The battle of Frigidus (394 AD): Confluence of the Theodosian propaganda in Christian coeval testimonies
The battle of Frigidus (394 AD): Confluence of the Theodosian propaganda in Christian coeval testimonies

Summary/Abstract: The present paper intends to examine the historiographic reconstruction of the battle fought near the Frigidus river, fought by the armies of Theodosius and Eugene, on the basis of contemporary Christian literary testimonies. In particular, the article will focus on a narrative detail, such as that of the appearance of the strong wind on the second day of the war conflict, which has a central role in Christian sources: in fact, it has been interpreted as a prodigious and providential event that overturned the outcome of the battle in favor of Theodosius. Therefore, the research will highlight the descriptive variants regarding both the temporal location and the action of the wind during the battle: in this way, it will be shown how the topos of the providential wind was built and consolidated in the literary tradition, assuming the narrative function of the decisive event of the Theodosian victory. Furthermore, the present paper aims to provide a careful and precise interpretation of the cultural and political significance of this literary topos, relating it to the Theodosian propaganda of the end of the fourth century. In fact, some narrative details of contemporary Christian texts will be analyzed: they will turn out to be echoes of precise political and propaganda motifs of the late Theodosian age. Based on these similarities, the research aims to highlight how Theodosian propaganda flows into the works of Christian intellectuals, in a sort of ideological osmosis that strengthens the binomial between the State and the Catholic religion.

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