Identità e universalismo: i barbari da nemici ad alleati. Il cristianesimo come passaporto di romanità (Orosio, Le Storie contro i pagani)

Both pagans and Christians regarded barbarians as evil and blamed each other for the danger that threatened the Empire. Regarding this issue, modern historiography singles Orosius out from the other Christian writers. In Orosius’ universalistic, non-Romanocentric and theological History against the Pagans, barbarians are not regarded as evil but as a fair instrument to punish the pagans. This study argues that in Orosius’ History barbarians are in a particularly close relationship with Christianity. For Orosius, there were no barbari in pre- Christian times, but only victims of pagan Rome: populi, civitates, gentes and nationes were singled out as specific identities only in a relative manner. The barbari as a unitary cultural and religious identity, approved negatively, enter Orosius’ History only during the Empire and only together with Christianity. If the barbarians are still pagans, Orosius points out, this is as an instrument of divine punishment; if they convert then they are no longer enemies, but religious and military allies against those Romans who still remain pagan. Barbarians thus become an instrument of salvation.