Theoderic's Invincible Mustache

The mustachioed visage of Theoderic the Great featured on the commemorative triple solidus known as the Senigallia Medallion has inspired much commentary. Latin, after all, lacked a word for this style of facial hair, and Romans, it is frequently claimed, did not wear mustaches without beards. Some scholars of Late Antiquity thus have interpreted Theoderic's mustache as a marker of his ethnic identity, a defiant and deliberate expression of Gothicness in an otherwise Roman and imperial portrait. This view can be challenged. Thorough examination of literary and artistic evidence demonstrates that lone mustaches were rare among Goths and, moreover, not unique to their culture. A number of ancient and early medieval peoples were mustachioed, and despite scholarly claims to the contrary, many Romans, including certain emperors, were as well. A strictly Gothic, Germanic, or non-Roman reading of Theoderic's facial hair thus proves quite difficult to maintain. And even if the Romans of Italy did view Theoderic's mustache as a sign of Gothicness, such an association appears to have posed little threat to the imperial and Roman claims of the Senigallia Medallion; indeed, it actually complemented them.