Transformacja arystokracji rzymskiej na terenach galijskich w V wieku

Abstract

The article aims to present transformation of Roman aristocracy in the Gaul territory in the V century. Analyzing rich legacy of Sydoniusz Apollinaris, who represented Gaul-Roman elites, we can recreate the picture of Gaul of his days – shown against the background of transformations taking place in the Roman Empire. The V century seems to be critical in the history of Gaul, as it was then that various barbaric tribes, wading through the defense line on the Rhine, “flooded” the Gaul territory. Simultaneously numerous usurpations of imperial power occurred in the West, causing weakening of Roman influence in the dependent provinces. In this situation, Roman aristocracy, playing until that moment a key role in preservation of traditional Roman administration and of Church organizations – deeply rooted in the territories belonging to the Empire, and thus guaranteeing the continuity of the imperial authority – was bound to answer a difficult question: what to do, when the territorial dependency disappears together with the disappearance of the Western Empire? That is why in the West a certain transformation was to occur; a new order, based on three interconnected elements; Romanitas, Germanitas i Christianitas, was to be created.