[gothic-l] Re: Question about Catualda

[dirk at SMRA.CO.UK]

--- In gothic-l at y..., "Tim O'Neill" <scatha at b...> wrote:
> 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.
>


Hi Tim,

I think the argument that Catualda was a Marcoman, rather than a Goth,
is very convincing. I think the notion that Catualda must have had
some sort of legal claim to Marcomannic leadership is important. Thus,
for the Goths/Gothones to support a Marcomannic political refugee with
a claim to the 'throne' would have made a lot of sense, especially if
Pohl's (Die Germanen) assertion that the Gothones were at this time
indirectly subjects to the Marcomanni (via the Lugi/Vandals). By
supporting Catualda, Gothic leaders may have hoped to extend their
independence or rid themselves from the domination of the
Lugian-Vandal-league as Heather seemed to have argued.



> 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.
>
>


I am not sure, but I thought in light of Gothic names like
Totila/Baduila, Teja, Piza, Judila etc. a final 'a' is characteristic
for East Germanic male names, while at the same time East Germanic
female names can end on 'o', like Hildico, Ostrogotho, etc. In west
Germanic names, this is reversed with male names often ending in 'o'
(e.g. Bauto, etc.) while female names ended often in 'a' (e.g.
Angilperga). Thus, people like the Langobards when encountering east
Germanic names like the femal name Ostrogotho, adapted it to
Austrigusa to normalise the ending for their use.

Catualda, if he was a Marcomann, may  have been an exception from the
rule. Or, it is also conceivable that he was the product of
inter-tribal marital relations. Thus, his mother may have been from
a Gothic noble family. This could, in fact, have determined his choice
of exile. Perhaps he had influential Gothic relative on whome he could
hope to rely for his bid for the Marcomannic leadership.
(just speculating).

cheers,
Dirk






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