[gothic-l] Re: Alarich 468 AD

[troels_brandt]

--- In gothic-l at y..., andreas.schwarcz at u... wrote:

> There is no source mentioning the Eruli in this combination at the
> battle near the river Bolia. Wolfram, Die Goten, 265, calls this
Alaric
> "another king of the Suevi or the Eruli", Jordanes does not give
> him an ethnic designation.


Thank You, Andreas!

I must admit I had not seen it in that way before. I regarded
Wolfram's remark as a guess, as Mierow appeared to know Alarich was a
Suave. Therefore I forgot all about this possibility.

Reading Jordanes again (I have only the Mierow translation at hand) I
think Kucera and his staff is right.

In chapter LIV Jordanes mentions the allies as Gepides, Sarmatians,
Sciri, Rugians and the kings Hunimund and Alaric. Hunimund is in LIII
presented as king of the Suavi, but Alaric is not presented, and no
nationalities are mentioned in connection with these two kings in LIV.

The alliance is described as the people we know lived at the northern
bank of Danube against their neighbours the Goths at the southern
bank - after the Goths had defeated the Sciri. We are missing the
people living east of the Rugians - the Heruls, who according to
Jordanes 8 years later followed Odoaker in Rome together with the
Sciri. We know Alaric as a royal Gothic name also used by the first
Herulian king in 350-70.

The principle used by Jordanes to describe the allies in LIV appear
to be to mention either the people or the king. Hunimund was earlier
described as king of the Suavi making it unnecessarily to mention the
people again, but Jordanes had probably forgotten, that the neighbour
Alaric was not presented before - maybe because Cassiodorus had
mentioned him in his work. Actually Jordanes had avoided to mention
the Heruls since 370 except in connection with Odoaker and the battle
of Nedao, where they were mentioned to join the above allies.

Therefore all indications point at Alaric as king of the Heruls.

Troels



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