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Waiting for the barbarians: the frontiers of the Ostrogothic Kingdom during the reign of Theoderic

  • Marco Cristini

Several letters written by Cassiodorus deal with Ostrogothic borders, describing the forts that guarded the Alpine passes, discussing the administration of frontier areas or lingering on the virtues and the vices of the people who inhabited them. The evidence provided by the Variae indicates that frontiers were a crucial part of the Ostrogothic Kingdom during the reign of Theoderic, not only because they were the gates of Italy and had to be garrisoned to prevent hostile incursions, but also because they became a cornerstone of his political communication, stressing the difference between “Romanized” Goths and the “savage” tribes who lived beyond the Alps.

  • Keywords:
  • 5th–6th centuries,
  • Italian frontiers,
  • Ostrogoths,
  • Theoderic,
  • Cassiodorus,
  • Variae,
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Marco Cristini

University of Florence, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-9629-5119

PDF
  • Publication Year: 2024
  • Pages: 81-94
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2024 Author(s)

XML
  • Publication Year: 2024
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2024 Author(s)

Chapter Information

Chapter Title

Waiting for the barbarians: the frontiers of the Ostrogothic Kingdom during the reign of Theoderic

Authors

Marco Cristini

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0416-3.07

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2024

Copyright Information

© 2024 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

Carolingian Frontiers: Italy and Beyond

Editors

Maddalena Betti, Francesco Borri, Stefano Gasparri

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

354

Publication Year

2024

Copyright Information

© 2024 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0416-3

ISBN Print

979-12-215-0415-6

eISBN (pdf)

979-12-215-0416-3

eISBN (xml)

979-12-215-0418-7

Series Title

Reti Medievali E-Book

Series ISSN

2704-6362

Series E-ISSN

2704-6079

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