[gothic-l] Amali insignia

[sunburst]

Hails Bertil!

Thank you for your kind reply.

>The custom of sealring was, however, Roman.
>
>Is it this type of royal insignia you are searching
>for in the case of the Amali?


I am familiar with Childeric's seal, but there seems to have been a Gothic
insignia as well.  In _History of the Goths_ Wolfram mentions such an
insignia several times: "The origin of the Ostrogoths had left traces not
only in the tribal memoria but also in their insignia" (337); "only part of
the royal treasure, such as the Codex Argenteus and the royal insgnia- must
have reached Pavia and Verona, in time, where it formed the core of a new
treasure" (351); Totila is described as "Clad in magnificent armor bearing
the royal insignia and seated on his splendid charger, he performed the
'djerid,' the artistic lance ride of the steppe nomads" (360); "Aligern
surrendered the city of Cumae to the imperial forces and relinquished the
royal insignia he had continued to guard even after the death of his
brother," (362).

I don't have _the Roman Empire and its Germanic Peoples_ with me, but there,
I believe that Wolfram indicates that the Amali used the Sassinid royal
insignia, which is supposedly a "crescent moon enclosed in a circle with
ribbons streaming on both sides."  It seems to reflect earlier the
Faravahar: a Zoroastrian symbol, which is a winged circle that reminds me of
the Gothic eagle fibulae, which is also a winged circle.  The main
difference is that the Faravahar has a man's upper body instead of an eagles
head on the top part of the central circle.

In Jordanes, the royal insgnia is mentioned at least twice:

"It appears that at the death of their king, Hermanaric, they [Ostrogoths]
were made a separate people by the departure of the Visigoths, and remained
in their country subject to the sway of the Huns; yet Vinitharius of the
Amali retained the insignia of his rule" (XLVIII-246) .

"Now when Valamir was dead, the Goths fled to Thiudimer, his brother.
Although he had long ruled along with his brothers, yet he took the insignia
of his increased authority and summoned his younger brother Vidimer and
shared with him the cares of war, resorting to arms under compulsion"
(LIV-278).

Stanko Guldescu writes about such an insignia in the History of Medieval
Croatia, the Hague, 1964.  I found this on the internet but I can't find the
link right now:

"On many shields found in Bosnia, and which antedate the Moslem conquest,
the typical device represented is that of the moon and star, the design
which appears on the shield of Theodoric and other Ostrogothic kings, as
well as on the mosaics that date from the period of Ostrogothic rule at
Ravenna. Also there is to be found on many of the oldest Bosnian gravestones
shields with this same device which was so popular among the Ostrogoths. The
German consul at Sarajevo in the last century was inspired by the noted
historian, Theodor Mommsen, to undertake a study of Bosnian antiquities. He
deduced a definite connection between the strange appearing Bosnian
tombstones and the Ostrogoths who ruled Bosnia and worked its mines from the
latter part of the fifth to at least the middle of the sixth century."

It seems safe to say that there was an Amali royal insignia.  There must
somewhere be either a primary source which descibes the composition of the
insignia in direct relation to the Goths, or a surviving artifact(s)
attributed to the Goths which bear a depiction of the insignia.  If anyone
knows of any such sources or artifacts, I would be most grateful.

Albareiks



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