological traces of the "princely costume" of the eastern Germanic or "ponto-Danubian" tradition at two fibulae of sheet metal from the first half and the middle of the 5th century on the territory of the Visigoth kingdom; on the other hand, to identify its repercussions in the "Hispano-Visigoth" costume of the so-called "middle class", with silver-plated fibulae of the second half of the 5th and the first half of the 6th century. We examined here the "princely" discoveries of the first half and the middle of the 5th century in Southern Gaul and Spain, as well as the most visible reminiscences of the "princely" eastern Germanic costume in the necropolis of the Hispano-Visigoth kingdom First of the middle 5th century and the first half of the 6th century. The female tombs of the Hispano-Visigoth kingdom containing fibulae in silver plate correspond to the notion so-called as "middle class". The question of the ethnicity of the porters of this costume is in this case totally relevant. Women's costumes, as an ethnographic index of traditional societies, are among the most stable. However, at the high social level, the costume resulting from an ethnographic tradition can also become an indication of belonging to the "ruling class". In this case, the costume of prestige, whatever its origins, sooner or later begins to be imitated by the "ordinary" population. The village communities of Visigoth Spain were predominantly Roman, then it can be concluded that the diffusion in this milieu of the "Barbarian" ponto-Danubian fashion shows the beginning of the fusion of the material culture of the Visigoths and Hispano-Romans. Identity is then used "at convenience", according to the socio-political context, both by the elites and by a large part of the Hispano-Roman population, to show their belonging to a specific social status and/or as a symbol of prestige and power.

This paper examines the potential historical value of the Nart Sagas, a cycle of North Cau-casian folk epics. It discusses the methodological problems in dating them, and especially in treating them as a corpus of entirely ancient date. In response, the author proposes the use of a 'rhizomatic' approach: treating the surviving sagas as unique, 'frozen' performances , which concentrate a number of strands, some of which may lead into other extant parallel texts. To test this theory, it is applied to a single saga, the tale of the hero Shoshlan's journey to the underworld, and this saga's apparent parallels with Sarmatian art and with early mediaeval Christian Apocalypse Literature. The paper concludes with a summary of how this method can be more widely applied, through the use of thematic analogy.

The Ossolineum bought the coin discussed in this article at the 58th auction of the Warsaw Numismatic Centre held on 8 November 2014. It was initially identifi ed as a Gothic imitation
of an aureus of Severus Alexander, most probably made in the Chernyakhiv culture. Only after close examination was it revealed that the coin had a runic inscription, which was part of the matrix and not carved on the coin. This means that it is the oldest known runic coin, as it should be dated to 271–332, whereas other runic coins or gold Scandinavian bracteates are dated no earlier than to the fi fth century AD. The authenticity of the specimen has been confirmed by microscopic examination, comparative analysis of other imitations, numismatic objects produced in an analogical method or style and metal analyses. Attempts to trace the provenance of the specimen failed. The meaning of the inscription cannot be ascertained. The discovery of runic signs on the coin has serious implications for our knowledge of ancient East Germanic peoples. It means that we have to
date the beginnings of Germanic coinage at least two  centuries earlier than has been accepted until recently. We must also accept that the links between the Baltic and Black Sea regions were very close.

This paper considers the case for there being settlements of Vandals in Late Antique Britain. It is proposed that the otherwise unknown personal name *Waendel could represent the ethnonym Vandal and, therefore toponyms derived from it could be settlements of Vandals, most probably from placements of Late Roman troops. Placenames of this type are located and a close relationship with the Roman road network and bridging points of rivers and other strategic locations is noted. The distribution is compared with that of other possible groups particularly the Suevi, Franks and Frisians.It is noted that each group has a distinct distribution. A final speculative comparisonwith names possibly derived from 'Ambros-' is made although again the distribution isquite different. Finally, the distribution of the possible 'Vandal' sites is noted as broadly
similar to that of 'early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries' and the earliest forms of 'Saxon'metalwork. Overall, a substantive case can be made for reassessing these toponyms asderived from the ethnonym 'Vandal' and the suggestion made that the Germanic incomers of the Late Antique period were far more mixed than is generally assumed.
A detailed gazetteer of the sites discussed is included.

Ever since Edward Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, barbarian migrations have loomed large in popular perceptions and scholarly discus-sions concerning ‘the Fall of Rome’. In particular, the arrival of Gothic tribes into Roman territory, crossing the Danube in 376, has usually been interpreted as the starting point of the ‘Great Migration Era’, eventually culminating in the end of western Roman emperorship a century later. However, the exact nature, organization, and aims of the Visigoths have been fiercely contested in the renewed surge of literature over the past decade debating the end of the Roman Empire. This piece will look at the different phases of the ‘genesis’ of the Visigoths and their itinerary, from their origins in the Balkans, to their uprising under Alaric, their move to Italy, and their eventual settlement in southwestern Gaul and Spain. We will see that these various episodes cannot be seen as the long trek of an ever-wandering mass of barbarian hordes, but rather the movements of an army constantly changing in composition due to political circumstances. The Visigoths only came into being as a force because of Roman power games, and were only able to forge a kingdom when the Empire became a failed state in its transalpine provinces long after their settlement.

Entre 260 et 363, les Romains développèrent des éléments de distinction pour construire leur identité face à un Autre appelé Barbare. Bien qu'officiellement opposé à la romanité, le Barbare pouvait y entrer en étant recruté dans l'armée romaine selon différentes modalités dépendant des conditions de sa rencontre avec l'Empire. De ce recrutement des Barbares naquit la notion de barbarisation. Se manifestant dans divers champs d'opérablilité, la barbarisation de l'armée romaine tardive fut un phénomène pluriel et inégal en fonction du champ étudié.

Mémoire de Master 2 - Pierrick GUEGAN, Septembre 2017.