A fragmentary papyrus document from Ravenna (north-east Italy) records the sale of marshland by the clergy of the Gothic (and 'Arian'/Homoean?) church dedicated to *Anastasia (martyr of Sirmium and Rome, S000602) in the city. Written in Latin in Ravenna, 551.
E08419
Documentary texts - Charter or diploma
Documentary texts - Sale document
Late antique original manuscripts - Papyrus sheet
Tjäder P. 34 (excerpts)
[...] supradicta loc[a] ad se p[..........]rius[...]c[...] [n]ostr[a]e sanctae A[n]astasiae possideri me [....]
[...] Ego Petrus, subdiac(onus) aclisie gotice sancte Anastasie, uic in solutum [cessio]nis uenditiionisque et documentum padulis s(upra)s(crip)torum cum omnibus [ad se] petinentibus, a me vel s(upra)s(crip)tis colliuertis uel conministris [mei]s fa[ctum uo]bi, s(upra)s(crip)to Petro ui(ro) r(euerendo) def(ensori), conparatori, ad omnia s(upra)s(crip)ta relegi, consensi [et sus]cribsi, et testes, ut suscriberent, pariter conrogauimus, et pretiu[m] centu octoginta solidos, id est centum uiginti per cautione an[tea] accepisse profitemur, et nunc de presenti alios sexaginta sol[idos] percipimus. [...] Ego Paulus, clericus eclesie legis Gothorum s(an)c(t)ae Anastasie, huic docum[en]tum a nobis factum subscribsi [...] Ego Theudila, eclesie s(upra)s(scriptae) legis Gothorum s(an)c(t)e Anastasie hu[ic] documento de padules s(upra)s(scriptas) a nouis facttum suscrissi [...]
'...The aforesaid places at <text missing> ... of our Saint Anastasia, to be possessed...<text missing>
... I Peter, subdeacon of the Gothic church of Saint Anastasia, have consented to and subscribed this document of surrender and sale for the abovesaid marshes with everything pertaining to them, which myself and my fellow freemen and ministers have made to you, the aforesaid Peter, reverend man, defensor, and buyer of all that has been handed over above. And this we equally ask the witnesses to subscribe. And we have received a payment of 180 solidi, that is the 120 which we had already obtained as deposit, and now a further 60 solidi... I Paul, cleric of the church of the law of the Goths of Saint Anastasia, have subscribed to this document which we have made... I Theudila, of the aforesaid church of the law of the Goths of Saint Anastasia, have subscribed to this document which we have made concerning the marshland...'
Text: Tjäder 1955-82: ii. 91-104.
Translation: B. Savill
Cult building - independent (church)
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - lesser clergy
Aristocrats
Officials
Source
Thirty-eight papyrus documents (plus a further four of less certain provenance) dating from the years 445 to c. 700 survive today from the archives of the church of Ravenna. Most were produced in the city, although some appear to have come to Ravenna via interested parties after originally being issued at other centres (e.g. Faenza, Syracuse, Nepi). An exceptionally rare witness to late antique documentary culture, the Ravenna papyri constitute the single largest corpus of Latin papyri documents still extant, although the collection is now dispersed between a number of libraries across Europe and North America. The standard modern edition is Tjäder 1955-82. We have included in our database the eight documents from this corpus which provide evidence for saints' cults before c. 700.This papyrus (2610 x 0285 mm) is now in the Biblioteca nazionale, Naples.
Discussion
P. Ital. 34 is an extremely important document that gives us a rare glimpse into the non-Nicene ecclesiastical community in Italy during the Gothic Wars. The story that can be reconstructed from the papyrus is as follows. In 535, the clergy of "the Gothic church of St. Anastasia" (aclisia sancte Anastasie; elsewhere in the document called "the church of the Gothic law of Saint Anastasia", eclesia legis Gothorum sanctae Anastasie) borrowed 120 solidi from the defensor Peter, a representative of the Nicene Church in Ravenna. As security they deposited 8/12 of a marshland. After 16 years, in 551, they were not able to repay the loan and decided to sell the property. They also sold Peter the remaining 4/12 for sixty solidi. The affair testifies to some financial difficulties of the clergy of the church of Anastasia, but it is noteworthy that the Nicene Church of Ravenna was willing to lend money to the church in the mid-30s of the sixth century.It is generally believed that the terms "ecclesia Gothica" or "ecclesia legis Gothorum" is the way the Homoian/'Arian' Church in Ostrogothic Italy called itself to distinguish itself from the Nicene Church (in other circumstances they probably called themselves Catholics). However, there is scholarly debate about the exact meaning of these terms. In older research, it was usually taken as confirmation that Homoianism in Ostrogothic Italy had a clear ethnic profile; it was "Gothic Christianity". This view was challenged by Patrick Amory, who argued that this should be understood as "the church of Gothic belief" rather than "the church of the Goths". The faith was "Gothic" because of the Homoian traditions associated with the figure of Ulfila, which enshrined Gothic as the language of the Bible and liturgy (Amory 1997: 275). Some scholars (Markus 1998; Heather 2003) have criticized Amory for not fully accounting for the extent to which ethnic and religious discourses intersected in Ostrogothic Italy. P.Ital. 34 shows that some clerics of the church had Gothic names and could write Gothic, but it must be emphasized that the document itself is written in Latin and many clerics had non-Gothic names. We cannot really prove that they were ethnic Goths and identified themselves as such.
The use of the word "lex" to distinguish churches adhering to different creeds is also attested in the correspondence of Avitus of Vienne (Contra arrianos 7).
Bibliography
EditionDie nichtliterarischen lateinischen Papyri Italiens aus der Zeit 445-700, ed. J.-O. Tjäder, 2 vols (Lund and Stockholm, 1955-82).
Further reading:
P. Amory, People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489-554 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).
P. Heather, "Gens and Regnum among the Ostrogoths,"€ in Regna and Gentes: The Relationship Between Late Antique and Early Medieval Peoples and Kingdoms in the Transformation of the Roman World, ed. H. Goetz et al., (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 85-133.
Robert A. Markus, review of People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489-554, by Patrick Amory, Journal of Theological Studies 49, no. 1 (1998): 414-17.
Benjamin Savill, Marta Szada
04/03/2023
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00602 | Anastasia, martyr of Sirmium and Rome | Anastasia | Certain |
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