Re Teodorico costruttore di flotte

This article examines a group of letters of the Variae concerning the building of an Ostrogothic fleet by Theoderic. These letters, though well known, lack detailed analysis in modern historiography. The author deals with the relationship between the Goths (and Germanic peoples in general) and the sea. It is possible to maintain that even if navigation was not an obstacle to barbaric settlement in the empire, maritime culture did not characterize the traditions of the Goths. Gothic mentality viewed the sea with the same feeling of distrust as the Romans did.