Eurich, the leader of the Visigoths - friend or subject: the treaty of 475 in sources and historiography

The article is devoted to the treaty between the Roman Emperor Nepos and the leader of the Visigoths of Aquitaine Eurich in 475 AD. Many researchers estimate this treaty as a mark of the disintegration of the Western Roman Empire, which had anticipated its downfall in 476 AD. It is thought as the formal granting of independence to the Visigoths in Aquitaine and, as a result, the creation of their kingdom. It seems that the opinion of the researchers is influenced by mythology plot linked to the fall of the Roman Empire. So, it means an incorrect interpretation of written sources. The article attempts to research the treaty of 475 AD in terms of historical anthropology. It describes the features of thinking as the author of the written source, as the main actors of negotiations. Anthropological criticism of the source and comparison of the positions of the existing tradition of research allows to make suggestions about the most likely causes of negotiations, their nature and outcome. In particular, it is the local nature of the subject of the negotiations related to a specific incident. The specific of the source hyperbolized the importance of the treaty of 475 AD. The meaning of the address as a "friend" by the Emperor to the leader of the Visigoths is examined and the fallibility of its interpretation as the term for the legal equality of the parties is proved. Assumptions are made concerning the vision of the present and future relations between the imperial government and the Visigoths by Nepos and Eurich. The source should be understood as the following: about 475 AD the embassy of Ligurian nobility was sent to Eurich to resolve the controversy between him and Emperor Nepos on the new administrative boundaries. The head of this embassy Epiphanius spoke on behalf of the Emperor, he emphasized his authority. Consent of Eurich not to break the new boundaries automatically meant the recognition of the legitimacy of authority and orders of Nepos. So, it was a treaty between Eurich and the Empire in the end, but mediated by local interests. For Eurich the legitimation of his actions in Gaul by the Emperor was most important. The Embassy of Epiphanius was the signal of such legitimation: Nepos had seen Eurich as an official with the appropriate status. The only fact of the embassy, negotiations and agreements with the Emperor turned Eurich from a marginal troublemaker to the ordinary imperial ruler of the province in the system of imperial ideology. Accordingly, all his and his colleagues' actions in Gaul were legalized in hindsight. They were rehabilitated in the eyes of the imperial justice, regaining the status of subjects -which probably was much more important and desirable for them than the status of friends at the moment.

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