L’IMPERO E LA ‘RIPA GOTHICA’: VICENDE BELLICHE, ‘FOEDUS’ COSTANTINIANO, CONSACRAZIONE ED ESILIO DEL ‘VESCOVO DEI CRISTIANI IN TERRA GETICA’ (322-348 D.C.)

The ‘treaty’ of 332 AD between Romans and Goths raises many problems,to start with its proper definition, foedus according to Jordanes, pax firmata for the anonymous author of the Origo Constantini. Eusebius of Caesarea states that the ‘peace’ would have implied the total submission of the barbarians, while the ecclesiastical historian Sokrates sees in it the beginning of the Christianization among the Goths. From Constantinian standpoint, the foedus of 332 AD marks a turning point in the interstate relations: just some years before, Constantine had built a huge bridge on the Danube; after the conquer of the ripa Gothica, the land North of the Danube belong to the empire, orbis Romanus and orbis Christianus are the same. Ulfila’s bishopric in barbarico is the product of Constantine’s Gothic peace, yet the conditions for a ‘new discourse’ he had created outside the traditional framework of interstate relations came to a sudden end: seven years after his consecration, Ulfila was expelled from the Gothia and a persecution of Christians began.