“At Home among Strangers”: Barbarian Attributes on Images of Early Byzantine Generals

Abstract

The research focuses on images of two early Byzantine generals: Aspar on a silver missorium of 434 and Areobindus on ivory diptychs of 506. The goal of the study is to establish the presence of any attributes on the mentioned portraits that may indicate the origin of these generals’ ancestors from the barbaricum. The author analyzed other known iconographic and written sources of the late antique period and concluded that the hairstyles of Aspar and Areobindus could have been widespread in the areas of the Chernyakhov culture and were of Sarmatian-Alan origin. © Stratum plus.