Vulnerable to any passing brigands, why did the BOHEMI choose to stay at home rather than proceed towards regions around the Mediterranean sea? Let us try to answer this question by briefly relating a story which, according to our sources, reflects life and its adversities in sixth-century Italy51. We will see how pillaging and marauding the now almost defunct western Roman empire could have had unforeseen and complicated consequences.
The story concerns a Goth warrior named Gundila, presumably of the Arian faith, who lived in Italy sometime around 539 and had served under King Witigis. Gundila’s property was confiscated by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian’s expeditionary force during a long and bloody campaign in Italy between 534 and 535. In order to recover what had belonged to him, Gundila appealed to the Byzantine General Belisarius, and having approached Pope Vigilius around the year 540, ‘took the Roman way’ and converted to Catholicism. Ultimately, upon receipt of a confirmation that he no longer fell under the jurisdiction of the Arian bishop of Rome, he recovered his lost landholdings, a part of which he subsequently donated to the church of the Virgin Mary at Nepi in Umbria.
This is, however, just the beginning of a whole merry-go-round of events. Shortly after 540, the Goth army took Nepi in the course of a counter-offensive and Gundila’s property was confiscated again by the Goth commander Totila, who gave it to one of his officers (comes) named Tzalico. Then in 544 or 545, Belisarius’s troops re-took Nepi, and Gundila launched another appeal to Belisarius. However, Belisarius had already donated the land in question to the Santa Aelia monastery at Nepi. Seeing no alternative, Gundila again approached Pope Vigilius. The pontiff sent word to the Santa Aelia monks, and ordered them to give the estate back to the veteran soldier, who had already, by his donation, proved his munificence to the Catholic Church beyond all doubt. Having thus successfully pursued his cause, Gundila proceeded to give one part of the relevant landholdings to the Santa Aelia monastery, and another to a regular house of Saint Stephen.
But it didn’t stop there either. Goth troops re-conquered Umbria at the end of the 540’s and the notorious Tzalico appropriated Gundila’s property yet again.
The story stops here until the end of the war in 557. Groups of inheritors then addressed the Roman municipal administration to enquire about the destiny of the inheritance of the now deceased Gundila. This might have happened in consequence of the pragmatic sanction of Emperor Justinian, by which he suspended all the landed property transactions of the ‘tyrant’ Totila, and ‘reconciled’ Arian landholdings with the Catholic Church. At this juncture, Gundila’s and Tzalico’s inheritors went to court, disputing the property of two monasteries and a church. The Tzalico party based their claim on Totila’s donation, and Catholic institutions doubtless presented their rights as well.
Unfortunately, the sources are not clear about the conclusion of the whole affair, but the fact that the documents survived in the archiepis-copal archive of Ravenna implies that the eternal institutions probably defended their rights successfully.
In fact, all this could have happened to anyone; we know that as early as 537, auxiliary units of the Hun, Slav and Antae cavalry served in the Byzantine army fighting the Goths in Italy.
This story clearly demonstrates that the integration of newcomers into the world of Late Antiquity was by no means an easy process, and that it might have entailed all sorts of unforeseen difficulties. Life in the Mediterranean area undoubtedly tempted many to go there; but many others might have preferred to steer clear of this entanglement of public, private, economic, political, social, spiritual and ecclesiastical interests.
World History
