Notes 7
The Roman Empire committed suicide by accident?
The further back the events the easier it is for the historian to “see it coming”
Who are the Barbarians?
Burgundian code
Refer to themselves as Barbarians not Romans
What do we know
From Archaeology
Have settlements but not urban
Have grave sites
Have trade with Roman Empire
Roman items buried with them on occasion
Main written source for pre-invasion German tribes is Tacitus
Best known for his
Pessimistic annals of the Roman Empire
In Germania
For Tacitus the Germans are
Childlike and noble
Warlike
The general Roman view on Barbarians
Intent on invading the empire and enjoying the riches
Never visited Germania
Write about them as a way of castigating the Romans
Contrast a beautiful natural simple world
Gaugins paintings
Melville
Compared to fatiguing rat race
Warlike concerned with personal bravery and honour
Close family ties
Heterosexuals
Treat women well
Contrasting with Romans
Some vices
Lazy
Drunk
Quarrel
Gamble
True of later German practices
Tacitus does not make up for a moral purpose
Comitatus
Extend kinship
My second cousin will repay you if you kill me
Wergeld
Compensation for hurt killing
Cost – depend on who he is and what he did
Before enter empire
Lived in little villages
Cattle raisers
Cultivated grain
Iron working
Spot of raiding
Above clan level
Federation or tribes?
Who are the Visigoths?
Come together
Invent notion that from one place
Ethnogenesis
Not a lot of evidence that they were searching for common ancestor
Come into empire as
Refugees
Allied troops
Federati
Supported by a system with bland name of hospitality
Goffart
Destroyed idea of invasion with arrows on map
Came from here, then there
506 – Franks defeat Visigoths
500 – most impressive Barbarians Ostrogoths – in Italy
Been in Crimea
Balkans
Tried to attack Constantinople
Impressive ruler
Theodoric
Ruled from Ravenna
Roman education survived in Italy for a bit
Boethesius
Last person to try and spread Greek knowledge
In prison wrote
The consolation of Philosophy
Cassiodorus
Lives till 90ish
Transmits to us liberal arts
Invents idea that monks should copy literature
Liberal arts – things that are not immediately practically useful
Help illuminate the person seeking after knowledge
Seeking God and the divine
Bible not an immediately evident document
View of world full of mysteries
Very few intellectuals in the Barbarian kingdom
After Theodoric dies 535
Eastern empire invades
20 year war in Italy
Vandals
Less accommodating than the Ostragoths
More fiercely Arian
Persecuted bishops
Plundered Rome several times in fifth century
Strong rulers
506 kingdom shrunk
Fought among each other
Anglo Saxons
From continent in 440s
First place to withdraw
Britain
Celtic majority
Very little knowledge of what is going on
Brugundians
Very status orientated
Law shows a lot of Roman influence
If my dog bites you and kills you
No revenge if accident
Compensation for victims
In west
Injure me – you break peace offend state
In early times – more personal