Empires and BarbariansMacmillan, 2009 - 734 Seiten "Here is a fresh, provocative look at how a recognizable Europe came into being in the first millennium AD. With sharp analytic insight, Peter Heather explores the dynamics of migration and social and economic interaction that changed two vastly different worlds--the undeveloped barbarian world and the sophisticated Roman Empire--into remarkably similar societies and states. The book's vivid narrative begins at the time of Christ, when the Mediterranean circle, newly united under the Romans, hosted a politically sophisticated, economically advanced, and culturally developed civilization--one with philosophy, banking, professional armies, literature, stunning architecture, even garbage collection. The rest of Europe, meanwhile, was home to subsistence farmers living in small groups, dominated largely by Germanic speakers. Although having some iron tools and weapons, these mostly illiterate peoples worked mainly in wood and never built in stone. The farther east one went, the simpler it became : fewer iron tools and ever less productive economies. And yet ten centuries later, from the Atlantic to the Urals, the European world had turned. Slavic speakers had largely superseded Germanic speakers in central and Eastern Europe, literacy was growing, Christianity had spread, and most fundamentally, Mediterranean supremacy was broken. The emergence of larger and stronger states in the north and east had, by the year 1000, brought patterns of human organization into much greater homogeneity across the continent. Barbarian Europe was barbarian no longer. Bringing the whole of first millennium European history together for the first time, and challenging current arguments that migration played but a tiny role in this unfolding narrative, Empires and Barbarians views the destruction of the ancient world order in the light of modern migration and globalization patterns. The result is a compelling, nuanced, and integrated view of how the foundations of modern Europe were laid"--Provided by publisher. |
Inhalt
MIGRANTS AND BARBARIANS | 1 |
GLOBALIZATION AND THE GERMANI | 36 |
ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME? | 94 |
Urheberrecht | |
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Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
agricultural Alamanni Alans Ammianus Anglo-Saxon areas army Attila's Avar Balkans Baltic barbarian Black Sea Bohemia burials Carpathians central chapter Chronicle collapse Danelaw Danube domination dynasty early east Roman economic Elbe elite emerged Emperor European expansion first-millennium force fourth century Frankish frontier further Gaul Gepids Germanic Germanic Europe Germanic-speaking Gothic Goths Greuthungi group identity Halsall Heather Heruli huge Hunnic Empire Huns immigrants imperial important indigenous kilometres kind kingdom kings Korchak land landscape large numbers leaders least Lombards major Marcomanni Marcomannic War Merovingian Middle Danube migration flows military millennium modern move narrative ninth northern Ostrogoths patterns population Quadi Radagaisus raiding region retinues Rhine River Roman Empire Roman period Rome's Rugi Sarmatians Saxon Scandinavian Sciri settlement sixth century Slavic groups Slavic-speakers Slavs social sources substantial Sueves suggests tenth century territory Tervingi Theoderic third century trade Vandals Viking Visigoths warbands warriors wealth western Wielbark Zosimus