Alaric - 'Roman Officer'?

[Robert Vermaat]

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!



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.

Somehow I doubt that Enapius ever saw a Goth, and he may base his characteristics on old depictions of (long-haired) Scythians?

All the benefots but not paying taxes. I am reminded om some modern cases
But isn't it implied that if Alaric wanted his forces to become Roman soldiers, that this would imply citizenship as well?