Ostrogoths, Gepids

Tra Ostrogoti e Longobardi: la monetazione argentea dei Gepidi
L’articolo riguarda le monete d’argento attribuite ai Gepidi. La conoscenza di questa monetazione, molto limitata fino a un paio di decenni fa, ora può essere affinata grazie alle risorse online, che ci permettono di conoscere centinaia di nuovi esemplari emessi dai Gepidi e alcuni rinvenimenti inediti. Questi dati permettono di identificare interessanti sequenze di coni e quindi di comprendere meglio la struttura di questa monetazione. Se già era chiaro il rapporto con la moneta d’argento ostrogota, ora si può supporre un legame anche con i Longobardi: le ultime emissioni gepidiche sostituiscono il busto imperiale sul dritto con un mezzo busto frontale di una figura nimbata e alata che potrebbe essere la prima  rappresentazione monetaria di San Michele nell’Europa post-antica.

Between Ostrogoths and Lombards: the Silver Coinage of the Gepids
This paper focuses on the silver coinage ascribed to the Gepids. The knowledge of this coinage, very limited until a couple of decades ago, can now be improved thanks to online resources, which let us know about hundreds of new coins issued by the Gepids, and some new coin finds. These data allow us to identify interesting die-sequences and consequently to better understand the structure of this coinage. Although the relationship with the Ostrogothic silver coinage was already clear, now a link with the Lombards can be supposed: the last Gepidic issues replaced the imperial bust on the obverse with a frontal half-bust of a nimbate and winged figure that could be the first monetary representation of St Michael in post-Roman Europe.

Zwischen Ostgoten und Langobarden: die Silbermünzprägung der Gepiden
Im Mittelpunkt des Beitrags steht die Silbermünzprägung, die den Gepiden zugeschrieben wird. Unser Wissen über diese Münzen war bis vor ein paar Jahrzehnten sehr beschränkt; doch nun ist es dank der Onlineressourcen gewachsen, die Hunderte von neuen Exemplaren der Gepiden und sogar unedierte Funde bekannt gemacht haben. Diese Daten erlauben, interessante Münzstempel-Sequenzen zu identifizieren und dadurch die Struktur dieser Münzprägung besser zu verstehen. Ein Zusammenhang mit der Silbermünzprägung der Ostgoten war bereits offensichtlich, doch nun lässt sich auch ein Bezug zu den Langobarden vermuten: Die letzten Prägungen der Gepiden ersetzen die Kaiserbüste auf der Vorderseite mit einer frontalen halben Büste einer nimbierten und geflügelten Figur, welche die erste Münzdarstellung des heiligen Michael im nachantiken Europa sein dürfte. (Übersetzung: J. Chameroy)

Highsounding origins, emphatic genealogies and a past to forget. Hypotheses on the possible communicative strategies of the lost Gothic History of Cassiodorus. The essay focuses on the possible communicative intentions of the lost Gothic History by the Roman Cassiodorus, a learned official of the Ostrogothic court of Theodoric and his successors. Proceeding on the basis of conjectures, supported, however, by several clues, the article suggests (in addition to a possible dating of the work to the years around 522-523) that the intentions of Cassiodorus were essentially three: making the history of the Goths compatible with Greek and Latin historiography; enhancing the lineage of Theodoric and his descendants with bold genealogical proposals; concealing the less glorious past of the history of the Gothic people. In the light of these arguments, the article also hypothesizes that Giordane's later Getica (History of the origins and deeds of the Goths), usually considered completely dependent on Cassiodorus, actually contained original parts not derived from the Gothic History of the learned Roman intellectual.