Problems of Visigoth identity after death of Alaric

The article is devoted to the period of 410-415 in the history of the Goths and the Roman Empire, the period during whichthe formation of Visigoth identity and self-determination occurred in opposition to the empire. The contradictory policy of the emperorsdetermined the duality of the meaning of the barbarian troops in the empire. The variability of the imperial policy baffled leaders ofbarbarians, they had no time to adapt to change of course. It relates to Alaric to a large extent, at the same time he was the most famousand successful leader of Goths and disgraced captain of the Empire. Failure of Alaric's policy put his army on the brink of death,creating a historical alternative to the fate prepared under the late Roman Empire. The article analyzes the implementation of thisalternative policy of Athaulf, closest successor of Alaric. It shows lack of identity in this period of the Visigoths, the desire by allpossible means to identify with the empire. Despite the great importance of Alaric to the Visigoths, his aim was the Goths like a divisionof the Roman army, but integration into the army's elite was not achieved. Moreover, Alaric's attempts to find a way to agreement withthe emperor crashingly failed, giving the opposite effect. The emperor essentially forced Alaric to take Rome, which served aspropaganda for the benefit of the anti-barbarian party at the court and undermined the possibility of peaceful solution to the problem.Faced with the systematic exclusion of the empire, Alaric died and did not find a solution for himself and his troops. Therefore, hissuccessor had a more difficult task. Consequently, the analysis of the question of establishing the identity of the Visigoths in thebeginning of the 5th c. AD is impossible without attention to the situation after the death of Alaric in 410. Athaulf, despite the lesserdegree of Romanization and reverence to the Roman institutions - and perhaps precisely because of this - aimed at full integration ofthe Visigoths in the imperial structure, at the Visigoths' equality with the Romans in the empire on the basis of full acceptance of themechanisms of imperial operation through the marriage with Galla Placidia and the birth of a joint child, claiming the imperial title. Inthis case, the Visigoths overcame the traditional threshold between the Romans and barbarians, this opposition is deprived of meaning intheir relationship, they became the guarantors of the imperial principles and received an equal status to the Romans, in fact, identifiedwith the latter. However, this strategy was not supported both by Ravenna - the problem of the barbarians in power at this point wasextremely sharp and painful - and by the Goths. The threat to a complete dissolution and assimilation into the Roman environment hasno mass response in the Gothic mentality.

Keywords

Authors

References