Anchor-Shaping and Romanitas. The Role of Law and Education in Sixth-Century Communication about Roman Tradition in the Ostrogothic Kingdom

Persistent URL of this record https://hdl.handle.net/1887/75552

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History (research) (MA)

Kooijman, Marijke (2019)

Anchor-Shaping and Romanitas. The Role of Law and Education in Sixth-Century Communication about Roman Tradition in the Ostrogothic Kingdom

Research master thesis | History (research) (MA)

By applying the concept of "anchoring innovation" to multiple synchronic sources, this study shows how much similarity there is in "anchor-shaping" amongst different members of the sixth-century Roman elite. Roman law and education were important markers of romanness around the traditionalist court of the Ostrogothic king Theoderic. Cassiodorus, Ennodius and the anonymous author of the Edictum Theoderici all used these traditional concepts as weapons in their struggle for social power. Education (including juridical skills) led to a self-made form of nobility, which implied worldly power. Further research on the social functioning of normative texts could increase our understanding of the power of tradition in rhetorical communication and the possibilities of this "prescriptive negotiation" for social networks.