HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

58 JOAQUÍN MARTÍNEZ PIZARROthe process much significant information, so that as a historical sourcethe HG tells us much less than the works from which it is derived.Ideologically, however, and as a work of literature, it is of considerableoriginality and deserves more attention than it has received.Its chief claim to distinction is its extreme Gothic patriotism, manifestin a systematic revision of the historical record. The Gothsfought on Pompey’s side at Pharsalia and came close to defeatingCaesar (3). The victories of Claudius and Constantine over the Gothsare counted primarily as shining additions to the fame of these emperors,now illustrious for having defeated “such a powerful people”(“tam fortissimam gentem”, 4–5). Following Orosius, the HG presentsAlaric’s sack of Rome in 410 as remarkably merciful andrestrained, particularly in the treatment of churches and their property(15–17). Most remarkably, perhaps, the Goths are said to havetaken the lead against the Huns in the battle of the CatalaunianFields in 451, with Aetius and his Roman forces participating asmere supporters (“auxiliante Aetio duce Romano”, 23). As might beexpected, the Arianism of the Goths is the one serious mark againstthem (“superstitio idolatriae” . . . “malum blasphemiae”, 8; “inolitierroris labes”, 52). The HG, once again echoing Orosius, blames thison the emperor Valens, who had sent them Arian missionaries (7)and elsewhere bypasses this difficult subject with moderate blame orwith indications that the Goths, though heretical, had shown muchpiety. Throughout, the author presents his protagonists as victoriousover Rome, which he portrays as a declining power, closely associatedwith paganism and heresy. One immediate occasion for theHG, Suinthila’s recovery of the last imperial holdouts in Cartagena,is of special significance for Isidore, whose family came from thatregion, as it marks the beginning of undivided Visigothic rule overa Catholic kingdom.The brief chapters of the HG are dated according to the Spanishera and the year of an imperial reign. 52 In most of them, a stage inthe political destiny of the Gothic nation is embodied in the biographyof a king. 53 It is striking, given the minimal scope of these chapters,that Isidore always describes the exact circumstances of the king’send, whether assassinated (“His throat was cut in the middle of a52The sections on the Vandals and Sueves are dated by the Spanish era only.53Reydellet (1981), 523–54.