[gothic-l] Re: Trailing the Eruli in the North

[troels_brandt]

--- In gothic-l at y..., "faltin2001" <dirk at s...> wrote:
.......
>
> Ok, that might be the case. However, on average I would not expect
to
> trail the path of a defeated and expelled group by the gold that
they
> carry.
>
> >
> > >
> > > Also, all gold denominations found in Scandinavia are from the
> > > Constantinopel mints - without a single execption. Since the
> Heruls
> > > are supposed to have come from Moravia, one would expect coins
> from
> > > western mints like Sirmium, but especially from Ravenna and
Rome,
> > as
> > > they used to be allied with the Ostrogoths.
>
>
>
> > Should Theodoric pay Roduulf to be his son-in-arms? The Heruls
were
> > mercenaries, when Odoaker became a king, and a coin with Odoaker
> > is found in King Ottars Mound in Uppland.
>
>
> Are you sure about this? The coins of Odoaker are excessively rare
> and all known pieces (only about 3 or 4 are in exsistence, are well
> recorded). Grierson & Blackburn (Early Medieval Coinage, vol.1)
know
> of no Odoaker half-siliqua from Sweden. In fact, only one single
> Ostrogothic coin has ever been found in Sweden (a very worn quarter-
> siliqua of Theoderic). Can you tell me more about this Odoaker-coin
> in Uppland please.
>
>
> You do not know from where
> > they got their tribute and mercenary wages in Moravia at a time
> > when Byzans was the great power in Europe.
>
>
> That might be true, but if Constantinopel-made coinage was flowing
to
> Moravia at that time - as wages or subsidies- I would have expected
> finds of such coins to emerge especially from these areas. In
> general, I said that I don't dispute the possibility of coin finds
> as support for a migration, but think that there are a number of
> problems with it as well.

Dirk,

The Odoaker-coin was my mistake reading "from Odoakers reign" as a
coin of Odoaker. However if we only know 4 coins from Odoaker, who
ruled Italy for 18 years, and we know a lot of solidi from his
superior Byzantine emperor, there is no reason to expect a majority
of Italian solidi among the Heruls in that period - and neither in
the first period of Theodoric as the Heruls had supported Odoaker. In
general it is a problem to use average as the only contra-argument
and in spite of the different Byzantine mints the argument seems to
be of limited value in this case.

Troels


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