Interferenz-Onomastik

Haubrichs, Wolfgang

Bibliographic data

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Persistent identifier:: 1655725408

URN:: urn:nbn:de:bsz:291-sulbdigital-123670

Title:: Interferenz-Onomastik

Sub title:: Namen in Grenz- und Begegnungsräumen in Geschichte und Gegenwart; Saarbrücker Kolloquium des Arbeitskreises für Namenforschung vom 5. - 7. Oktober 2006

Author:: Haubrichs, Wolfgang

Place of publication:: Saarbrücken

Publisher:: Kommission für Saarländische Landesgeschichte und Volksforschung Saarländische Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek

Structure type:: Monograph

Collection:: Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Saarländische Landesgeschichte

Volume number:: 43

Year of publication:: 2011

Number of pages:: X, 616 S.

Copyright:: Saarländische Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek

Language:: eng

Digitised pages:: 630

Description

Title:: Latin (and Greek) Interference in Late Gothic. Personal Names and other Linguistic Evidence from sixth Century Italy

Author:: Onesti, Nicoletta Francovich

Structure type:: Chapter

Collection:: Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Saarländische Landesgeschichte

Digitised pages:: 19

Full text

above § 2.),2(1 who died before 539 (Tjader P30, Ravenna a. 539). They had 
two children with the Latin and Greek names of Domnica and Deutherius 
respectively, which could possibly mean that by this time their family had 
turned to religious orthodoxy and forsaken Arianism. 
Around the year 500 we find the names of Valatru and Stefani engraved on 
a gold wedding ring from the treasure of Desana.20 21 The husband’s name, in 
the genitive, is Roman, while Va/atrv is a shortening of the Gothic feminine 
name Valatrud(is). Cassiodorus mentions two couples in the period 523-26: 
Procula and Brandila, Regina and Patzenis ( Variae V 32, 33). In this case we 
may note that both women bear a Latin name, which is fairly common among 
mixed marriages; so for example we see Honorata and Tzittani (inscription of 
Albenga, 568, see no. 19), Antonina and Amara (inscription of Grado [Friuli- 
Venezia Giulia] year 579, CIL V 1583), Rusticiana and Tzittane (Classe 
[Ravenna] 591, Tjader P37), and Pitione's wife Petronia (Ravenna 600 ca., 
Marini no. 124). In contrast, we find wives with Gothic names: Hildevara, 
married io Johannes (Classe 523; Marini no. 85), the above mentioned Tulgi- 
lo, Tucza wife of Massimino (Rieti a. 559, Pelagii I epist. 63), and Sifilo, 
married to a certain Bilesarius (Ravenna 555, Tjader P9). It is not always the 
case that such mixed couples appear in our sources at a late date, about fifty 
years after the end of Gothic rule in Italy.22 We notice a slight majority of 
Latin names among women, as in the family of Amara and Antonina (see 
below), although the total number of these couples is too limited to allow any 
generalization. It is indeed possible that wives were chosen from among the 
Romans, if migrating groups initially counted more men than women in their 
forces. 
However, name-giving in many cases depended on religious attitudes, as in 
the case of Willienant’s family: his father Cristodorus was an Arian priest, 
and his cousin Anastasia too had a Greek religious name belonging to the 
eastern Arian tradition the Ostrogoths had brought over into Italy.2’ We have 
already seen the family of Tulgilo and Paria, with their children Deutherius 
and Domnica. The above mentioned Amara and Antonina (Grado 579) had 
two daughters with the Latin names of Haelia and Mellita. In Ravenna a cer¬ 
tain Montanus, who in 540 had been a notarius under king Vitiges, had a son 
Eusebius who had the additional Gothic name of Riccitanc.24 At such a late 
date the names of new generations could have been influenced by historical, 
political and religious change. 
20 Wagner 1997, p. 50, 53. 
21 From the site of Desana (Vercelli), today in Turin, see Bierbrauer 1975, p. 279, tav. 
XII 7. 
22 Lazard 1991, p. 121. 
23 See Lazard 2002, p. 1215. 
24 Tjäder P6, year 575, and Tjäder II, 1982, p. 278 (note 15) and p. 345. 
49

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