This was a very scholarly, evidence-based, and heavily researched work on the Goths. This narrative opened with a thorough history of the Gothic peoplThis was a very scholarly, evidence-based, and heavily researched work on the Goths. This narrative opened with a thorough history of the Gothic peoples, their ethnogenesis, and the formation of tribes. Furthermore, Herwig Wolfram explained and thoroughly analyzed their customs, armies, laws, language, social constructs, religious views, interactions to form polyethnic alliances and kingdoms, and their interactions with the Romans, encroaching Huns, and other neighboring ethnic communities. These included the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, Burgundians, the Franks.
The Goths were considered the "poison of the state" (pg 175) to the Romans yet failed to organize themselves as a unified entity to prevent themselves from becoming deluded throughout history. I learned a great deal with the various treaties, foedus, agreed upon between frontier Roman settlements and command elements with the various Goth raiding and warring parties. These included the various Gothic tribes, their alliances, and mentioned heavily the great Gothic kings like Alaric, Fritigern, Ermanaric, and Athanaric. The Goths crossed the Danube in the autumn of 376 provoking war on Roman soil that ended in 416 with Roman decision to settle the Goths in Aquitania by 418.
There was a lot to cover in a review about a book of this magnitude. Overall I was pleased and I felt I learned a great deal. I attempted to cross-reference some of this online and most resources cited this exact book and exact author. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in the Goth peoples and their interactions with the Romans and Byzantium. Thanks!...more
This was a great overview of the Byzantine Empire during its entire existence. The author explained its geopolitical inception of 285 AD to rule the RThis was a great overview of the Byzantine Empire during its entire existence. The author explained its geopolitical inception of 285 AD to rule the Roman Empire as a whole but in two separate but equal entities. Eventually the split of Latin-speaking Roman realm and the Greek-speaking Hellenized realm peaked to form two codependent states by 457 AD. After the barbarian general Odoacer overtook Rome and deposed Augustus Romulus (476 AD) and power grab/land seizure of the last weak Roman emperor Julius Napos (480 AD), Byzantium became the last remaining cultural and religious bastion of Western civilization.
The author gave the narrative of the empire's leaders and politics, internal mechanisms and organization, the uniqueness of its cultural and religious aspects, and interactions with the outside world (military threats from the Bulgars, Arabs, and Persian), the rise and spread of Islam, and the eventual rise of the Ottoman Empire. I was interested in the schism from Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox in 1054 AD. Theological differences (a singular Roman Pope vs. autocephalous patriarchs for example) and other factors were explained nicely.
I enjoyed reading this and felt I learned quite a good bit of information. When I was in public school and taking college classes they always focused on the rise and fall of the Roman Empire and briefly covered the history of Byzantium. I would highly recommend this. Thanks!...more
This was a good overview of Roman involvement in Gaul and the smaller account in Germany. The author presented the information clearly and gave lots oThis was a good overview of Roman involvement in Gaul and the smaller account in Germany. The author presented the information clearly and gave lots of details regarding this unique history. The history covered the Roman and Caesar's movement up into Gaul, the attempts of Romanization, the subsequent revolt under chief Vercingetorix, and gradual civil rest and cultural assimilation creating a Gallo-Roman hybrid culture. The author gave lots of details about the uniqueness including towns and cities, rural life and farming, economics and infrastructure, and the gradual development of a Romano-Celtic pagan religion. The region eventually became replaced by the Frankish tribes to become modern-day France.
The author then explained the German interaction. This consisted mostly of frontier stability that was continually interrupted by Germanic tribes leading guerrilla warfare against Roman outposts. The Romans did establish communities, trading and economic centers, and Christian churches that stand to this day. But the Germanic tribes never Romanized and remained problematic for the rest of Rome's history.
I enjoyed this and learned quite a bit. I would recommend this to anyone interested in Roman history and their history in France and Germany. Thanks!...more
I actually thought this was a fun read. The author presented a lot of information from many resources in order to postulate the existence of Atlantis.I actually thought this was a fun read. The author presented a lot of information from many resources in order to postulate the existence of Atlantis. Atlantis was assumed to exist in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and was destroyed in the Earth's great flood, the deluge. The only remnants of its existence are the current Azore Islands (pg. 43). The author says these are the mountain tops of Atlantis' highest peaks. Extending from Atlantis there were various mountain ridges that connected Europe, North Africa, and the Americas. The author's focus of the book is to prove Atlantis was real by various connections across cultures. [image] The author presented a lot of evidence in various ways. There was stuff about coexisting intercontinental plants (bananas, mangos, corn, tobacco, and trees such as oaks and sequoias), animals (deer, elk, bears, wolves). Every culture has a story of the Great Flood, the Deluge. I was overwhelmed at how many peoples have the same story and the man who was the messenger: the Abrahamic faiths (Noah and his wife), Greek (Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha and the later story of another savior named Ogyges), Hindu (Manu), Chaldean (Khasisatra), ancient Mexican (Coxcox and his wife Xochiquetzal), and many other peoples.
This book was filled with many connections such as architectural/structural (pyramids of Egypt and Mexico; earth mounds of the American Mississippi Valley people, cyclopean masonry of the Inca), metallurgy (bronze, iron), astronomy, linguistic, customs and legends, and many others. There was much mythological/religious/historical discussion about the ancient Hebrews, Phoenicians, Baal, Dagon (half man-half fish), Chronos/Saturn, Poseidon/Neptune, Scandinavians, the Tuatha Dé Danann of Irish folklore, and American indigenous groups such the Toltecs, Yucatans, Ojibwe/Chippewa, and Dakota. There is so much here and you're better off reading it!
I found interesting the 'coming from the east' and a 'mountain in the water' story. The story goes to show a place called Aztlan, original home-island of the Central American peoples (pg. 332)
The elder Montezuma said to Cortez,"Our fathers dwelt in that happy and prosperous place they called Aztlan which means whiteness....In this place there is a great mountain in the middle of the water pg. 326
Overall this was extremely interesting. Even though it's all speculation, the book sparked a lot of curiosity on my end with all the historical, cultural, mythological, and archaeological evidence the author attempted to link. I would highly recommend this to someone interested in Atlantis and ancient history. Thanks!...more
This is an encyclopedic tome of Roman involvement, conquest and expansion, and eventual decline in the British Isles. This was loaded with informationThis is an encyclopedic tome of Roman involvement, conquest and expansion, and eventual decline in the British Isles. This was loaded with information, very dry and straightforward, and academic in its unbiased presentation.
Having said that, the book is divided into five sections. Each subsection began with a heading and the top-right of each page had a topic that was discussed. The table of contents listed all these subsections and topics to allow quick referencing and page finding.
The five chapters were in chronological order: 1. The First Roman Contacts. This included prehistoric Britain and the late Iron Age, the Celtic peoples and culture, and the expeditions of Caesar and Claudius. 2. The Roman Conquest. This included the Claudian invasion and permanent occupation of Britain, resistance and revolt from the various peoples like the Brigantes, stability against hostile aggression, and Hadrianic Britain and the building of Hadrian's Wall. 3. Imperial Crisis and Recovery. This included continued civil unrest, further growth and expansion, barbarian violence, Constantine the Great and reform, the 4th Century, and the restoration of order among continued Roman decline. 4. Roman Britain and Fifth Century World. This included the collapse of the Roman Empire and the ripple effect, the end of the Western World, and the scene of the new British Isles and Gaul (St. Patrick, King Arthur, Clovis) through 500 AD. 5. Britain Under Roman Rule. This was extensive about the daily aspects and influences in Britain. This included: A. Assimilation (Romanization, administrative policies, laws) B. Town and Country (urbanization, finances, public services, rural life, settlements) C. The Economy (agriculture, mining, textiles and mosaics, pottery, iron working) D. Religion and Society (Celto-Roman religion, Druids, healing cults, death and burial rites, Mithraism, paganism)
The beginning text had maps to show the pre-Roman tribes, expansion and growth from Forties AD to third and early fourth centuries AD, road systems, provincial boundaries, the Tetrachy, and the Roman world at 400 AD.
Overall this was a wealth of knowledge on the subject. I would recommend this to anyone interested in Roman history and their place in British history. Thanks!...more
The city's Bishop came to confront the advancing Huns and said 'I am Lupus, a man of God.' At this, Attila came up with a smart one-liner, in i
[image]
The city's Bishop came to confront the advancing Huns and said 'I am Lupus, a man of God.' At this, Attila came up with a smart one-liner, in impeccable Latin: Ego sum Attilla, flagellum Dei — 'I am Attila, the Scourge of God.', pg. 220
I thought this was well-researched and put together well. The author did a good job at telling the back story and explaining the archaeological, cultural-historical, and folkloric dimensions attached to the mystique of the Huns. The author does a good job of showing the link of the Huns from the pastoral nomadic people, the Xiongnu (also spelled Hsiung-nu). It is a real possibility the Huns came out of present-day Mongolia, migrated west out of the region because of wars/tensions with the Han Chinese, pushed through the Dzungarian Gap, across the steppes of Russia, and settled "somewhere north of the Black Sea, the edge of the Roman world.", pg. 59
"The Huns were on the move westward, away from the grasslands of Kazakhstan and the plains north of the Aral Sea, wanderers who faced a choice between sinking into oblivion or climbing at new heights of conquest, pg. 71". The Huns would enter the region by 404 and Attila would establish his operating base out present-day Hungary between 435-51 AD and further terrorize the Roman Empire. "The Hun advance sent shock waves as far as Jerusalem, where Jerome concluded that God's punishment had descended again on the immoral Roman world in the form of savage tribes, pg. 115".
This book had a lot of information pertaining to the Huns and barbarians: horsemanship, the recurve bow and archery, pastoral-nomadism, and much more. The book can go off into tangents with extra information but it all ties-in nicely. I would recommend this book because it was a fast read, the readability was great, and I honestly learned a great deal. Thanks!...more
I found this full of information about an overlooked ancient peoples. I learned quite a bit about their wars, conquests, and various cultural aspects I found this full of information about an overlooked ancient peoples. I learned quite a bit about their wars, conquests, and various cultural aspects that are rarely mentioned in other places. I remember reading about Vercingetorix and Arminius in "Caesar Against The Celts" by Ramon L. Jimenez. Recommended book for anyone interest in this topic. Thanks!...more
This was a rich and well-researched book on one of the Roman greats. I thought the book was very heavy in details. There were a lot of historical figuThis was a rich and well-researched book on one of the Roman greats. I thought the book was very heavy in details. There were a lot of historical figures, places, and events. If you are not super familiar with Roman history of this time, you will probably spend a lot of time looking them up (like I did). It was very informative but the reading slowed me down at times. ...more
The military expedition into the Gallic territory and British Isles. The author draws upon modern archaeological, linguistic and historical research, The military expedition into the Gallic territory and British Isles. The author draws upon modern archaeological, linguistic and historical research, which includes identification of the sites of many of Caesar's battle camps and sieges. From what I understood, Caesar never intended to stay in the British Isles....more
Loading...
