[gothic-l] Question about Catualda

[Tim O'Neill]

The reference to Catualda is in Tacitus _Annals_ II.62:

'Among the Gotones was a youth of noble birth, Catualda
by name, who had formerly been driven into exile by the
might of Maroboduus, and who now, when the king's fortunes
were declining, ventured on revenge.'

The fact that Tacitus says Catualda was 'among the Gotones'
and had previously been 'driven into exile' by Maroboduus
would seem to suggest that he was not among the Goths by
choice, and was a Marcomann by birth.  This would make sense,
since the Goths were fairly remote from the Marcomanni at
this stage and they would have made a suitable refuge for
a young Marcomannic political refugee.  I'm not sure how,
on the other hand, a Gothic Catualda would have managed to
'corruptly (win) over the noble to support him' - surely
these nobles would have been more favourably disposed to
a noble of their own tribe rather than an interloper from
an obscure people far to the north.

Jan Czarnecki in 'The Goths in Ancient Poland' feels that
Catualda was most likely a Marcomann, and hypothesises that
he was exiled by Maroboduus around 17-19 AD.  He figures that,
as a young man, Catualda's exile would not have been long
and may have been part of a 'general purge' around the time
of Maroboduus' war with Arminius.  He acknowledges that others
have suggested Catualda was actually a Goth and cites
several authorities who discuss the issue:

'The Exiled Narcomannic Nobleman Catualda', G, Ekholm,
"The Peoples of Northern Europe" in _THe Cambridge Ancient
History_ (12 volumes, Cambridge: University Press. 1923-39)
vol. 11, p. 57.
"Der Markomanne Catualda" , Schonfeld, in _Paulys
Realencyclopodadia_ Suppl. vol. 3 (1918), col. 798
"Catualda, vornehmer Gotone ...", Stein, in the same work,
vol. 3 (1899), col. 1785
"Nalezacy do szachty gockiej Catualda", Tymieniecki,
_Ziemie polskie_, p. 669

Peter Heather also comments on the incident, stating that
Catualda was 'himself not a Goth', and says this is possible
evidence that the Goths were beginning to assert their
independence from the Lugian/Vandalic/Lugian-Vandalic League.
(P. Heather, 'The Goths' (Blackwell: Oxford, 1996) p. 31-32.

As for Catualda's name, I was under the impression most
East Germanic names ending in '-a' were feminine.  I'd also
guess the last element in his name is a cognate with the
Germanic '-wald(a)' deuterotheme.

Tim O'Neill



-----Original Message-----
From: dirk at smra.co.uk [mailto:dirk at smra.co.uk]
Sent: Thursday, 24 May 2001 21:56
To: gothic-l at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [gothic-l] Question about Catualda


Short question: Catualda was a chieftain/noble how toppled Marbod, the
king of the Marcomanni in around 19AD, with the help of the Gothones.
Some authors call this Catualda a Goth, while others seem to regard
him as Marcomannic. As Pohl pointed out, at this time the Marcomanni
dominated the Celtic Lugians, who in turn dominated the Vistula
Gothones. Thus, by supporting Catualda the Gothones may have sought to
improve their position in these inter-tribal relations.

Anyway, is there any indication or generally accepted viewpoint as to
whether Catualda was a Goth or a Markomann. One indication could be
his name, I thought that male names ending on 'a' are a typical
feature for some East Germanic/Gothic names.

cheers
Dirk




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