Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

from the huns to the avars 713
about 10,000–15,000 fighting men, emerged as the main tormentors of the
Balkans from the 460s to 489. The two leaders, Theoderic Strabo and
Theoderic the Amal, were rivals for the allegiance of their followers and
the grant of territory and imperial titles, with their associated salaries; their
competition was exploited by the emperor Zeno, but in return the Goths
could take advantage of Zeno’s insecurity and win concessions by participating
in the civil strife of his reign. 37
The accounts of Gothic movement provide some information about conditions
within the Balkans. Places in which Gothic contingents were settled
for any length of time were likely to be suffering from depopulation, since
Goths were regularly interested in land which they could work – demands
for food were only a short-term remedy. 38 This might have been inferred
about the land north of the Stara Planina, which had suffered most from
earlier invasions, where the Amali based themselves from 474 to 478 in the
vicinity of Novae and Marcianopolis, but the presence of Strabo’s troops on
the Thracian plain south of the mountains suggests that there were empty
lands there as well; Strabo had probably contributed to this, since Zeno later
complained about how he had ‘damaged the inhabitants of Thrace, cutting
off their hands . . . and displacing all farmers’. 39 Depopulation is explicitly
mentioned in Dardania, which Zeno offered to Theoderic the Amal in 479
as having ‘much beautiful and fertile land, lacking inhabitants, farming which
he could support his army in abundance of everything’. Elsewhere, ravaging
ensured the destruction of agriculture: in 478, as they were being pushed out
of the Thracian plain, the Amali devastated the area near Rhodope, ‘all the
best of the land in Thrace’, where they drove off herds, killed what they could
not take and obliterated all agriculture – it is not recorded whether the
suffering farmers were Romans or followers of Theoderic Strabo. 40
Prosperity, however, was possible in areas that escaped ravaging for any
significant length of time: in 479 Lychnidus could be described as ‘a prosperous
city full of old wealth’, and towards the Adriatic in Epirus and near
the Dalmatian coastline there are signs of continuing wealth. 41
In their search for food and land the Goths inevitably came into conflict
with the cities and other fortifications, since these offered security and were
storehouses for local agricultural surpluses. The latter point is illustrated by
the Amali’s experience outside Heracleia in Macedonia, probably Heracleia
Lyncestis: the Amali were utterly destitute, but during negotiations with
Zeno they were provided with supplies by the local bishop; at their departure
they demanded grain and wine for their journey towards Dyrrachium,
but the local population had taken refuge in a strong fortress, from where
37 Malchus frr. 15.31–6; 18.3.15–16; 22.16–17.
38 Malchus fr. 18.3.5–7; cf.fr.20.54–5, 204; Heather, Goths and Romans 258–9.
39 Malchus frr. 18.2.13; 15.18–20. 40 Malchus frr. 20.202–4; 18.4.4–7.
41 Malchus fr. 20.141–2; Popovič (1984); Wilkes (1969) 419–20.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008