engleski

The Ostrogoths in Late Antique Southern Pannonia

This paper aims to analyze and interpret the literary and archaeological evidence relating to the rule of the Ostrogoths in late antique southern Pannonia, i.e. the late Roman provinces of Pannonia Savia and Pannonia Secunda (known in the Ostrogothic times as Pannonia Sirmiensis). The study is centred around two distinctive chronological periods into which, according to narrative sources, the Ostrogothic presence and rule in southern Pannonia can be divided: first, from the collapse of the Hun dominance in the Middle Danube region to the departure of the Ostrogothic groups from Pannonia (454–473), and second, from the establishment of the Ostrogothic rule in Italy to their withdrawal from the region between the Sava, the Drava and the Danube at the onset of the Byzantine-Ostrogothic war (493–535). The second period was introduced by a brief Ostrogothic stay in southern Pannonia on their way from the Lower Danube area to Italy (488–489), as well as extended by a temporary reappearance of the Ostrogoths in Pannonia Savia when they mustered troops from among local barbarian groups (537). One of the main purposes of the study is to bring the historical record into a meaningful and methodologically sound correlation with archaeological evidence bearing in mind the limitations with regard to precise dating of the material and its attribution to specific groups of peoples.

Late Antiquity; Migration Period; Pannonia; Ostrogoths; narrative sources; archaeological sources

The paper was finalized within the frame of the NEWFELPRO project entitled The Justinianic Age in Dalmatia and Southern Pannonia (JUSTINIANDALMPAN), Grant Agreement Nr. 60, carried out by Hrvoje Gračanin.