Ostrogotha


Ostrogotha was a leader of the Goths in Ukraine, who invaded Roman Moesia during the Crisis of the Third Century. He was a contemporary of Cniva, who also led Gothic armies in the same period.
He was mentioned by the 6th-century historian Jordanes in his history of the Goths. Cassiodorus, who Jordanes reported to be the main source upon which he based his own work, also mentioned Ostrogotha as one of the ancestors of Amalasuintha and her father, Theoderic the Great.
Jordanes' account differs with those of Zosimus and Joannes Zonaras, who do not mention Ostrogotha, and therefore his existence was questioned. However, the discovery of lost fragments of the Sythica of Dexippus give confirmation to his existence.

Jordanes

Ancestry

According to Jordanes, Ostrogotha was part of the Amal dynasty, who the early Goths supposedly treated as gods. In the genealogy he recited, the family was named after his grandfather, who was named Amal. Jordanes also reported Ostrogotha to be an ancestor of Ermanaric and, through a brother of Ermanaric, Theodoric the Great.
Cassiodorus similarly mentioned him as an ancestor of the Ostrogothic king of Italy, Theoderic, when praising his daughter Amalasuintha:

History

Jordanes cited Ablabius the historian as saying that in Scythia, the Goths were dwelling above an arm of the Pontic Sea, and "the part of them who held the eastern region and whose king was Ostrogotha, were called Ostrogoths, that is, eastern Goths, either from his name or from the place. But the rest were called Visigoths, that is, the Goths of the western country".
Jordanes reported that during the reign of Philip the Arab, the Goths under Ostrogotha held "undisputed sway over great stretches of country, many arms of the sea and many river courses". They defeated the Vandals, the Marcomanni had to pay tribute to them, and the princes of the Quadi "were reduced to slavery". Even the Romans paid tribute, and Philip withheld this tribute the Goths were enraged and Ostrogotha crossed the Danube, when. Ostrogotha successfully invaded the Roman provinces of Moesia and Thrace.
Philip sent a senator Decius, who would later be emperor, but "since he could do nothing against the Getae , he released his soldiers from military service and sent them back to private life, as though it had been by their neglect that the Goths had crossed the Danube. When, as he supposed, he had thus taken vengeance on his soldiers, he returned to Philip." The Roman forces "in their anger" joined Ostrogotha, and he received them and led a force of 300,000 men against Rome, with Taifali, Astringi, Carpi, and both Goths and Peucini from the island of Peuce, which in the mouths of the Danube. The forces were led by two Gothic nobles, Argaithus and Guntheric, and they devastated Moesia a second time and then besieged Marcianople, and returned with a large amount of money received in ransom.
Ostrogotha also fended off a challenge from the kinsfolk of the Goths, the Gepids, under the leadership of their king Fastida.
Jordanes introduces Cniva into his account only after the death of Ostrogotha, describing him as the new ruler of the Goths. This conflict with the information now available from the Dexippus fragment.

Dexippus

In the Vienna fragment of Dexippus, Cniva and Ostrogotha are contemporaries and competitors. Ostrogotha was still alive when Cniva conquered Philippopolis and Ostrogotha was jealous of the high regard Cniva was given because of this victory. He set out to battle the Roman leader Decius and was apparently the Gothic leader responsible for the defeat of Decius.
Cniva was described as a king while Ostrogotha was described as an archon or leader of Scythians.

Also see

  • Thomas Gerhardt, Udo Hartmann: Fasti. In: Klaus-Peter Johne : Die Zeit der Soldatenkaiser. Band 2. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2008, S. 1194f.
  • Jana Grusková, Gunter Martin: Ein neues Textstück aus den „Scythica Vindobonensia“ zu den Ereignissen nach der Eroberung von Philippopolis. In: Tyche 29, 2014, S. 29–43.
  • Jana Grusková, Gunter Martin: Zum Angriff der Goten unter Kniva auf eine thrakische Stadt. In: Tyche 30, 2015, S. 35–53
Category:Year of birth unknown
Category:Year of death unknown
Category:3rd-century Gothic people
Category:Gothic kings
Category:Gothic warriors