Roman Gold and Hun Kings: the use and hoarding of solidi in the late fourth and fifth centuries
By Peter Guest
Roman Coins Outside the Empire: Ways and Phases, Contexts and Functions. Collection Moneta , vol. 82. (Moneta: Wetteren, 2008)
Introduction: “When he [Attila] saw a painting of the Roman Emperors sitting upon golden thrones and Scythians lying dead before their feet, he sought a painter and ordered him to paint Attila upon a throne and the Roman Emperors heaving sacks upon their shoulders and pouring out gold before his feet.” (Suda M. 405)
This account of Attila’s reaction to seeing the decorative frieze in one of the basilicae in the city of Mediolanum, the one-time imperial capital in northern Italy captured after a short siege in 452, neatly encapsulates the changed balance of power between the Roman emperors and their most feared barbarian antagonists of the fifth century, the Huns. Whether this event actually took place or not is less important than its allegorical message regarding the realities of the contemporary political situation: the predominant position of Rome and her empire, represented by dead barbarians beneath enthroned emperors, replaced by the image of Attila receiving golden tribute from the newly subservient Romans. The relationship between Rome and the barbarians beyond the imperial boundaries had been turned on its head, and the compiler of the tenth-century Suda used Attila’s reaction to the painting in Mediolanum to relate this pivotal moment in the history of the ancient world.
From this time, Romans and barbarians knew that a new world-order existed in which the role of patron and client had been redefined, and also that the survival of the emperors in Italy and Constantinople depended on their ability to transfer vast quantities of their accumulated wealth into the hands of rulers such as Attila. Such a dramatic renegotiation of Roman and barbarian relations did not occur overnight, but had been taking place, albeit gradually, since before the empire’s ability to defend itself militarily was weakened following the destruction of the eastern Roman army and the death of the Emperor Valens at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. The sack of Rome itself in 410 by Alaric’s Goths proved that both the eastern and western emperors were almost incapable of defending themselves and that the survival of Roman civilization itself was at stake. The appearance of the Huns on the lower Danube in the late fourth century and the capability of these people to defeat the Roman armies sent against them, led many to fear that they were living though the end of the world. The loss of large swathes of Pannonia, Moesia and Thrace in the 430s and 440s, followed by the invasions of Gaul and Italy in the early 450s, appeared to herald the break-up of the Roman Empire, while death or enslavement seemed to be the likely destiny of anyone who stood in the Huns’ path.
Click here to read this article from Cardiff University
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By Peter Guest
Roman Coins Outside the Empire: Ways and Phases, Contexts and Functions. Collection Moneta , vol. 82. (Moneta: Wetteren, 2008)
Introduction: “When he [Attila] saw a painting of the Roman Emperors sitting upon golden thrones and Scythians lying dead before their feet, he sought a painter and ordered him to paint Attila upon a throne and the Roman Emperors heaving sacks upon their shoulders and pouring out gold before his feet.” (Suda M. 405)
This account of Attila’s reaction to seeing the decorative frieze in one of the basilicae in the city of Mediolanum, the one-time imperial capital in northern Italy captured after a short siege in 452, neatly encapsulates the changed balance of power between the Roman emperors and their most feared barbarian antagonists of the fifth century, the Huns. Whether this event actually took place or not is less important than its allegorical message regarding the realities of the contemporary political situation: the predominant position of Rome and her empire, represented by dead barbarians beneath enthroned emperors, replaced by the image of Attila receiving golden tribute from the newly subservient Romans. The relationship between Rome and the barbarians beyond the imperial boundaries had been turned on its head, and the compiler of the tenth-century Suda used Attila’s reaction to the painting in Mediolanum to relate this pivotal moment in the history of the ancient world.
From this time, Romans and barbarians knew that a new world-order existed in which the role of patron and client had been redefined, and also that the survival of the emperors in Italy and Constantinople depended on their ability to transfer vast quantities of their accumulated wealth into the hands of rulers such as Attila. Such a dramatic renegotiation of Roman and barbarian relations did not occur overnight, but had been taking place, albeit gradually, since before the empire’s ability to defend itself militarily was weakened following the destruction of the eastern Roman army and the death of the Emperor Valens at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. The sack of Rome itself in 410 by Alaric’s Goths proved that both the eastern and western emperors were almost incapable of defending themselves and that the survival of Roman civilization itself was at stake. The appearance of the Huns on the lower Danube in the late fourth century and the capability of these people to defeat the Roman armies sent against them, led many to fear that they were living though the end of the world. The loss of large swathes of Pannonia, Moesia and Thrace in the 430s and 440s, followed by the invasions of Gaul and Italy in the early 450s, appeared to herald the break-up of the Roman Empire, while death or enslavement seemed to be the likely destiny of anyone who stood in the Huns’ path.
Click here to read this article from Cardiff University
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