Fritigern: a Christian prior to 376?

[Alanus]

Recently, I've been PM-ing with another RAT member concerning a statement I made in one of my posts-- ie: Fritigern was a Christian prior to his so-called acceptance of Valens' Arianism. My stance posits Fritigern not as a dueling warlord against Athanaric, but a chieftain already Christianized by Ulfilas and intent on fighting the Second Gothic persecution of Christians. Our information on the early "career" of Fritigern comes from Socrates Scholasticus and then Sozomen.

Here is what Sozomen has to say (Book VI, Chap. 37).
Sozomen starts off talking about the First Gothic persecution of Bishop Ulfilus and his Christians, [ordered by Aoric and carried out by his son Athanaric]. Ulfilas and his direct followers ask Constantius for asylum in Moesia. "The object of his [Ulfilas'] embassy was fully accomplished, and the [Ulfilas] Goths were permitted to take up their abode in Thrace."

However, the Christians under Fritigern are not mentioned, nor were they with the Ulfilas group. Sozomen continues, "Soon after, contentions broke out among them [Tyrfingi Goths], which led to their division into two parts, one of which was headed by Athanaric, and the other by Phritigernes. They took up arms against each other, and Phritigernes was vanquished, and implored the assistance of the Romans. The emperor, having commanded the troops of Thrace to assist and ally with him [Fritigern], a second battle was fought, and Athanaric and his party were put to flight. In acknowledgement of the timely succor afforded by Valens, and in proof of his fidelity to the Romans, Phritigernes embraced the religion of the emperor, and persuaded the barbarians over whom he ruled to follow his example. It does not, however, appear to me that this is the only reason that can be advanced..."

Sozomen then back-tracks, explaining events that led to the First Persecution, mentioning that the Fritigern Goths were already Christians prior to the Second Persecution: "He [Ulfilas] taught them [the Tyrfingi] the use of letters, and translated the Sacred Scriptures into their language... At the same period, there were many of the subjects of Phritegernes who testified to Christ, and were martyred. Athanaric [the magistrate, judge] resented that his subjects had become Christian under the persuasion of Ulfilas; and because they had abandoned the cult of their fathers,... some he put to death."

So basically, Sozomen is telling us that the Fritigern portion of the Tyrfingi had converted to the Gothic Church. We might assume, since Fritigern was their leader-champion, that he too was a Christian after the departure of Ulfilas and his group into the Balkans-- sometime in the 360s perhaps, but the reason for Athanaric's revival of persecutions.

Now it gets even better! :woot:

Sozomen and Scholasticus both mention the troops of Thrace helping Fritigern. Why would the Romans help a barbarian chieftain in a Gothic internal war outside the Roman empire? The notion defies rationality. And who could Fritigern have persuaded to contact the emperor? The answer lies in a couple of letters written by Basil of Caesaria, who just happened to be the cousin of Junius Soranus, Dux per Scythia Minor (aka, a part of the Diocese of Thrace), and the only likely candidate as co-commander of the Roman force sent across the river into Gothia.

The letters concern the bones of the martyrs, the same martyrs mentioned by Sozomen yet without dated context. However, we have dates on the deaths of two of the Gothic Christians: St. Saba died 12 April 372, and St. Nicetus died 15 September, 372. The bones were retrieved in either 373 or 374. The accompanying letter gives us the ecclesiastical participants in the retrieval, "Epistle of the Church of God in Gothia [now modern Wallachia] to the Church of God located in Cappadocia." This combined Church-secular-military action was the real mission into a Gothic war-zone, not a civil war, and it appears to be the same event as Fritigern's appeal for aid. Was Fritigern a Christian prior to 376? 8-)

I suppose an epilogue is in order... after such a lengthy post. Formal translation of relics became a solemn and important event in the early Church. A surviving fragment, partially legible, of the Gothic calendar records the 29 October feast day of the martyrs "Werekas the priest and Batwin the balif." However, if we back up to 23 October, we find homage to the people killed by Athanaric and his lesser judges-- " for the many martyrs among the Gothic people, and of Fritharei[rei]keis." The name of the last mentioned individual is corrupted (a mouse-chewing?), yet it has been deciphered as "Frithigairnais."

Heather and Matthews [p. 121, note 61] appear to be confused on this reference. They note that no-one by that name appears in the martyrologies, then try to explain it off as, "The entry in that case might allude to the conversion to Christianity... of the section of Goths led by Fritigern in the time of Valens." Close, but no cigar. He was celebrated in the Gothic calendar because he BELONGED there. My view is this: Fritegern was a long-standing Christian, going right back to Ulfilas and the reign of Constantius. When he first arrives in the histories, he is called Phritigairnus, or Frithigairnus... and if we transtlate Gothic to English, his name literally means, "He who has Gained Faith." :-)