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• Visigoths and Romans after 410

  185–194

  Melinda Székely

  Views:

  477

  In 410, the Roman Empire was shaken to its core after Rome was sacked by the Visigoths. The Barbarian attacks and the emergence of the usurpers created a severe crisis in the Western Roman Empire. The study of contemporary authors reveals that the crisis engendered a change in attitudes. For the Empire to be reconstructed, the traditional Roman, anti-barbarian attitude had to be changed, and living together and cooperating with the Goths was now a must. The change in attitude can be detected in Orosius’ work, a formerly anti-barbarian author who places Athaulf’s speech at Narbonne in the centre. The marriage of the Visigoth king with Galla Placidia (414), the Romanization of the Goths, their imperial service, and their new relationship with Romans as described in the speech is all a solid basis for a reestablishment of Goth-Roman relations and the creation of a new federal agreement, which actually took place in 418.

• Die Beschreibung von „Scythia” und die Ungarischen Chroniken

  63–76.

  Jenő Darkó

  Views:

  1

  In the Hungarian chronicles „Scythia” is the ancient land of the Hungarians. The description of Scythia in the chronicles clearly has literary precursors. The information about Scythia and the Scythians recorded by Anonymus and the Hungarian chronicles can ultimately be traced back to Herodotus and the periplus literature about Ionia. Franz Rühl (1880) claimed that the source for Anonymus’s description was Justinus, who epitomized the texts by the Augustan historian Pompeius Trogus. Later Péter Váczy asserted that the source used by Anonymus was not Regino, but a lesser known epitome titled Exordia Scythica (Scythian Beginnings) linked to the history of the Goths. According to Péter Váczy an intermediate source must connect the Hungarian chronicles and its sources, as the correspondence between the descriptions of Scythia in Hungarian chronicles is only possible if Exordia was used by the author of the Gesta Ungarorum (11th century), the common source for Hungarian chronicles.