Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

italian identities in late antiquity 549
as emperors from Justinian to Phocas claimed to be restoring Italy’s ancient
libertas. Such declarations found only partial sympathy in Italy. In 591, to be
sure, some bishops from the diocese of Aquileia wrote to the emperor
Maurice begging for the restoration of imperial rule. But their conception
of Roman rule was a religious one, contrasting the Byzantine sancta res
publica with the Lombard yoke. 120 The letter originated in the context of
north Italian resistance to Justinian’s condemnation of the Three Chapters,
and the ultimate fate of the Aquileian church reveals how fragile Roman
identity was by the early seventh century. In 610, the episcopal election was
split. One group elected Candidianus, residing at Grado and loyal to Rome
and Constantinople. An opposing group, still refusing to accept the condemnation
of the Three Chapters, elected their own candidate, John, and
left Grado for old Aquileia, where they placed themselves under the political
protection of duke Gisulf of Friuli. 121
Nor did all Goths or Lombards share their rulers’ enthusiasm for things
Roman. When Amalasuintha chose to give Athalaric a Roman education,
she provoked disapproval among the Goths of Italy. 122 Even after the collapse
of their kingdom some Goths retained a discrete identity as late as
the eighth century. 123 And of course, the Ostrogoths – in stark contrast to
the later behaviour of the Visigoths or the Lombards – never became
Catholic Christians, but held fast to their Arianism down to the demise of
their kingdom. Under the Lombards, the vestiges of Roman culture were
fewer still. While the figure of Agilulf on the crown from the Val di Nievole
in Tuscany depicts him as dominus noster and flanks him with Victories, such
echoes of Roman ceremonial are tempered by the king’s beard, droopy
moustache and the sword on his lap, all very Germanic. 124 The Lombards,
too, retained elements of their Germanic culture. While some aspects of
their administration, such as the office of duke, had Roman antecedents,
other elements were wholly alien to Italian soil, such as the use of farae to
govern subdivisions of the duchies. Moreover, while the kings and dukes
quickly adopted Latin as their language of government, other Lombards,
such as those who scratched the runic graffiti at the Archangel’s sanctuary
on Monte Gargano, retained their own tongue. 125 Such resistance to the
Latin culture of Italy was to have far-reaching consequences. The overlay
of Germanic elements in Lombard territories, and, indeed, Greek ones in
the Byzantine provinces, assisted the linguistic transformation of Italy,
creating the wide diversity of regional dialects which were a characteristic
of the country until comparatively recently. 126
120 Greg. Mag. Reg. i.16a. 121 Paul. Diac. Hist. Lang. iv.33. 122 Procop. Wars v.2.6–17.
123 Schiaparelli (1929–33) ii.279 (no. 228) records a certain Staviles ‘living according to the law of the
Goths’ (legem uiuens Gothorum) near Brescia in 769. 124 McCormick, Eternal Victory 289–91.
125 Titles: Wickham (1981) 39; Christie (1995) 110–26.Graffiti: Otranto (1990) 200–2.
126 Devoto (1978) 137–47, 177–89.
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