The assassination of Valentinian III on the day after the Ides of March, 455, is often considered a watershed moment for both the empire and the Theodosians. Having always been a cipher, the feckless emperor’s eight or nine successors (depending on whom and how you count) were in some ways far more consequential, in part because they were not members of one of Rome’s most successful imperial dynasties. But in her newest monograph Rita Lizzi Testa proves this moment was more than symbolic: she takes 455 as a starting point for a new age in East-West relations, one lasting until Justinian’s disposition of Italy in 554 CE. And in this context, with the dynasty gone, it is also perhaps ironic that Valentinian’s granddaughter, Anicia Juliana, should play such a prominent role in one of the highlights of this period.
In brief, Lizzi Testa is interested in examining the nature of relations between the eastern empire and Italy during a century that saw profound change. It is a study that might reasonably and at once be called Roman, late antique, Byzantine, and medieval. While that perhaps suggests something fragmentary and unfocused, she centers much of her narrative on the themes of collaboration and cooperation in this period, and how often opposing political, religious, social, and ethnic forces might negotiate differences and achieve tangible ends.
The first chapter examines the state of affairs in Italy at the death of Valentinian III and the thirty-five odd years that followed. The monopoly of authority generated by the Theodosian dynasty’s presence evaporated, creating an environment for the senatorial aristocracy’s fortunes to rise even as the remains of the western empire outside of Italy disintegrated. Indeed, Lizzi Testa argues that the impermanence of these last shadow emperors not only gave the traditional elite greater influence in Italy itself, but also with the eastern court. They moreover took upon themselves the responsibility for navigating relations with the nascent “barbarian” kingdoms. By the time of Odoacer’s arrival in Italy in the 470s and then of Theodoric’s arrival fifteen years later, Lizzi Testa argues for an imperial bureaucracy and government largely in the hands of the senatorial aristocracy.
The second chapter considers the emerging episcopal hierarchy in Italy during the age of Odoacer and Theodoric. Religious rifts between the eastern and western churches, punctuated by the publication of the Henotikon and later by the Acacian Schism, forced these new reges to stay engaged with Constantinople as a partial means of justifying their place. This in turn led to the Italian episcopate coming to terms with its Arian overlords and forcing Theodoric in turn to send (mostly senatorial) delegations eastward, aimed at representing the pope’s doctrinal positions. Lizzi Testa also demonstrates how this state of affairs also helped create political rapprochement between the Constantinopolitan and Ravennan courts. Religious differences, she carefully reasons, provided diplomatic opportunities.
The focus of the third chapter shifts to the eastern capital and the challenges facing Anastasius I, particularly in the second decade of the sixth century. Lizzi Testa sees a confluence of purpose among the magister militum of Thrace, Vitalian’s rebellion, and the machinations of the aristocrat Anicia Juliana. Lizzi Testa argues that, as the last prominent descendant of the Theodosian line, Anicia’s vigorous building regimen started just as Vitalian began laying waste to the countryside. The two shared Chalcedonian leanings and saw common interests (if not common cause) in replacing the Miaphysite-leaning emperor.
In chapter four Lizzi Testa continues with the struggles faced by the same emperor toward the end of his reign. She sees the elderly Anastasius’ last years as a particularly uncertain time. On the one hand, Vitalian’s depredations continued in the hinterlands. On the other, Theodoric and pope Hormisdas in the west had made common cause in pushing for reconciliation of the Church and a more formalized status for the king. Anastasius’ death brought all these matters to a head. Because he had three nephews (and perhaps a nephew-in-law in Anicia’s son), there were many potential successors to the throne. And like the death of Valentinian seventy years before, such uncertainly also presented the chance to head in new directions. In this context, Lizzi Testa sees Justin’s rise to power not just as a moment of palace intrigue, but as a product of pro-Chalcedonian forces both in the east and Italy. The count of the excubitores’ assumption of power became carefully coordinated with the end the Acacian Schism (thanks in no small part to Anicia Juliana). Vitalian’s rebellion came to an end, Church unity was restored, and two dynasties—Justin’s and Theodoric’s—mutually benefited. Indeed, the consulships of Justin and Eutharic (Theodoric’s son-in-law) in 519 was a joyous, symbolic culmination of the events of the previous forty years.
Chapter five focuses on the breakdown of this religious and political détente. Relations between Byzantium and Ravenna broke down in the 520s, in part precipitated by the death in 522 of Eutharic, the Ostrogothic king’s heir. The “plots” of Roman senators who communicated with Justin’s court and the subsequent treason trials soured relations both within Italy and with Constantinople. And they were only made worse once Theodoric died in 526 and his grandson and heir, the underaged Athalaric, died in 534. Justinian, coming to power in 527, bided his time, cultivating important relations both with the western senatorial aristocracy and with the bishop of Rome. Once Theodahad usurped power, Justinian could use this as a casus belli for his Gothic War, a conflict that would garner considerable important support amongst the political and religious elite of Italy.
The final and sixth chapter presents the confluence of the political wranglings between all parties in Italy as the Ostrogothic regime slowly and bitterly came to an end. Here, Lizzi Testa sees Justinian’s Pragmatic Sanction, which in 554 reorganized Italy, as more than a symbolic resolution to the conflict. After the long and turbulent reconquest, the settlement put an end not just to Ostrogothic rule by incorporating Italy into the eastern state, but also to the complete integration of the clerical class into government—clear evidence of the damage done to the peninsula’s political and social landscape. Cassiodorius, who had served in both Ostrogothic and Roman governments and later became a cleric, witnessed all these events, and indeed even saw the Lombard invasion. Lizzi Testa sees him as a player, but also as a symbol of this metamorphosis.
A substantive conclusion brings many of these themes and issues together and highlights some of the arguments mentioned above.
As a reviewer, I have not quite read anything like this before. The command of the scholarship is breathtaking. The attention and interpretation of the prosopography in particular is excellent, as is the exegesis of several religious controversies. And because of her attention to detail, this 240-page book offers innumerable small insights, while at the same time tying so many disparate strands of a changing world together. Lizzi Testa’s work perhaps encapsulates most effectively the way in which the political and religious events of late antiquity became inextricably connected to a point where they were inseparable. In cataloguing and interpreting these events carefully and in detail, she has vividly demonstrated how much had changed during this century. Indeed, her monograph proves why these one hundred years are so consequential.
The desiderata here are so small as to be picayune, but bear mentioning. There is an index of names only and even that is spotty; a terrible shame in a work that bears close and repeated readings. The graphics are also lacking: a few images related to Anicia Juliana and her husband (pp. 101-102, 111-12) and one partial map of Constantinople (p. 89) that is not all that helpful, or accurate.
Substantively, my concerns are not so much criticisms as questions. I think Lizzi Testa is right in suggesting the importance of Anicia Juliana in bringing the Acacian Schism to its end, but I am less sure of her interpretation of events in the east in the 510s. The growth in resistance to Anastasius—and its apparent coordination—must be weighed against the fact the one half-hearted attempt to replace him had failed miserably; he ruled largely unmolested for twenty-seven years and he died a very old man of eighty-seven. I was also unconvinced by her suggestion that pope Agapetus’ diplomatic mission to Constantinople after Theodahad had taken Italy was of his own volition rather than at the instigation of the new king. But taken in all, these are questions of interpretation and not quality.
In her introduction, Lizzi Testa noted that the idea for this book came out of a research project on Justinian’s Gothic War some years before. Regardless of its origins, Un Occidente rivolto a Est is a tour de force, the culmination of the work and thought of a scholar who has been wrestling with these issues for many years. And it is one that this reviewer shall return to again and again.