Romano-Barbarian 'Amicitia': Shaping the Discourse and Sustaining Political and Social Networks

2023/2024, TOM 15

Aleksander Paradziński

University of Bonn, Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS)

Publication date

06.09.2026

Publishing model

open access

License type

CC BY 4.0 Int.

Field

Humanities

Discipline

history, culture and religion studies

Language of publication

English

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Abstract

Links of amicitia were an essential element of the Roman elite’s inner relations and a mark of belonging to it. These political alliances were performed and sustained by the exchange of gifts and letters revolving around participation in literary culture, recommendations of friends, and seeking favours. Forms established in the late Roman Republic, exemplified in letters of Cicero and others continued into the Later Roman Empire and were performed as a signifier of a Roman identity of the elites. With the increase of numbers of military officials of foreign – ‘barbarian’ – background in the 4th and 5th century, a new group of potential amici appeared. Achieving such high honours as consulate and exercising considerable power, these ‘immigrants’ were expected to take part in the very same set of conventions, which integrated the imperial elites for centuries. This article discusses several cases of individuals of non-Roman background, either first generation ‘immigrants’ or people already established within the Roman society, whose only trait differentiating them from the rest of the society was their non-Roman descent. Among these are Stilicho, Richomeres, Bauto, Ellebichos, Modares and Arbogastes, examined through the perspective of letters addressed to them by Symmachus, Libanios, Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil of Caesarea, Sidonius Apollinaris and Auspicius of Toul. Examination of these case studies demonstrates only situational instances of the exclusion of ‘barbarian’ amici. The ethnicity of the addressee could be present and relevant within the discourse but functioned more as a tool of control of the social advancement of the ‘immigrants’. It served as an instrument in a subtle game of establishing and sustaining the symbolic balance of power between the old and the new members of the elite.

Keywords:

amicitia,φιλία,barbarian,Later Roman Empire,Roman elites

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