Military education in ostrogothian Italy (at the turn of 5th – 6th centuries)

• Main Author: Vladimir Tyulenev
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hypothekai 2020-08-01
• Series: Hypothekai
• Subjects: late antiquity; military education; moral education; ostrogoths; ennodius
• Online Access: http://www.hypothekai.ru/images/Nomera/3/057-073-T.pdf

In the article, traditions of military education in Ostrogothian Italy and their interpretation in rhetoric are analyzed predominate-ly in the works of Ennodius and Cassiodorus. It is indicated that under new political circumstances after the establishment of the power of Theodoric the Great, when the Romans were overwhelm-ingly discharged from military duties, the pedagogical efforts of the Roman elite representatives turned out to be aimed at teaching children liberal arts and, above all, rhetoric. The sources, on the other hand, testify mainly to the education of the military spirit and the formation of combat skills among Gothic youth. The arti-cle shows that the main goal of educating a Goth warrior was to reproduce the image of ancestors (father, grandfather) in a young man and form a set of qualities traditional for a warrior, united in the concept of valour (virtus). A special place in this process was occupied by the military games (militares ludi), during which the skills of riding, archery, etc. were perfected; the most important principle of such education was the principle of competitiveness (the agonal spirit of education). At the same time, Roman rhetoric imposed a moral ideal on the German tradition of educating warri-ors; according to Cassiodorus, a man who owns a weapon should strain after moral purity. The article also shows that the children of Roman aristocrats could receive military education in Ostro-gothian Italy, which could have beсome possible due to the erosion of cultural identity and incorporation into German society.