Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

family and friendship in the west 417
member of the traditional senatorial class. 7 This combined evidence provides
an opportunity for considering the history of the family, in its aristocratic
guise, during the transition from the Roman empire to the
successor states.
At a lower social level, if one confines one’s enquiries to the Roman and
sub-Roman population in the west, the history of the family is much less
informative. In north-east Italy and in Istria mosaic panels on the floors of
fifth- and sixth-century churches, recording donations, show apparently
ordinary families acting together to make gifts. 8 Some saints came from
among the non-aristocratic property-holders. Just occasionally, evidence
like that provided by St Patrick on his father and grandfather in Britain
throws light on a lesser family group – though here the problem of dating
makes it difficult to determine whether the information relates largely to
the fourth century or to the fifth. 9
The evidence for the new Germanic population entering the empire is
at first sight similar in distribution. Certainly at the very highest level – that
is, at the level of royalty – the evidence is relatively good. The two greatest
Gothic families, the Amals and the Balts, the ruling dynasties of the
Ostrogoths and the Visigoths respectively, are well attested for the late fifth
and early sixth century, even though much of the evidence relating to those
dynasties was clearly elaborated at the hands of Theoderic the Great and
Cassiodorus. 10 From the 480s, at least, the Merovingians provide a wealth
of salacious stories which give an entrée into the family life of Frankish
royalty. Among the Franks the next level of society – the non-royal aristocracy
– is invisible in the fifth- and sixth-century legal evidence, so much so
as to have prompted the question as to whether it existed at all. For all the
silence of the legal sources, the regular discovery of Frankish high-status
graves from this period suggests that this is an evidential lacuna rather than
proof of any real absence of an aristocratic class. 11
While the Frankish aristocracy presents a problem of interpretation, the
law codes of the successor states shed light on the family structure of the
rank and file, among the Franks as among other barbarian peoples. 12 This
makes it possible occasionally to look beyond the highest classes of society,
the kings, their immediate family and the traditional senatorial aristocracy.
For the most part, however, the ensuing discussion will concentrate on the
most powerful families in the fifth- and sixth-century west. It will look first
at the senatorial aristocracy, essentially that of Gaul, where the evidence is
most extensive, at the senatorial familia, and at its possessions. Thereafter, the
criteria used by the senatorial aristocracy in defining itself will be considered:
7 Mathisen (1984). 8 Caillet (1993), esp. 447–8.
9 Patrick, Confessio 1, ed. R. P. C. Hanson, SChrét. 249 (Paris 1978); see also the discussion, ibid.
pp. 24–8, although the argument in favour of an early date is not persuasive.
10 Wolfram (1988); Heather (1989). 11 James (1988) 219–24. 12 Murray (1983).
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