Alaric - 'Roman Officer'?

[Nathan Ross]

@ styles - Yes indeed LOL.

There's a fragment of Eunapius (Blockley's Fr.37) that says the 'Scythians' (Goths?) 'show their arrogance even in the shaking of their hair'. This suggests headbanging, which in turn suggests long hair!

Goths - do we even know they were exclusively Goths? I fear mr Halsall may be a bit too hasty at this point, lacking evidence. From what we know of Germanic warbands in the 5th c. is that they could be from all kinds of tribal backgrounds

I don't think he meant they were exclusively Goths - and we know there were Alans and Huns among Alaric's men, and others too (Philostorgius mentions that Ataulf's first wife was 'of Sarmatian origin', which might suggest that Sarmatians settled in Roman Pannonia had joined them as well). Alaric's fame and success would have attracted a very disparate group of people to his standards.

But the core of Alaric's force identified as Goths, if you like, and the rest seem to have followed that lead in eventually claiming the Gothic name. I think my point above about Roman citizenship is also important here too; nowhere do we hear of any demand by Alaric or Ataulf that their men be given citizenship. If the men who followed these leaders had any real desire to become Roman, or to act like Romans, it is not expressed in any of our sources. They wanted to be Goths, under a Gothic leader (or even 'king'), living within the empire's border but outside imperial control.