This is the 27th volume in the series Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages and the second in the Historiography and Identity subseries. It is a product of the Austrian Science Fund funded project “Visions of Community. Comparative Approaches to Ethnicity, Region and Empire in Christianity, Islam and Buddhism (400-1600 CE)” (VISCOM).
Serving the role of introductions to this volume are two separate contributions by Helmut Reimitz and Walter Pohl. It is in the first of these articles--“Historiography and Identity in the Post-Roman West: An Introduction” (1-26)--that formulates the aims of the collection as well as those ofHistoriography and Identity. The main goal, as stated by Reimitz, is to “provide starting points to problematize and historicize the relationship between writing history and constructing identity, from the ancient to the medieval world” (1). He shies away from any ambitions for Historiography and Identity II to serve as a history of historiography. Justifiably so, given that the structure and contents of the collection would not suit this role very well. However, expectations of scholars and students of historiography and identity in the Late Antique and Early Medieval periods, who seek to explore the theoretical frameworks as well as their specific applications in this field, should align well with what this volumehas to offer, as it delivers on its declared aims. The title of Reimitz’s contribution perhaps defines the geographical scope of the essays included better than that of the volume itself. With the notable exception of Jordanes and his Constantinopolitan milieu, authors and communities in the Post-Roman West remain the main focus.
Reimitz considers factors involved in facilitating dynamic redefinitions and practice of both history-writing and identity and their origin in the socio-political shift from a central Romanness to its regionalised iterations. For the study of relationships and hierarchies of different perspectives on identity emerging from history-writing, he proposes the use of an analytical concept of first- and second-order observations established by Niklas Luhmann. It is meant as a vehicle for understanding how history authors described and defined--for example--identities of communities. According to Reimitz, particularly second-order observation, which involves not only the delineating of boundaries and distinctions, but also reflecting on how such delineation is conducted and what strategies of distinction are employed, may be used to understand the function and origin of history in the ancient world. It is an intriguing idea, but its applicability remains to be seen. Reimitz himself expresses caution, admitting that these concepts were developed for the purpose of studying modern societies and employing it in examination of Ancient and Early Medieval ones may be challenging. Further exploring the instrumentalisation of history in processes of observing and reflecting on identities, he discusses the more recent advancements in research on literary genres and its relevance not just for the study of historiography, but also identities. He points to Flierman’s results as an illustration of similarities between processes of shaping genres and collective identities. [1] Reimitz references earlier scholarship as well as the more recent developments that contradict previous paradigms and bring more nuance into our understanding. Bibliography provided for this article is by no means exhaustive, as it is not intended as such, but it could be useful both for scholars, who need to catch up with the most recent literature, as well as for more advanced students seeking to find their bearing in this current of the scholarship.
Reimitz summarises each of the remaining contributions in the volume and how their subjects and conclusions relate to each other. What he argues unites most of the articles in the collection is the figure of a cultural broker, an author of a history attempting to come up with perspectives that would facilitate integration of their diverse communities, while recognising and keeping distinctions between both real and imagined groups. [2] Different authors developed distinctive strategies to these challenges in what Reimitz calls an “intensified and ongoing bricolage.” It is this heterogeneity of character of historical projects mixing different genres and conventions, while redefining boundaries of identities as a response to a shifting socio-political contexts in a world breaking down into differentiating parts, that Reimitz believes is the most defining feature of history-writing in this period, setting it apart from forms of this genre composed in the Roman world.
He applies this analytical framing in his second contribution to the volume, “Genre and Identity in Merovingian Historiography” (161-211), by studying the ways in which Gregory of Tours attempted to present his own vision of a community and to deconstruct both Roman and Frankish identities, as well as how his work was engaged with by the later authors of the Chronicle of Fredegar and Liber historia Francorum in their own responses to concerns regarding identities and community in post-Roman Gaul. This is complemented by “The Appropriation of History: The Austrasians, Gregory of Tours, and Fredegar” (213-236) penned by Andreas Fischer. Focusing on a vision of community within the wider Frankish identity--that of Austrasians--in Gregory’s work and in the Chronicle of Fredegar, Fischer demonstrates the latter author’s perception of Austrasians and Neustrians as collective actors rather than just objects of Merovingian kings’ politics. According to Fischer, such a reinterpretation of earlier material enables “Fredegar” to engage with the issue of Austrasians and Neustrians gaining traits of a gens on their own and point to both subgroups’ common overarching identity in order to resolve their conflicts.
In what could be perceived as the second part of an introduction to the volume--“Debating Ethnicity in Post-Roman Historiography” (pp. 27-69)--Walter Pohl offers a summary of different methodological trends in the study of both Early Medieval ethnicity (or identities) and historiography. Although readers familiar with the polemic between the so-called Vienna School, represented most prominently by Herwig Wolfram and Walter Pohl himself, and their counterparts from the so-called Toronto School, Walter Goffart and Alexander Murray, may find another overview of the discussions ranging from Reinhard Wenskus and his Stammesbildung und Verfassung up until recently somewhat unnecessary, Pohl’s chapter in fact provides more than that. Next to tackling the legacy of this “unfortunate” polemic, as Pohl calls it, he postulates a number of methodological improvements. Synthesis of approaches towards the study of Late Antique and Early Medieval identities and historiography, such as literary turn and postmodern deconstructivism, is one of them. Though contradictory, they are both to be treated as instruments in historians’ toolsets to provide differing angles of the study. A “polyphony” of approaches and methods is the unifying thread of Pohl’s proposals. Of minor note is one marginal statement. Pohl includes in his enumeration of “pairs of brothers with alliterative and expressive Germanic names” mentioned by multiple authors as leading different barbarian groups Cerdic and Cynric. However, “Cerdic” “Germanic” character is rather doubtful and it has been argued convincingly it was in fact of Brittonic origin. Similarly, the Germanic etymology of Cynric has been questioned. [3]
By far the most prominent ancient author in the volume is Jordanes, whose works are the point of focus in contributions by Maya Maskarinec, Randolph Ford, and Philipp Dörler. The first of these--“Clinging to Empire in Jordanes’ Romana” (71-93)--examines the ideological aims of Romana. Maskarinec argues that the model of the Christian Roman Empire offered by Jordanes was ingrained in Roman and late Roman historiographic traditions as well as corresponding to the military and legal policies of the emperor Justinian. By comparing passages and themes from Romana and normative texts from the period, Maskarinec demonstrates clear ideological connections of these contemporary texts in their recognition of arms and law as two main factors constituting and upholding the Roman Empire. A studious reader may be perhaps surprised by a statement: “...in summarizing material in Festus, but in his own words, Jordanes tells how Augustus forced certain Germanic peoples (Germani, Galli, Brittoni, Spani, Hiberes, Austures, and Cantabres) ‘to live by Roman laws (coegit Romanisque legbus vivere’).” (78) However, though it is demonstrably wrong to categorise the majority of peoples listed above as ‘Germanic’, this stumble has no effect on the overall strength of the collected and analysed evidence. By the author’s own admission, her argument corresponds with an article by L. Van Hoof and P. Van Nuffelen. [4] Both these works attempt to make the next step of treating Jordanes as an author in his own right, rather than just an abbreviator of Cassiodorus or a ‘narrator of a barbarian history’. [5] That very welcome innovation sites Jordanes and his literary agency within the context of sixth-century Constantinople and its elite milieu, while recognising unique elements of his outlook.
In a similar vein, Randolph Ford’s “From Scythian, to Getan, to Goth: The Getica of Jordanes and the Classical Ethnographic Tradition” (95-119) explores Jordanes as an ethnographer deeply grounded in the traditions and framings of Classical ethnography, while at the same time consciously and creatively manipulating these traditions for his own authorial intent. Comparing Herodotus’, Justin’s, Strabo’s, and others’ presentation of Scythians and Getae and that of Jordanes, Ford points to the intention betrayed by the latter author’s efforts to alleviate the image of Scythians as peripheral and distant from the civilised Mediterranean he inherited from his sources and to inflate the Getae’s readiness to embrace the civilising influence of Greeks. Through such a rearrangement of earlier traditions and establishing Scythians and Getae as essentially Goths, a story of a gradual cultural transition, of a people becoming part of the Mediterranean world emerges.
In his “Two Tales--Two Peoples? Goths and Romans in Jordanes’ Works” (121-146), Philip Dörler employs the concept of the cultural broker examining Jordanes’ depiction of Romans and Goths as well as differences and similarities between them exemplified in passages from both Romana and Getica categorized into ancestry, trade relations, military activities, culture and characterizations of rulers and military leaders. Making a number of thematic observations, Dörler arrives at similar conclusions to that of Ford with regard to creative instrumentalisation of previously established representations of Goths as well as of Romans. However, he emphasises the relationship between Romana and Getica and their wider implications as a means of the intended articulation of the complementarity of Romans and Goths through a combination of their similarities and differences.
In “Celtic Britain and Ireland: An Arena for Historical Debate” (147-160), Thomas M. Charles-Edwards places Bede and his Historia ecclesiastica back into the context of history writing in post-Roman Britain and Ireland. Charles-Edwards demonstrates the impact of Gildas and his ‘history’ on the understanding of the genre and its qualities on the British Isles, as well as echoes it made in texts of legal character, such as Collectio canonum Hibernensis. Through excursions into the competing traditions of origin in Irish literature, as well as the examination of relationships between Gildas, Bede and Historia Brittonum, Charles-Edwards presents broadly understood history in Britain and Ireland as a ‘vehicle for argument,’ receptive to external influences, but redefined within the local context.
This perspective on the regional literary trends could be set next to the study of “Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica and Anglian Northumbria” (297-318) by Ian Wood, who in turn focuses on the more localised context of Bede’s work in time and space. By exploring the alternative traditions of identifications of the people of Northumbria, Wood emphasises the significance of Bede’s project, challenging these pre-existing notions of identity by promoting the ‘Anglian’ one. In particular, study of fears of Britons becoming the gens salvanda and ‘Anglians’ demise, which fuelled Bede’s attempt at ethnic re-identification, link Wood’s considerations to the study of other texts’ influences, especially Gildas, on Bede and his work. These two articles illustrate the multifaceted and dynamic character of historiography in the British Isles.
Similarly complementary are contributions by Victoria Leonard and Jamie Wood, “History-Writing and Education in Late Antique and Early Medieval Iberia” (237-267), and by Molly Lester “The Ties that Bind: Diagnosing Social Crisis in Julian of Toledo’s Historia Wambae” (269-296). Leonard and Wood investigate the connection between history and non-historical genres concerned with the past and education in Iberia. Their survey of texts and authors such as Orosius, Isidore of Seville, Braulio of Saragossa, Leander of Seville and other monastic rules reveals the significance ascribed by the monastic and broader Church circles to history and the study of the past for education, inherited from the earlier period, but repurposed within the Christian mindset, which in turn influenced concerns about the character of the works to serve educational purposes. One of the authors who shares such concerns, represented through his emphasis on brevity as a means to accessibility, was Julian of Toledo. His Historia Wambae is the main focus of the following contribution. Much like other historians discussed in the volume, Julian--according to Lester--owes a great deal to classical models of historiography, but employs its instruments to present his views on contemporary societal and political issues. Lester utilizes D. T. Rodgers’ concept of social languages in order to examine ways in which Julian conceived the functioning of his society as well as what constituted threats to it, uncovering in her study a fascinating vision of Visigothic society.
Walter Pohl concludes the volume with “Historical Writing in the Lombard Kingdom: From Secundus to Paul the Deacon” (319-349), an investigation of historiography in the Lombard Kingdom. Though he discusses Secundus’ Historiola and the Origo gentis Langobardorum, Paul the Deacon and hisHistoria Langobardorum remain Pohl’s main focus throughout the article serving as an example of a historian aiming to “negotiate the integration of the respective gentes into a larger social whole” (341). Pohl paints an ostensibly paradoxical image of Paul’s goals. In comparison with other works, the Lombard historian was to gradually attenuate certain signifiers of Lombards’ differing identity in his narrative, but at the same time sought to maintain the saliency of their ethnic identification and its political dimension, but within the context of a Christian universe in all its complexity. Like some other contributors to this volume, Pohl emphasises the immersion of the analysed historian in contemporary socio-political landscape and readiness to address its issues with a response in the form of remodelling the vision of the community in the past.
Overall Historiography and Identity II is a collection of articles surprisingly coherent in outlook and conclusions, given its selection of examined Late Antique and Medieval authors, communities, regions and periods--a feat not so often achieved in publications of this sort. This volume is certainly a recommended read for any scholar or postgraduate student concerned with historiography, as well as ethnic and religious identities in the post-Roman world.
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Notes:
1. R. Flierman, Saxon Identities, AD 150-900 (London: Bloomsbury 2017).
2. A concept he proposed in his earlier article: H. Reimitz, “The Historian as Cultural Broker in the Late and Post-Roman West” in: Western Perspectives on the Mediterranean: Cultural Transfer in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, 400-800 AD, ed. by A. Fischer and I. Wood (London: Bloomsbury, 2014) pp. 41-54.
3. For references, see S. Oosthuizen, The Emergence of the English (Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, 2019), p. 77 n. 246.
4. L. Van Hoof, P. Van Nuffelen, “The Historiography of Crisis: Jordanes, Cassiodorus and Justinian in mid-sixth-century Constantinople”, The Journal of Roman Studies 107 (2017), pp. 275-300.
5. An approach pioneered by W. Goffart, The Narrators of Barbarian History (A.D. 550–800): Jordanes, Gregory of Tours, Bede, and Paul the Deacon (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988).