De aetate Athalarici regis Gothorum a. 526° (Iord. Get. 304)

Iordanes (Get. 304) reports that Athalaric was ‘vix decennis’ (“barely ten years old”) when he was appointed king of the Ostrogoths by Theoderic. However, this information is contradicted by the same author, who writes that Athalaric was eight years old when he came to the throne (Rom. 367), and by Procopius of Caesarea, who indicates the same age in Bell. Goth. 1.2.1. A closer examination of the critical apparatus of Mommsen’s edition allows to overcome this contradiction. The manuscript referred to as O has the reading ‘detennem’, which could be a textual corruption for ‘decennem’, but could equally bear witness to a previous phase of the textual transmission, when Get. 304 had the reading ‘octennem’ insted of ‘decennem’, the latter being clearly a lectio facilior. Iordanes’ works were almost certainly written in uncial script at first and uncial O and D are quite similar, as C and E, therefore it is likely that ‘octennem’ became first ‘detennem’, then ‘decennem’. The adjective ‘octennis’ is attested by both Amm. 18.6.8 and Isid. Orig. 11.2.11, who use it in order to indicate the age of a child, exactly as Iordanes does. If he wrote ‘vix octennem’ instead of ‘vix decennem’, then the contradiction between Get. 304 on one hand and Rom. 367 and Proc. Bell. Goth. 1.2.1 on the other ceases to exist and we can conclude that Athalaric was (barely) eight years old when he ascended the throne.