[gothic-l] Re: Christianisation of Crimean Goths

[dirk at SMRA.CO.UK]

Dear Andreas,

can I ask on what basis the statement that Gothic permanent settlement 
on the Crimean started only as late as the late 4th century (in 
connection with the Hunnic advance)? I know Heather and others agree 
with that, but I read in recent Russian archaeological articles that 
the Chernyakov-culture cemetaries on the Crimean (like Sevastopolskii 
Sovkhos, Belbek, Ai-todor, Chernaya reka, Chartirdag at the south 
coast of the Crimean) were mostly new graveyards that started in the 
mid 3rd-century. 

Similarly, one author Aleksandr Aibabin, also stated that the Germanic 
settlement of the Crimean peninsula started at the end of the first 
half of the 3rd century (ca. 250AD). In the 240s AD the Roman army 
withdrew from that area to defend the Danube frontier and the Raetian 
limes. 

cheers
Dirk





> Dear Andreas,
> 
> thanks a lot for this most detailed response. I knew already from 
one 
> of your articles that signs of permanent Gothic settlement on the 
> Crimean only start in the late 4th century. I have no reason to 
doubt 
> that, but it does create a problem for a certain, very rare coin 
> series which I am researching. 
> 
> These coins are imitations of a certain type of Roman denari and 
were 
> minted from the mid 3rd century to the late 4th century on the south 
> eastern Crimean. Russian authors traditionally attribute these coins 
> to the Goths.  The argument for the attribution of these coins to 
the 
> Goths rests mainly on the fact that these coins were introduced from 
> the west and were based on prototypes that have no predecessor in 
the 
> Black Sea area. The Bosporan kingdom never used Roman coins and 
> Bosporan coins are never found together with the coins in question.  
> 
> Interestingly, the latest group of these coins even show a clear 
cross 
> on the avers, indicating that the people who made these coins had 
> adopted  Christianity sometimes in the course of the 4th century. In 
> general, these coins are very enigmatic and only one illustration of 
> such a coin can be found in the entire western literature (while 
there 
> are a number or Russian articles on this series) I have about 20 of 
> these coins, bought in the Ukraine, where they are still found 
> regularly in the south eastern Crimean. 
> 
> At any rate, the information that you provided will seriously affect 
> my interpretation of these coins, which I am currently formulating 
in 
> an article. 
> 
> cheers,
> 
> Dirk
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --- In gothic-l at y..., andreas.schwarcz at u... wrote:
> > Dear Dirk,
> > This is what I wrote in my article "Cult and religion among the 
> > tervingi and the Visigoths and their conversion to Christianity" 
in: 
> > The Visigoths from the Migration Period to the Seventh Century, 
> > ed. Peter Heather. San Marino 1999, p.451 f.:
> > But we find already a bishop Theophilus of 
> > Gothia in the lists of this first oecumenical 
> > council, whom Socrates calls the teacher of 
> > Wulfila.(Patrorum Nicaenorum nominum LXIV 
> > (ed.Heinrich Gelzer, Heinrich Hilgenfeld, Otto 
> > Cuntz). Socrates, Historia ecclesiastica, 2, 41, 
> > 23.) This has been a point of discussion for a 
> > long time, because Philostorgios called Wulfila 
> > the first bishop of the Goths,(Philostorgios, 
> > Historia ecclesiastica, 2, 5.) which led Jacques 
> > Zeiller and Ludwig Schmidt to suppose the see of 
> > Theophilus in the Crimea, near Bosphoros and 
> > Chersonesos, a choice lately favoured also by 
> > Peter Heather.(Jacques Zeiller, Les origines 
> > chrétiennes dans les provinces danubiennes. 
> > Paris 1918, 409414. Ludwig Schmidt, Die 
> > Ostgermanen. Geschichte der deutschen Stämme bis 
> > zum Ausgang der Völkerwanderung 2. 2nd ed. 
> > München 1941, 233 f. Peter Heather, Goths and 
> > Romans. 332489. Oxford 1991, 93.) The 
> > traditional view, shared by Wolfram, was 
> > recently emphasized once again by Knut 
> > Schäferdiek, who also indicates that Theophilus' 
> > theological point of view may not have been 
> > totally different from Wulfila's, bearing in 
> > mind the developements after 325. He supposes 
> > Theophilus to have been a member of the broad 
> > socalled middle party around Eusebius of 
> > Nikomedia, finally sharing the chisological 
> > convictions of the second aantiochenian formula 
> > of 341.(Hippolyte Delehaye, Saints de Thrace et 
> > de Mésie. Analecta Bollandiana 31 (1912) 
> > 161300, esp.284 f. Wolfram, Die Goten, 87. 
> > Schäferdiek, Gotien, 37 and 49.) Schäferdiek's 
> > view is underlined by modern archeology, which 
> > finds the first signs of permanent Gothic 
> > settlements in the Crimea only in the last 
> > quarter of the fourth century and a second wave 
> > of Goths after the end of Attila's reign.(Karl 
> > von der Lohe in his summary of recent 
> > excavations at the Caputh conference 1995.) The 
> > localisation of Theophilus in Tomi, once again 
> > brought into discussion by Evangelos Chrysos, 
> > was already rejected by Schmidt and is firmly 
> > and finally done so by Schäferdiek.(Evangelos K. 
> > Chrysos, To Byzantion kai hoi Gotthoi. 
> > Thessalonike 1972, 8588. Schmidt, Ostgermanen, 
> > 233. Schäferdiek, Gotien, 37 with n.13.) 
> > Personally I think, while sharing in the main 
> > the view of Wolfram and Schäferdiek that 
> > Theophilus was a predecessor of Wulfila, that 
> > there might have been a difference in their 
> > mandate. Both were episcopi intra gentes, but 
> > Wulfila was clearly designed for the federated 
> > Goths under treaty with the Empire, i.e. the 
> > Tervingi, whereas Theophilus' Gothia, not so 
> > strictly connected with imperial policy, may 
> > also have included the southern regions of the 
> > Greuthungi, where Christian beginnings from the 
> > same roots, i.e. prisoners, and from the poleis 
> > on the Black Sea coast are also possible. This 
> > difference may explain Philostorgios' remark. 
> > Anyway, christianity among the Goths before 
> > Wulfila is also attested by St. Athanasius, who 
> > counted the Goths among the peoples whom the 
> > word of the Gospel had already 
> > reached.(Athanasius, De incarnatione, 51, 2. 
> > Schäferdiek, Germanenmission, 498. Schwarcz, 
> > Anfänge, 107.)
> > 
> > To sum up this passage, Theophilus of Gothia was 
> > not bishop of the Crimean Goths and the first 
> > signs of permanent settlement of the latter in 
> > the Crimea are from the end of the fourth 
> > century.
> > Kind regards
> >             Andreas Schwarcz
> > Ao.Univ.Prof.Dr.Andreas Schwarcz
> > Institut für österreichische Geschichtsforschung
> > Universität Wien
> > Dr.Karl Lueger-Ring 1
> > A-1010 Wien
> > Österreich
> > Tel.0043/1/42-77/272-16
> > Fax 0043/142-77/92-72


You are a member of the Gothic-L list.  To unsubscribe, send a blank email to <gothic-l-unsubscribe at egroups.com>. 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/