Fifth-Century Gaul: A Crisis of Identity?

by John Drinkwater, Hugh Elton

Overview

The papers presented in this book take as their subject the military, political and economic changes forced upon the inhabitants of Gaul during the fifth century AD. They seek to describe and explain how Gallo-Romans of all orders of society reacted to barbarian invasion and the growing debilitation of the western imperial government. The unusually wide range of topics dealt with allows the Gallic experience to be viewed and interpreted from many different directions. Much is made of the problematic, because highly subjective, nature of the literary sources; but close attention is also given to modern advances in our understanding of the archaeological and numismatic data. The whole presents a picture of a society under immense stress, as the people of the Gallic provinces abandoned, perforce, their allegiance to Roman emperors and yielded to the rule of Germanic kings, while yet preserving a significant element of their late antique culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521529334
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/12/2002
Series:	Crisis of Identity?
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	6.02(w) x 8.98(h) x 1.02(d)

Table of Contents

Chronological table; Introduction; Part I. The Literary Sources: 1. Continuity or calamity: the constraints of literary models I. N. Wood; 2. From Gallia Romana to Gallia Gothica: the view from Spain R. W. Burgess; 3. Looking back from the mid-century: the Gallic chronicler of 452 and the crisis of Honorius' reign S. Muhlberger; 4. Old Kaspars: Attila's invasion of Gaul in the literary sources S. Barnish; Part II. The Gothic Settlement of 418: 5. The settlement of 418 I. S. Burns; 6. Relations between Visigoths and Romans in fifth-century Gaul C. E. N. Nixon; 7. Alaric's Goths: nation or army? W. Liebeschuetz; 8. The emergence of the Visigothic kingdom P. Heather; Part III. The Immediate Crisis 406–418: 9. Barbarians in Gaul: the response of the poets M. Roberts; Part IV. Recovery: Social and Economic: 10. The Anicii of Gaul and Rome T. S. Mommaerts and D. H. Kelley; 11. Meridional Gaul, trade and the Mediterranean economy in late antiquity R. B. Hitchner; 12. Town and country in late antique Gaul: the example of Bordeaux H. Sivan; 13. Bishops and cathedrals: order and diversity in the fifth-century urban landscape of southern Gaul S. T. Loseby; 14. The fifth-century villa: new life or death postponed? J. Percival; Part V: Recovery: Political and Military: 15. Defence in fifth-century Gaul H. Elton; Part VI. A Crisis of Identity: 16. Roman, local and barbarian coinages in fifth-century Gaul C. E. King; 17. The origins of the Reihengraberzivilisation: forty years on G. Halsall; 18. The Bagaudae of fifth-century Gaul J. F. Drinkwater; 19. Slavery, the Roman legacy R. Samson; 20. Fifth-century visitors to Italy: business or pleasure? R. W. Mathisen; 21. The 'affair' of Hilary of Arles (445) and Gallo-Roman identity in the fifth century M. Heinzelmann; 22. Crisis and conversion in fifth-century Gaul: aristocrats and ascetics between 'horizontality' and 'verticality' M. A. Wes; 23. Gaul and the Holy Land in the early fifth century E. D. Hunt; 24. Ethnicity, orthodoxy and community in Salvian of Marseilles M. Maas; Part VII. The Resolution of the Crisis: 25. Emperors and emperors in fifth-century Gaul S. Fanning; 26. Sidonius Apollinaris and the barbarians: a climate of treason? J. Harries; 27. Un-Roman activities in late antique Gaul: the cases of Arvandus amd Seronatus H. C. Teitler; Part VIII. Conclusion: 28. The Pirenne thesis and fifth-century Gaul R. Van Dam; References; Index.