John F. Drinkwater
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199295685
- eISBN:
- 9780191711718
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199295685.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
The Alamanni were a Germanic people that figure prominently in the history of the later Empire. Despite their high profile, there has been surprisingly little written on them in English. This study ...
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The Alamanni were a Germanic people that figure prominently in the history of the later Empire. Despite their high profile, there has been surprisingly little written on them in English. This study aims to fill the gap. Drawing on the latest literary, historical, and archaeological research, it seeks to establish the origins of the Alamanni, the pattern and character of their settlement, the main features of their society, and the nature and significance of their relationship with Rome. It centres on the mid-4th century, recorded in detail by a variety of sources including Ammianus Marcellinus and the emperor Julian. It argues that, like the other western Germani encountered by Rome from the 1st century BC, the Alamanni were economically, socially, and politically far too weak to endanger the Empire. However, Roman rulers conjured up a ‘Germanic threat’, and exploited it for their own political ends. Rather than constantly imperilling the Empire's existence, the Alamanni became too closely linked to its fortunes. It was for this reason, in particular Roman restriction of their ability to unite under strong leaders, that unlike their long-standing neighbours the Burgundians and Franks, the Alamanni failed to establish a post-Roman successor kingdom in the 5th century.Less
The Alamanni were a Germanic people that figure prominently in the history of the later Empire. Despite their high profile, there has been surprisingly little written on them in English. This study aims to fill the gap. Drawing on the latest literary, historical, and archaeological research, it seeks to establish the origins of the Alamanni, the pattern and character of their settlement, the main features of their society, and the nature and significance of their relationship with Rome. It centres on the mid-4th century, recorded in detail by a variety of sources including Ammianus Marcellinus and the emperor Julian. It argues that, like the other western Germani encountered by Rome from the 1st century BC, the Alamanni were economically, socially, and politically far too weak to endanger the Empire. However, Roman rulers conjured up a ‘Germanic threat’, and exploited it for their own political ends. Rather than constantly imperilling the Empire's existence, the Alamanni became too closely linked to its fortunes. It was for this reason, in particular Roman restriction of their ability to unite under strong leaders, that unlike their long-standing neighbours the Burgundians and Franks, the Alamanni failed to establish a post-Roman successor kingdom in the 5th century.
John F. Drinkwater
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199295685
- eISBN:
- 9780191711718
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199295685.003.0010
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
In this period, the Empire weakened and Germani—strange (Visigoths) and familiar (Burgundians and Franks)—increasingly exploited the opportunity to partition Gaul, but not the Alamanni. These, in ...
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In this period, the Empire weakened and Germani—strange (Visigoths) and familiar (Burgundians and Franks)—increasingly exploited the opportunity to partition Gaul, but not the Alamanni. These, in line with cultural developments elsewhere in the western Germanic world, grew socially and politically more sophisticated, and their numbers were swelled by further waves of Elbe-Germanic migration. However, apart from their usual opportunistic raiding and a short spell in the 450s when they were under Hunnic domination, they remained loyal to the Empire. Their expansion, when it came, was marginal; and from around 496 they were absorbed by the Franks. This was principally because of their continuing symbiosis with Rome, which inhibited independent development and tied their fortunes to those of the declining Empire.Less
In this period, the Empire weakened and Germani—strange (Visigoths) and familiar (Burgundians and Franks)—increasingly exploited the opportunity to partition Gaul, but not the Alamanni. These, in line with cultural developments elsewhere in the western Germanic world, grew socially and politically more sophisticated, and their numbers were swelled by further waves of Elbe-Germanic migration. However, apart from their usual opportunistic raiding and a short spell in the 450s when they were under Hunnic domination, they remained loyal to the Empire. Their expansion, when it came, was marginal; and from around 496 they were absorbed by the Franks. This was principally because of their continuing symbiosis with Rome, which inhibited independent development and tied their fortunes to those of the declining Empire.
John F. Drinkwater
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199295685
- eISBN:
- 9780191711718
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199295685.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
Permanent Elbe-Germanic settlement in Alamannia developed from the later 3rd century, scattered along the upper Rhine and upper Danube, and up the Main and Neckar. Its frequent proximity to the ...
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Permanent Elbe-Germanic settlement in Alamannia developed from the later 3rd century, scattered along the upper Rhine and upper Danube, and up the Main and Neckar. Its frequent proximity to the imperial frontier suggests that it grew up under Roman sufferance. Most settlements were small, simple, and rural, and did not continue the previous Roman socio-economic order, or Roman levels of agriculture, industry, or commerce. However, there was also a range of extra-rural hill-sites (‘Höhensiedlungen’), the grandest of which were probably seats of local royal power, again perhaps constructed under Roman licence. Alamannia was always subject to shifts in population, as migrants, traders, and raiders circulated in an area that extended from Basel to Bohemia (the ‘Elbe-Germanic triangle’). From the Roman viewpoint, these became ‘Alamanni’ when they entered Alamannia, and Elbe-Germani when they left. Besides Romans, the Alamanni had to deal with Germanic neighbours, in particular Franks and, usually hostile, Burgundians.Less
Permanent Elbe-Germanic settlement in Alamannia developed from the later 3rd century, scattered along the upper Rhine and upper Danube, and up the Main and Neckar. Its frequent proximity to the imperial frontier suggests that it grew up under Roman sufferance. Most settlements were small, simple, and rural, and did not continue the previous Roman socio-economic order, or Roman levels of agriculture, industry, or commerce. However, there was also a range of extra-rural hill-sites (‘Höhensiedlungen’), the grandest of which were probably seats of local royal power, again perhaps constructed under Roman licence. Alamannia was always subject to shifts in population, as migrants, traders, and raiders circulated in an area that extended from Basel to Bohemia (the ‘Elbe-Germanic triangle’). From the Roman viewpoint, these became ‘Alamanni’ when they entered Alamannia, and Elbe-Germani when they left. Besides Romans, the Alamanni had to deal with Germanic neighbours, in particular Franks and, usually hostile, Burgundians.
Robin Whelan
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780520295957
- eISBN:
- 9780520968684
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520295957.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
After a brief consideration of the end of Vandal rule and a summary of the book’s conclusions, this epilogue treats Homoian Christianity across the successor kingdoms. It compares the ecclesiastical ...
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After a brief consideration of the end of Vandal rule and a summary of the book’s conclusions, this epilogue treats Homoian Christianity across the successor kingdoms. It compares the ecclesiastical politics of post-imperial Africa with those of Italy, Gaul, and Spain, focusing on three central issues: efforts toward Christian uniformity, the relationship between ethnic and Christian identity, and the conduct of ecclesiastical controversy through heresiology and debate. It argues that Homoian Christianity had a similar range of potential consequences across the Visigothic, Burgundian, and Ostrogothic kingdoms. What separates the Vandal kingdom from its transmarine neighbors are crucial differences of degree, which manifested themselves most clearly in those moments where ecclesiastical controversy was made to matter. Vandal Africa was not an outlier in the post-imperial West.Less
After a brief consideration of the end of Vandal rule and a summary of the book’s conclusions, this epilogue treats Homoian Christianity across the successor kingdoms. It compares the ecclesiastical politics of post-imperial Africa with those of Italy, Gaul, and Spain, focusing on three central issues: efforts toward Christian uniformity, the relationship between ethnic and Christian identity, and the conduct of ecclesiastical controversy through heresiology and debate. It argues that Homoian Christianity had a similar range of potential consequences across the Visigothic, Burgundian, and Ostrogothic kingdoms. What separates the Vandal kingdom from its transmarine neighbors are crucial differences of degree, which manifested themselves most clearly in those moments where ecclesiastical controversy was made to matter. Vandal Africa was not an outlier in the post-imperial West.
Bonnie Effros
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199696710
- eISBN:
- 9780191804885
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199696710.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
This book brings to light an unexpected side effect of France's nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution. While laying tracks for new rail lines, quarrying for stone, and expanding lands under ...
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This book brings to light an unexpected side effect of France's nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution. While laying tracks for new rail lines, quarrying for stone, and expanding lands under cultivation, French labourers uncovered bones and artefacts from long-forgotten cemeteries. Although their original owners were unknown, research by a growing number of amateur archaeologists of the bourgeois class determined that these were the graves of Germanic ‘warriors’, and their work, presented in provincial learned societies across France, documented evidence for significant numbers of Franks, Burgundians, and Visigoths in late Roman Gaul. They thus challenged prevailing views in France of the population's exclusively Gallic ancestry, contradicting the influential writings of Parisian historians like Augustin Thierry and Numa-Denis Fustel de Coulanges. Although some scholars drew on this material evidence to refine their understanding of the early ancestors of the French, most ignored, at their peril, inconvenient finds that challenged the centrality of the ancient Gauls as the forebears of France. This book suggests how the slow progress and professionalisation of Merovingian (or early medieval) archaeology, a sub-discipline in the larger field of national archaeology in France, was in part a consequence of the undesirable evidence it brought to light.Less
This book brings to light an unexpected side effect of France's nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution. While laying tracks for new rail lines, quarrying for stone, and expanding lands under cultivation, French labourers uncovered bones and artefacts from long-forgotten cemeteries. Although their original owners were unknown, research by a growing number of amateur archaeologists of the bourgeois class determined that these were the graves of Germanic ‘warriors’, and their work, presented in provincial learned societies across France, documented evidence for significant numbers of Franks, Burgundians, and Visigoths in late Roman Gaul. They thus challenged prevailing views in France of the population's exclusively Gallic ancestry, contradicting the influential writings of Parisian historians like Augustin Thierry and Numa-Denis Fustel de Coulanges. Although some scholars drew on this material evidence to refine their understanding of the early ancestors of the French, most ignored, at their peril, inconvenient finds that challenged the centrality of the ancient Gauls as the forebears of France. This book suggests how the slow progress and professionalisation of Merovingian (or early medieval) archaeology, a sub-discipline in the larger field of national archaeology in France, was in part a consequence of the undesirable evidence it brought to light.
