The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples / Edition 1

by Herwig Wolfram, Thomas Dunlap

Overview

The names of early Germanic warrior tribes and leaders resound in songs and legends; the real story of the part they played in reshaping the ancient world is no less gripping. Herwig Wolfram's panoramic history spans the great migrations of the Germanic peoples and the rise and fall of their kingdoms between the third and eighth centuries, as they invaded, settled in, and ultimately transformed the Roman Empire.

As Germanic military kings and their fighting bands created kingdoms, and won political and military recognition from imperial governments through alternating confrontation and accommodation, the "tribes" lost their shared culture and social structure, and became sharply differentiated. They acquired their own regions and their own histories, which blended with the history of the empire. In Wolfram's words, "the Germanic peoples neither destroyed the Roman world nor restored it; instead, they made a home for themselves within it."

This story is far from the "decline and fall" interpretation that held sway until recent decades. Wolfram's narrative, based on his sweeping grasp of documentary and archaeological evidence, brings new clarity to a poorly understood period of Western history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520244900
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	03/18/2005
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	381
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Herwig Wolfram is Professor of History at the University of Vienna. His earlier History of the Goths (California, 1988) has been widely acclaimed. Thomas Dunlap, translator of History of the Goths and a number of other books including Joachim Bumke's Courtly Culture (California, 1991), lives and works in Belmont, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

LIST OF GENEALOGICAL CHARTS 
CHRONOLOGIES 
INTRODUCTION 
ONE
Kings, Heroes, and Tribal Origins 
TWO
The Empire and the "New" Peoples:From the Marcomannic Wars to the End of the Third Century 
THREE
The Germanic Peoples as Enemies and Servants of the Empire in the Fourth Century
FOUR
Emperorship and Kingship on Roman Soil 
FIVE
The Hunnic Alternative 
SIX
The Kingdom of Toulouse (418-507):Pioneering Achievement and Failed Accommodation 
SEVEN
The Vandals (406-534): A Unique Case? 
EIGHT
Odovacar, or the Roman Empire That Did Not End 
NINE
Theodoric (451-526) and Clovis (466/467-511) 
TEN
A Battle for Rome (526l535-552/555) 
ELEVEN
Britain Too Was Not Conquered:The Making of England in the Fifth and Sixth Centuries 
TWELVE
The Burgundians: Weakness and Resilience (407/413-534) 
THIRTEEN
The Spanish Kingdom of the Visigoths (507/568-711/725):The First Nation of Europe 
FOURTEEN
The Longobard Epilogue (488-643/652) 
FIFTEEN
The Transformation of the Roman World 
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 
NOTES 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
INDEX
MAPS 

Editorial Reviews

In a comprehensive reinterpretation of the role of barbaric tribes in Roman history, Wolfram (History/Univ. of Vienna) seeks to "trace the beginnings of a history of the Germans" by examining in depth the role of the Germanic tribes in the development, transformation, and collapse of the Roman Empire.

Wolfram takes issue with the conventional view that the Germanic peoples precipitated the decline of Rome, arguing instead that they unremarkably "made a home for themselves within" the Roman Empire. Nonetheless, his detailed survey makes clear the breathtaking transformation wrought by the Germanic tribes: At first simply alien "new peoples" who at the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180 a.d. seemed subjugated like the Gauls before them, Germanic tribes, particularly the Franks, Alamanni, and Goths, began attacking the Roman frontier with vigor and increasing success in the early third century. After gaining territory along the Rhine, they won further territorial concessions in return for military allegiance to Rome. After the sackings of Rome in the fifth century, Christianized Germanic tribes blended Roman with barbaric influences, creating a distinctive culture that dominated the continent. Wolfram details the pervasive influence of Germanic tribes on the growth of early medieval Europe, including the development of Visigothic, Vandalic, Burgundian, Frankish, and Longobard kingdoms on Roman soil; the 100-year kingdom of Toulouse, which codified and helped perpetuate Roman law in the West; the dominance of North Africa for over 100 years by the Arian Christian Vandals; and the defeat and probable absorption of the Huns by the Germanic peoples.

Despite himself, Wolfram establishes that the Germanic nations arose from the darkness of prehistory to transform the great culture of Rome and in so doing set the stage for the emergence not only of Christendom, but also ultimately of Germany and the other nation-states of Europe.

Kirkus Reviews