Theodoric

Lo studio esamina le torri aggiunte al Castrum Praetorium, caserma della guardia imperiale, posteriormente all’epoca della costruzione voluta da Tiberio. La pianta pentagonale delle torri, comune in età ellenistica quando era raccomandata dai trattatisti perché adatta a resistere ai colpi delle artiglierie, suggerisce una datazione tardoantica. Infatti, nel periodo della minaccia barbarica aggravatasi dal III secolo d.C. in poi, furono riesumati i raffinati criteri progettuali della poliorcetica ellenistica. Trattandosi di un unicum nel circuito delle Mura Aureliane di Roma, con cautela viene ipotizzata una costruzione ad opera del re goto Teodorico, la cui attività costruttiva fu molto lodata dai contemporanei ed in parte è documentata dai resti archeologici.

The excavation of the archaelogical site which takes its name from the Ostrogothic king Theodoric, were conducted from 1998 to 2016 by the University of Bologna, assisted, as from 2016, by the University of Parma which undertook the sole directorship of the project in 2018. Theodoric’s villa complex in Galeata is one of the latest examples, at least within the Italian peninsula, of the typology of major private residences in late antiquity. The site is multi-layered and character-ised by seventeen centuries of occupation, from the 6th century B.C. to the 12th century A.D. Important new knowledge of the pre-Roman (a late iron-age settlement) and Roman (a large villa) phases of the site has been acquired. The most important results, however, relate to the late antique phase. The excavation, in fact, has led to a new interpretation of the complex known as the “palace” or “villa of the Gothic king Theodoric”. The most significant discovery, related to the 2018 excavation by the University of Parma, relates in fact to the Theodorician phase of the site: an octagonal room, attributable to the most prestigious sector of the complex and paved with an extraordinary well-preserved mosaic, was brought to light. Excavations are currently being conducted in the neighbouring areas of the octagonal room, which are also paved with mosaics.

The purpose of this paper was to show to what extent, if any, the images placed onto the aforementioned objects could have had any connection with the then political and religious situation of the country which Theodoric the Great ruled. How much were these representations (if we assume that they are assigned to Theodoric) influenced by the ruler himself and how much did he have to take the others’ opinion (in this case, of the emperor of the East) into account?

"Veritas Imaginum". The image od Theodoric the Great on the basis of selected numismatic specimens. summary The paper presents iconographic images of selected coins emitted by Theodoric the Great, the Ostrogothic king of Italy. It contains the analysis of the images found on selected coins and aims at finding the answers to the state those days? Do they convey information about Theodoric's social position and his political relations with the Emperor?

Dans l’imaginaire populaire, le Romain voit le Barbare comme un être dépourvu de raffinement. Sidoine Apollinaire quant à lui n’était peut-être pas de cet avis. Le portrait qu'il dresse du personnage de Théodoric, roi des Wisigoths, dans ses lettres I, 2 et I, 11 ainsi que dans ses panégyriques impériaux, est de fait révélateur à bien des égards. Il témoigne en premier lieu d’un changement de mentalité envers les barbares de la part d’un aristocrate comme Sidoine, à une époque où disparaît le pouvoir impérial et où règnent des rois barbares. De plus, ce traitement de l’image des barbares interroge le mélange des genres dans l’Antiquité tardive. En cette période où la hiérarchie des genres est bouleversée, le panégyrique, grand genre par excellence, par sa forme et son sujet, se trouve parasité par l’épistolaire, qui se met chez Sidoine à assumer le rôle encomiastique, alors que les Panégyriques se font beaucoup nuancés et ironiques.