Europe\'s Barbarians 200-600

[Ingvar Sigurdson]

Hi

Has anyone purchased and read this title;
http://www.pearsoned.co.uk/Bookshop/det ... 0000036659
If so, what areyour thoughts and is it worth buying.

best
Ingvar

[Kolba]

Very interesting! I will definitely buy this book.

[Ingvar Sigurdson]

There is also another title that I am interested in which accompanied an exhibit in Venice n 2008. See here
http://www.palazzograssi.it/roma/en/index.html

A link to the book is here
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rome-Barbarians ... pd_sim_b_5

Any feed back on this title?

best
Dave

[Medicus matt]

A link to the book is here
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rome-Barbarians ... pd_sim_b_5

Any feed back on this title?

best
Dave

It's fantastic mate, I picked up a copy at the BM in 2008, well worth the money.
Second best book purchase of the year, after the catalogue for the Merovingians exhibition I saw in Moscow.

[Ingvar Sigurdson]

Cheers for the feed back Mat, I thinkI know the other book you refer to, is it the excellent 'The Merovingian Age; Europe without Borders' by Menghin et all? I think thats the title without running upstairs to check!

best
Dave

[Ingvar Sigurdson]

Well I recieved the book and I must say an enjoyable read and would recommend it as on overview of past and present views and debate.
The text is broken down into the following chapters

Who are the barbarians.
The barbarians before AD376
The barbarians from 376 TO 476
The barbarians after 476
Ethnicity, ethnogenisis and identity
The barbarians at home
Barbarians in Roman emplyment
Barbarians on the move
Assimilation, acculturation, and accommodation
From paganism to Christianities
Kingdom, kingship and law
Conclusions
Notes, biblography and index

There is much to enjoy especially on topics frequently occuring on this forum.

best
Dave

[constantius]

Sounds like a good book. Who is it written for? If I may ask. Did it give you a new understanding, new theories or reiterated and clarified what you knew already ?

[Alanus]

Please! Is it generalizations or does the book have some "meat?

[Ingvar Sigurdson]

Hi sorry for the delayed reply..life gets busy some times! The book does have meat and often quite witty remarks. I guess if anything it reinforces my belief that at uncertain times like we are living through now with the collapse of one super power in Europe and as countries previously dominated by that power search for national identities we all need reminding that no nation or culture is seperate from itself and that we all share more in our pasts then some who would try to seperate us now through fear and ignorance would perhaps prefer us not to believe...but to make your own mind up all I can truly say is read it your self and form your own opinion, sorry I can not be more elequent. The author does acknowledge that there is a whole corpus of new research in non anglophone academic circles and states that in order to publish a book ten years in the making he has had to concentrate on english language published research to enable the book to published in time.

The other book that I queried about 'Rome and the Barbarians' I only just recieved and from first impressions, it's a mighty tome of 600 plus pages, excellent photographs of artifacts, Alamanni, Ostrogoth, Visigothic, Hunnic, Alan, Avar, Langobardic etc. It will take some to to read!
cheers
Dave

[Alanus]

Ingvar,

Thanks for getting back on that. I was wondering if it was the same old same old, or whether the author took a new approach, especially the "big picture." I think you answered that. I never find much on my particular interest-- the Indo-Iranian tribes, aka the Saka, Massagetae, Saraumate-Sarmatians, Iazyges, Roxolani, Alans, and Taifali. They also helped change the face of Europe, but seldom discussed by academics (except the Russians and Hungarians).

[Ingvar Sigurdson]

Hi Alanus

The book is a good overview of the various academic threads on the intercourse between the 'barbarians' and the Romans, although he does voice his own thoughts on the subject too. It is very accessable, and some of the peoples you mention get a look in too. I found it quite absorbing. The other book is a 'WOW'!!

Best
Dave

[Robert Vermaat]

I haven't read either of these books yet, as I'm urrently reading another that i warmly recommend:
Halsall, Guy: Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376-568 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).

Guy is also a member of this forum. :wink:

[Ingvar Sigurdson]

Hi Robert,

I'm expecting another good read in the post, fellow Ulfhednar member Steve Pollington's co-authored new title 'Wayland's Work' another mighty 500 plus pages, 62 colour plates. Very much looking forward to recieving it, as it looks at the 6th-7th Century Anglo-Saxon period.

best
Dave

[Medicus matt]

I haven't read either of these books yet, as I'm urrently reading another that i warmly recommend:
Halsall, Guy: Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376-568 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).

Guy is also a member of this forum. :wink:

Spooky. I'm currently going through that as well.
And Sam Moorhead's new 410 book.
And an old copy of Cottrell's 'Seeing Roman Britain' (in which he talks about an amphitheatre at Winchester?)

[Alanus]

Salve, You all

It seems like "suddenly" this historical era is getting coverage from "new" authors. How welcomed! Maybe the dark ages will get brighter.