The Continuity Of The Western Roman Empire:a Study On Ostrogothic Regime

This dissertation is a study of the Ostrogothic regime and mainly revolves around the political history of the Western Roman Empire ranging from the late 5th century to the early 6th century. Based on abundant historical sources of this period, the argument of this dissertation is the continuity of the Western Roman Empire in the Ostrogothic regime.The dissertation is divided into four chapters. The first chapter probes into the Roman view of barbarians and makes an attempt to argue that the Roman identity is more of a political one which takes the diversity in race, culture or area as tolerable. As a consequence, "Roman" and "barbarian" are not two completely opposite identities. At times, a barbarian could be qualified enough to become a Roman and even a model Roman.The second chapter investigates the historical background of the Western Roman Empire on the eve of the foundation of Ostrogothic regime. This chapter begins with a brief account of the political situation of the Western Roman Empire in the late 5th century, then traces the reasons why the conception of "the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476" was fostered. This chapter is an attempt to account for the " the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476" which is a misconception of the actual situation in 476 and is not in accordance with the Romans’view at that time. The emergence of this conception has a lot to do with the complex political situation between the western and eastern parts of the Roman Empire after 476 and is targeted at the legitimacy of the Ostrogothic regime.The third chapter begins with an account of the foundation of the Ostrogothic regime, and then focuses on the Roman characteristics revealed in the political institutions and rule style of the Ostrogothic regime. The reign of the Ostrogothic regime in Western Roman Empire is recognized by Roman Emperors, the Ostrogothic rulers submitted to the Roman emperors, inherited the established political institutions of the Western Roman Empire and even exploited the Roman traditions to propagandize the legitimacy of their reign. This chapter seeks to argue that the Ostrogothic rulers considered themselves as Roman rulers, and ruled in the name of Roman Empire.The fourth chapter discusses how the Romans looked at the Ostrogothic regime from the perspective of the Western senatorial aristocracy. This chapter focuses on analyzing the Western senatorial cognition of the Roman Empire, and then makes a comparison between the ideal Roman Empire of Western senatorial aristocracy and the Justinianic one, which reveals some characteristics in the course of transformation from classical world to the medieval Christian world.After the investigations of above four chapters, we would have a new understanding of the history in the late 5th century and the early 6th century:during this period, the "barbarian invasion" did not cause the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire, the classical traditions of the Roman Empire still persisted. For the Roman Empire and the classical traditions it inherited, this is not an era of decline and fall, but an era of continuity and transformation.