What is it about?
In 500 Amalafrida, Theoderic the Great's sister, went to Africa in order to marry Thrasamund, king of the Vandals. According to Procopius of Caesarea, she was escorted by six thousand armed men. This is one of the few existing numerical clues about Ostrogothic army and it has thus been widely cited by scholars who dealt with the Goths or with Theoderic. A closer examination of the evidence we have about the Ostrogoths and the Vandals, however, clearly indicates that Procopius' passage cannot be trusted.
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Why is it important?
Previous studies of Ostrogothic army and demography used Procopius' passage about Amalafrida's escort as a key argument for their calculations, but in my article I argue that this information cannot be correct and therefore all conjectures about Ostrogothic population in sixth century Italy should be reconsidered.
Perspectives
I hope that my article will induce other scholars to study the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy.
Marco Cristini
Eberhard Karls Universitat Tubingen
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This page is a summary of: Il seguito ostrogoto di Amalafrida: confutazione di Procopio, Bellum Vandalicum I, 8, 12, Klio, January 2017, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1515/klio-2017-0011.
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