Deconstructing Gothic Identity

Amy Paterson

Date of Award

2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Rohrbacher, David

Keywords

Goths, Jordanes, Wulfila, Ostrogoths, Gothic Language, Late Antiquity, Skeireins

Area of Concentration

Foreign Languages and Literature

Abstract

From the third to sixth centuries the Goths were an important power in the Roman world. They participated in two of the most disastrous losses for the Roman Empire and also established two kingdoms within the empire. Historians have linked these disruptions as well as the Roman military's dependence upon Gothic recruits to the decline of the Roman Empire and the rise of medieval society. Because of the significance of the Goths' role in the late empire, we know more about them than other contemporary barbarian groups, but our sources remain few. Ancient and modern historians alike have constructed Gothic identity as fixed and separate from Roman identity, when in fact it was sometimes difficult to differentiate the two. Gothic identity should be reinterpreted in light of these difficulties. In this thesis I reassess the three major aspects of their identity � history, religion, and language � and discuss how what evidence we have concerning these aspects are problematic for determining who the Goths were. The first chapter focuses on the Gothic history of Jordanes, the second on the Gothic bishop Wulfila and the Arian religion, and the third on the Gothic language.

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