Relations between North Africa and Italy, A.D. 476-500 : some numismatic evidence - article ; n°33 ; vol.6, pg 112-133

Frank M.Clover

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Revue numismatique - Année 1991 - Volume 6 - Numéro 33 - Pages 112-133
Summary. — This paper is an attempt to consider the numismatic evidence of the barbarian and Byzantine folks of the late 5th century in the historical context of the relations between the Vandals, Odovacar and the Ostrogoths. It proposes that the first group of folks (Odovacar in the name of Zeno, Wolf-and-Twins, Lady Carthage) was issued contemporaneously in 477 following the treaty of 476 between Geiseric and Odovacar. The second group (Eagle and Standing Warrior) on the same weight-standard would have been issued before 496 as a kind of 'international experiment'.
22 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

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• Publié par: REVUE_NUMISMATIQUE
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1991
• Nombre de lectures: 62
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

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Frank M. Clover
Relations between North Africa and Italy, A.D. 476-500 : some
numismatic evidence
In: Revue numismatique, 6e série - Tome 33, année 1991 pp. 112-133.
Abstract
Summary. — This paper is an attempt to consider the numismatic evidence of the barbarian and Byzantine folks of the late 5th
century in the historical context of the relations between the Vandals, Odovacar and the Ostrogoths. It proposes that the first
group of folks (Odovacar in the name of Zeno, Wolf-and-Twins, Lady Carthage) was issued contemporaneously in 477 following
the treaty of 476 between Geiseric and Odovacar. The second group (Eagle and Standing Warrior) on the same weight-standard
would have been issued before 496 as a kind of 'international experiment'.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Clover Frank M. Relations between North Africa and Italy, A.D. 476-500 : some numismatic evidence. In: Revue numismatique,
6e série - Tome 33, année 1991 pp. 112-133.
doi : 10.3406/numi.1991.1958
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/numi_0484-8942_1991_num_6_33_1958M. CLOVER* Frank
RELATIONS BETWEEN NORTH AFRICA
AND ITALY
A.D. 476-500: SOME NUMISMATIC EVIDENCE**
(PL XII)
Summary. — This paper is an attempt to consider the numismatic evidence of the
barbarian and Byzantine folks of the late 5th century in the historical context of the
relations between the Vandals, Odovacar and the Ostrogoths. It proposes that the first
group of folks (Odovacar in the name of Zeno, Wolf-and-Twins, Lady Carthage) was
issued contemporaneously in 477 following the treaty of 476 between Geiseric and
Odovacar. The second group (Eagle and Standing Warrior) on the same weight-stan
dard would have been issued before 496 as a kind of 'international experiment'.
Résumé. — L'auteur considère ici le témoignage des émissions barbares et byzantines
de folks de la fin du ve siècle dans le contexte historique des relations entre les Vandal
es, Odoacre et les Ostrogoths. Il propose de dater l'émission du premier groupe des
folles (Odoacre au nom de Zenon, louve, Carthage debout) de 477 et d'y voir une
conséquence du traité de 476 entre Genséric et Odoacre. Le second groupe des folks
(aigle et guerrier debout), émis selon le même étalon, pourrait avoir été frappé avant
496 et constituerait une « expérience internationale ».
* University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of History, 321 1 Humanities Buil
ding, 455 North Park Street Madison Wisconsin 53706.
** I wrote this study in 1972. It was originally intended for publication in the
Aufstieg and Niedergang der rômischen Welt, and is cited as such in some subsequently
published works (see below, n. 75). In preparing this study, I received grants from the
American Numismatic Society (1969), the American Council of Learned Societies
(1970), the American Philosophical Society (1970), and the University of Wisconsin-
Madison's Graduate School (1969) and Institute for Research in the Humanities (1970-
71). These grants enabled me to study the relevant coins at the American Numismatic
Society, Dumbarton Oaks, the British Museum, A. H. Baldwin and Sons of London,
the Ashmolean Museum, the Bibliothèque Nationale, the National Museum at Copen
hagen, the Bardo Museum in Tunis, and the National Museum at Carthage. All the
museum staff members were most helpful. In addition, I received useful information
and criticism from Jere L. Bacharach, Philip Grierson and George L. Kustas. I
reserve special thanks for Cécile Morrisson. Mme Morrisson advised me during the
preparation of this study, and recently encouraged me to submit it to the Revue
numismatique.
Revue numismatique, 1991, 6e série, XXXIII, p. 112-133. NORTH AFRICA AND ITALY AD 476-500 113
For the entire Mediterranean Basin in the last quarter of the fifth
century A.D. was a period of crucial importance. In the West the barba
rians assumed control of the last enclaves of Roman power, permanently
ending the succession of Roman emperors there. The East, on the other
hand, survived the barbarian onslaughts, and by the beginning of the
sixth century it had enough resources to mount a counteroffensive
against the intruders. The importance of the period did not escape the
attention of its contemporaries ; the Roman senator Symmachus, consul
in 485, apparently studied it intensively. x Today numerous students of
late antiquity continue to appreciate its significance. 2
It is the purpose of this paper to examine the relations between two of
the protagonists during this generation, the Vandals in North Africa and
the barbarian authorities in Italy. In the late fifth century the Vandal
kingdom reached its apogee under king Geiseric (428-477), and then
began to decline under his immediate successors Huniric (477-484),
Gunthamund (484-496) and Thrasamund (496-523). In 476 the Scirian
officer Odovacar deposed the Western Emperor Romulus Augustulus,
and introduced a barbarian hegemony which developed fully under the
man who violently succeeded him, the Ostrogothic king Theodoric
(489/93-526). This paper will focus on both diplomatic and economic
contacts between the two kingdoms. A full picture of their relations can
only emerge from a consideration of both literary and numismatic evi
dence.
When the barbarians occupied North Africa and Italy, they inherited a
set of circumstances which were rooted in the Mediterranean past. From
the destruction of Punic Carthage in the second century B.C. to the bar
barian invasions of the fifth century A.D., Italy and North Africa were
both vital parts of the Roman Empire. North Africa, particularly Car
thage and its hinterland, and the intervening island of Sicily contributed
much of Rome's grain supply. Prior to 146 B.C., however, Rome and
Carthage were frequently at odds politically and commercially, and Sicily
was a major bone of contention. After Geiseric led the Vandals into
North Africa in 429 and captured Carthage in 439, he ushered in political
and economic conditions which somewhat resembled those of the Punic
Wars. Except for a brief period of détente (442-445), Geiseric was almost
constantly at war with the imperial government at Rome and Ravenna
until its demise in 476. He limited or cut off grain shipments from Car
thage to Rome and, after 455, attempted with intermittent success to
1. Cf. M. A. Wes, Das Ende des Kaisertums im Westen des Rômischen Reichs (Archeo-
logische Studiën van het Nederlands Historisch Instituut te Rome, deel II) The Hague,
1967, passim.
2. See for example, J. Vogt, The Decline of Rome: the metamorphosis of Ancient
Civilization, trans. J. Sondheimer, London, 1967, p. 223-264. 114 FRANK M. CLOVER
control Sicily and Sardinia. In so doing he deprived Rome of her chief
granaries and, in the estimation of the late Christian Courtois, con
structed an empire du blé. 3 Interestingly enough, some of Geiseric's
contemporaries regarded his kingdom as a resurrection of ancient Car
thage, and the later Vandal kings fostered this notion by using Punic
symbols for some of their coins. 4 The traditional hostility between Rome
and Carthage, then, surfaced after about seven centuries of Rome hege
mony. The potential for hostility was still at hand after Odovacar depo
sed Romulus Augustulus. The barbarian governments at Carthage and
Rome both needed the intervening islands in order to maintain full
control over their respective territories.
It is in this context that one can understand the first diplomatic
contact between Odovacar and Geiseric. In 476 the two rulers concluded
a treaty whereby Geiseric conceded nearly all of Sicily to Odovacar in
exchange for the latter's payment of tribute. The Vandal king retained a
portion of the island, probably Lilybaeum and vicinity. By virtue of the
tribute payments, however, he made Odovacar his client, and retained
claim to the entire territory. This treaty is eloquent evidence of the
importance of Sicily for both parties, and of Geiseric's inability to control
all of it. 5 Л papyrus dated to the year 489 shows Odovacar acting as the
ruler over the island.6,
The struggle for Sicily did not abate with Theoderic's occupation of
Italy beginning in 489/93. Indeed, the hostility was potentially more
intense, for Vandals and Goths had been enemies during earlier stages of
3. For a contemporary appreciation of the significance of Geiseric's efforts, cf. Sal-
vian De gubernalione Dei 6. 68. For full discussions of Geiseric's reign, see L. Schmidt,
Geschichte der Wandalen, 2nd éd., Munich, repr. 1970, p. 41-98; and С Courtois, Les
Vandales et l'Afrique, repr. Aalen, 1964, p. 155-214.
4. Cf. Merobaudes Panegyricus 2. 24-29 ; and Sidonius Apollinaris Carmen 7. 441-
451. The relevant coins of the Vandals will be discussed below, nn. 14, 20 et passim.
One biographer, E. F. Gautier, Genséric, roi des Vandales, Paris, 1951, p. 217-271, et
passim, regards Geiseric's belligerence as a "Fourth Punic War."
5. The only source of this treaty is Victor Vitensis Hisforia persecutions africanae
provinciae 1. 14. For the general interpretat