People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489}}}554 [Paperback]

A new view of the Goths of Italy, challenging racist, nationalist assumptions about barbarian groups.The barbarians of the fifth and sixth centuries were long thought to be races, tribes or ethnic groups who toppled the Roman empire. This book proposes a new view, through a case-study of the Goths of Italy between 489 and 554. The author suggests wholly new ways of understanding barbarian groups and the end of the western Roman empire. The book also proposes a complete reinterpretation of the evolution of Christian conceptions of community, and of so-called 'Germanic' Arianism.The barbarians of the fifth and sixth centuries were long thought to be races, tribes or ethnic groups who toppled the Roman empire. This book proposes a new view, through a case-study of the Goths of Italy between 489 and 554. The author suggests wholly new ways of understanding barbarian groups and the end of the western Roman empire. The book also proposes a complete reinterpretation of the evolution of Christian conceptions of community, and of so-called 'Germanic' Arianism.The barbarians of the fifth and sixth centuries were long thought to be races, tribes or ethnic groups who toppled the Roman Empire. This book proposes a new view, through a case study of the Goths of Italy between 489 and 554. The author suggests wholly new ways of understanding barbarian groups and the end of the Western Roman Empire. The book also proposes a complete reinterpretation of the evolution of Christian conceptions of community, and of so-called Germanic Arianism.Preface; Map of Ostrogothic Italy; List of rulers; Introduction: studying the barbarians in late antiquity; 1. Ethnicity, ethnography and community in the fifth and sixth centuries; 2. The Ravenna government and ethnographic identity: from civitas to bellicositas; 3. Individual reactions to ideology. I: names, language and profession; 4. Complementary and competing ideals of community: Italy and the Roman empire; 5. Individual reactions to ideololÉ