Barbarian Tides: The Migration Age and the Later Roman Empire

Preface

Preface Twenty-five years ago I published Barbarians and Romans A.D. 418-584: The Techniques ofAccommodation. Barbarian Tides is a sequel, a rethought, revised, much expanded, and wholly rewritten version of the earlier book. It is a comprehensive , though certainly not an exhaustive introduction to the activities of northern barbarians in late antiquity, activities often called "the barbarian invasions ." Quite a lot has happened to this field in twenty-five years. Barbarians and Romans pointed hesitantly in a footnote toward future discussions, observing that the continuity of "peoples" seemed to be a matter of current concern and that the idea of an enduring core of tribal tradition was arousing controversy . There has been much discussion since then of"peoples" and "cores of tradition " under the general heading of "ethnicity," and the claim has been widely made that ethnicity was very important in late antiquity. From another angle, late Roman studies have experienced an impressive increase in the attention paid to the cultures of the eastern provinces and to all manner of religious phenomena . Bycomparison, the intrusion ofbarbarians has receded to the margins of interest. My central concern in the present book is not to talk about past ethnicities or "ethnogenesis theory" but to liberate barbarian history from the German nationalism that has suffused it ever since the sixteenth century and, in whatever disguises, continues to do so today. As long ago as 1972, I expressed a wish that someone should write a history of the Migration Age detached from German nationalism. The studies presented here attempt to fill this vacuum or at least illustrate some ways of doing so. History is my subject, not nationalism. Passion of some sort motivates most scholars including me. Nationalism unashamedly affected a vast source collection that medievalists rightly extol and prize, namely, the Monumenta Germaniae historica, "the historical monuments of Germany." The motto its founders adopted at the start of their enterprise in 1819 was"Sacer amor patriae dat animum: A holy love of the fatherland inspires [us]"; and there is little doubt that, without the patriotism of its collaborators, the Monumenta enterprise would have fallen short of its prodigious (and continuing) achievements. Love of country is not on trial here; no apologies or retractions are called for. What is wanted is only a willingness to surmount entrenched tradition and corne x Preface a little closer to understanding the activities of non-Romans in late antiquity. I take issue with misapprehensions of barbarian history, in particular the anachronistic belief, ubiquitous outside as well as inside Germany, that the Migration Age is a "Germanic" subject, in which "barbarians" are synonymous with "Germanic peoples." Strange as it may seem to hear it said, there were no Germanic peoples in late antiquity. The illusion that there were can be outgrown . The barbarian invasions are a deeply interesting slice of the European past; they concern a multiplicity of peoples with names of their own; and they can be approached in other than nationalistic ways. This book, like its predecessor , tries to move the subject in that direction. Three institutions at Yalehave welcomed me and kept me active: the Department of History, Berkeley College, and the Elizabethan Club. I am very grateful to them as well as to the Yalelibraries and librarians that have served me extraordinarily well. The Rockefeller Foundation Study Center at Bellagio allowed me to benefit from its tranquility for an unforgettable month. Parts of this book have been delivered as lectures over the past five years at Chicago, Yale, Bellagio, Harvard, Kalamazoo, and Champaign-Urbana; the audiences that bore with these trial runs have my sympathy and gratitude. A slightly different form of Chapter 4 has appeared in Speculum 80 (2005): 379-98. I am indebted to Patrick Perin for advancing my archaeological education and to Josh Chafetz for help on a legal point. I take special pleasure in thanking Andrew Gillett, Michael Kulikowski, and Alexander C. Murray for looking at drafts of this book and offering their candid advice; readers will see how much lowe to their writings . My wife, Roberta Frank, always my most valued critic, has reconciled the demands of her stellar career with sustaining me through another book. My thanks are scant recompense for her care. ...