Halsall G. Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376-568

New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. – 615 p. – (Cambridge Medieval Textbooks).
ISBN13: 978-0-511-45516-2 eBook (EBL)
ISBN13: 978-0-521-43491-1 hardbackThis is a major new survey of the barbarian migrations and their role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the creation of early medieval Europe, one of the keyevents in European history. Unlike previous studies it integrates historical and archaeological evidence and discusses Britain, Ireland, mainland Europe and North Africa, demonstrating that the Roman Empire and its neighbours were inextricably linked. A narrative account of the turbulent fifth and early sixth centuries is followed by a description of society and politics during the migration period and an analysis of the mechanisms of settlement and the changes of identity. Guy Halsall reveals that the creation and maintenance of kingdoms and empires was impossible without the active involvement of people in the communities of Europe and North Africa. He concludes that, contrary to most opinions, the fall of the Roman Empire produced the barbarian migrations, not vice versa.List of maps and figure pageA note on spellingsRomans and barbarians in the imperial world
How the west was lost and where it got us Saba, Romanus and Guntramn Boso: the problems of government
The barbarians’ role in history
Transformation or fall?
Germanism and Celticism
The present studyDefining identities
Ethnicity
‘Men who have nothing human beyond their limbs and voices’? The Roman view
The barbarian view?The late Roman Empire in the west
Ruling Europe: the early Roman solution
The ‘third-century crisis’
The new empire of the fourth century
The regions
Gender
The church
The army
The late Roman Empire: the problem remainsSociety beyond the frontier
West of the Irish Sea: the Scotti
North of Hadrian’s Wall: the Picti
East of the Rhine: the Germani
North of the Danube: the Goths
Around the African frontier: the MauriRomans and barbarians before 376
The frontier
The barbarian threat?
Roman use of the barbarians
Barbarian use of the Roman Empire
Barbarians within the Roman EmpireA world renegotiated: Western Europe, 376–550
The Gothic crisis, 376–382
Introduction: history and irony
The Hunnic storm
The Gothic entry into the Empire
The Goths rebel
The battle of Adrianople and after
Trying hard to recreate what had yet to be created: historians and the ‘treaty of 382’The crisis of the Empire, 382–410
The usurpations of Magnus Maximus and Eugenius and the death of Theodosius, 383–395
Alaric’s Goths
Alaric, Stilicho and court politics, 395–397
Military withdrawal from the north
Alaric’s invasion of Italy, 397–405
Alaric, king of the Goths?
Radagaisus, 405–406
The great invasion and Constantine ‘III’, 406–408
The fall of Stilicho, 408
Alaric in Italy and the sack of Rome, 408–410
The crisis at the peripheriesThe triumph of the generals, 410–455
The suppression of the usurpers, 410–413
The supremacy of Constantius: the Empire on the offensive, 413–421
Competition for authority, 421–434
Aëtius, Gaiseric and Attila, 434–453
The deaths of Aëtius and Valentinian and the second sack of Rome, 453–455The parting of Gaul and Italy, 455–480
Avitus: the Gauls throw the dice again, 455–456
Majorian, 456–461
The supremacy of Ricimer, 461–472
Ephemeral emperors, 472–480Kingdoms of the Empire, 476–550
Italy: two nations under a Goth?
The Vandals in Africa
The Visigoths from Gaul to Spain
The Burgundian kingdom
Gaul: Clovis and the triumph of the Merovingians
Where no narrative is possible: BritainProvincial society in the long fifth century
The material base: society and economy
Survival strategiesBeyond the old frontier
West of the Irish Sea
North of Hadrian’s Wall
East of the Rhine
Settlements and cemeteries along the old Rhine frontier: the Franks and Alamanni
Around the African frontierRomans and barbarians in a post-imperial world
Mechanisms of migration and settlement
The mechanics of migration
Administered settlement: the hospitalitas question
SettlementNew peoples, new identities, new kingdoms?
New Peoples? Ethnogenesis
Law and ethnicity
Archaeology and ethnogenesis
Language, names and religion
Ethnic change
Gender
New forms of power? 1: post-imperial rulership
New forms of power? 2: aristocracy and nobilityA changed world: the roots of failure
Justinian’s wars
The roots of failure (1): the barbarians
The roots of failure (2): the Romans
A changed world, ‘partly dependent upon unhistoric acts’Appendix: Gildas’ narrative and the identity of the ‘proud tyrant’Primary sources
Secondary works