The Day of the Barbarians: The Battle That Led to the Fall of the Roman Empire [Paperback]

Alessandro Barbero (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2008

“A very readable narrative of one of the most significant battles in European history…An excellent resource.”—Booklist

On August 9, 378 AD, at Adrianople in the Roman province of Thrace (now western Turkey), the Roman Empire began to fall. Two years earlier, an unforeseen flood of refugees from the East Germanic tribe known as the Goths had arrived at the Empire’s eastern border, seeking admittance. Though usually successful in dealing with barbarian groups, in this instance the Roman authorities failed. Gradually coalesced into an army led by Fritigern, the barbarian horde inflicted a disastrous defeat on Emperor Valens. The Empire did not actually fall for another century, but some believe this battle signaled nothing less than the end of the ancient world and the start of the Middle Ages. With impeccable scholarship and narrative flair, renowned historian Alessandro Barbero places the battle in its historical context and vividly recreates the events leading to the clash, bringing alive leaders and common soldiers alike. Narrating one of the turning points in world history, The Day of the Barbarians is military history at its very best.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Medievalist Barbero (The Battle: A New History of Waterloo) offers a revisionist history of the relatively obscure battle of Adrianople, arguing that the course of world history changed after the clash in 378, in the eastern Roman province of Thrace, between an army of Goths and a Roman imperial army. The battle resulted in an overwhelming barbarian victory—the eastern emperor Valens died along with two-thirds of his army—setting in motion a train of events that led directly to "the fall of the western Roman Empire," according to Barbero. Rejecting the traditional view that Rome's decline was well underway by the fourth century, Barbero claims that by the eve of the battle of Adrianople, the empire's earlier problems "seemed to be... under control." To reconstitute the imperial army after the devastating losses at Adrianople, the Romans had to turn to the Goths, whose loyalty depended on how well they were paid. Eventually, the barbarians—despite their questionable loyalty—became "indispensable" for the defense and administration of the empire. When their interest and Rome's diverged, the western empire's fate was sealed. While Barbero's thesis is sure to spark debate among scholars and students, his sprightly prose makes this slim volume accessible to a general audience. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Praise for The Day of the Barbarians:

“Barbero’s narrative skillfully exploits the tensions inherent in these events…One of the many paradoxes in Barbero’s elegant and pleasurable little account—what a joy it is to read about the ancient world in digestible portions—is that the Eastern empire learned from its experience and intentionally shifted its barbarians farther and farther toward the West.”—Steve Coates, New York Times Book Review

“While Barbero’s thesis is sure to spark debate among scholars and students, his sprightly prose makes this slim volume accessible to a general audience.”—Publishers Weekly

“Barbero [excels] in recreating the day of the battle with evocative details and shrewd commentary on troop deployment and tactics. Fascinating.”—Kirkus Reviews

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Walker & Company; First Edition edition (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802716717
• ISBN-13: 978-0802716712
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #960,545 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fires the imagination, May 24, 2007

By 

Stephen Balbach (Ashton, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Day of the Barbarians: The Battle That Led to the Fall of the Roman Empire (Hardcover)

The story of the Gothic War and the famous Battle of Adrianople has often been re-constructed, for example by Gibbon (1776) and more recently by Peter Heather The Fall of the Roman Empire (2005) and Michael Kulikowski Rome's Gothic Wars (2006) - what makes this account special is not any new over-arching theory, but simply a well researched, reliable and very well told story - if writing history is a type of literature, this is literature at its best. Barbero has the ability to fire the imagination and make it all real - he can take a single sentence from Ammianus Marcellinus (the primary source for the events) and draw in other related material to fill in the details to make a book-length retelling where others have a chapter or two. As Steven Coats said, reviewing in the New York Times (April 29, 2007), this is an "elegant and pleasurable little account - what a joy it is to read about the ancient world in digestible portions." This is clearly a book for the general reader, but Barbero is a medieval scholar, it contains supporting footnotes (which are worthwhile) and references to further reading. I never tire of reading about this story, it brings together so many elements of the ancient and medieval worlds, it was one of the pivotal moments in world history and also one of the most dramatic.

With all the praise above and 5-stars, a couple things about what the book is not: 1) this is a short book, 147 pages of actual text, the rest is footnotes 2) it is not for specialists or experts - Barbero does not go into too much chronological or geographic detail - it is not a definitive scientific study 3) the question if Adrianople was the dividing line between the Ancient and Medieval world is thankfully relegated to the Preface and last two pages, a "hook" I suppose. The books real value is in the skillful narration of events, and understanding the process of the 'barbarization' of the Roman Empire.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The day that may have begun the fall of the Roman Empire, July 17, 2007

By 

Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Day of the Barbarians: The Battle That Led to the Fall of the Roman Empire (Hardcover)

Pity that most people have no interest in or knowledge of history. We are, after all, the products of history. But for most, history simply has little allure unless they can see it in the form of a pyramid or some Disneyfied exhibit.

But somewhere on the planet - no one knows for sure the exact location - a battle took place on August 9, 378 AD near Adrianople in present-day Turkey. According to author Alessandro Barbero, professor of medieval studies at the University of Piemonte Orientale in Vercelli, Italy, this was the battle that began the collapse of the Roman Empire.

This English translation is done by John Cullen and is noteworthy for the clarity of his work. If there were any clumsy expressions that didn't translate well from the Italian, Cullen has smoothed them over. The result shows Barbero to be a very competent writer.

This is not an academic history. It is, in fact, intended to be a popular history, designed to help the curious non-expert reader to gain understanding of how the world around him or her came to be. For truly few people have an idea of who the Goths were - and they are not be confused with the very confused teenagers who wear heavy makeup and black clothes and ring their necks with nail studded collars.

The simplicity of some aspects of life in the 4th Century are beautifully explained by Barbero: the tribes around you decided they wanted your land, your animals, your spouses and children, your few personal possessions or just wanted to kill you for fun. On they came, slaughtering everyone except those they took for slaves. The news traveled and the next victims tried to get out, in this case into the Eastern Roman Empire. At first the Eastern Emporer let them in - and then changed his mind.

That decision and the pressure of the Huns turned the Goths into marauding bands who quickly formed a temporary alliance to resist the over-confident Romans who came to teach them a lesson by force.

The Romans lost and the Roman world changed forever, beginning its final plunge into oblivion.

The story is more complex, of course, but Barbero recounts the meaningful points eloquently in this short (146 pages) book. He tells much of the Roman Empire at that time, earlier and later - and he tells the story remarkably well.

This is a wonderful introduction to the history of the later Roman Empire, a century or so prior to its final collapse. In an era where the United States is frequently compared (wildly inaccurately) to the Roman Empire and where the few who think of Rome at all envisage orgies and decadence leading to its collapse, this little book is a welcome breath of fresh air.

It not only makes an interesting read for anyone with the slightest interest in history, but an excellent gift to pass on to those who would benefit from knowing just a little about a history.

Jerry

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read, September 12, 2007

By 

D. A Wend (Arlington Heights, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Day of the Barbarians: The Battle That Led to the Fall of the Roman Empire (Hardcover)

The Day of the Barbarians is a very readable history of the battle of Adrianople, where a Roman army was annihilated and the emperor Valens was killed. The Fourth century has not been one of my favorite periods of Roman history but Alessandro Barbero makes the period interesting indeed. He tells an interesting story of how the Goths became indispensable to the empire as soldiers, slaves and farmers and informs us that many of the Goths became Romanized and a good number became Christians. He makes a good case for seeing the century up to the battle as a time of relative prosperity and had the Romans treated the Goths and other barbarians better the fall of the western empire a century later might have been prevented...for a while.

Mr. Barbero tells the story in short, to-the-point chapters laying the groundwork describing who the Goths were, what their culture was like and how under Constantine and his successors they were well-treated. When the Goths fled from the advancing Huns, however, and sought help from the Romans they were welcomed across the Danube but badly treated but the profit-minded Romans leading to their revolt.

I found one factual error that I thought rather glaring. Mr. Barbero relates that Constantine I built the only stone bridge across the Danube leaving out any mention of the famous bridge built by the emperor Trajan, which had been destroyed by Aurelian when Dacia was abandoned. It was interesting to me that the author mentions Procopius, who was declared emperor in 366 in opposition to Valens, but does not describe him as a relative of Julian, just as related to the family of Constantine. One wonders if Mr. Barbero has no liking for Julian.

This is an excellent volume and will appeal to the specialist and general readers. The book does not have a very extensive bibliography and although the author discusses the writings of some ancient authors (particualrly Ammianus Marcellinus) he does not cite the text location except in the modest number of footnotes. There is a single map of the Roman empire at the front of the book; it would have been helpful to include additional maps, such as one devoted to Thrace so one could get a better itde of the loaction of places and disposition of the Goths and Romans.

I am not sure if the battle of Adrianople signals the beginning of the end but the battle and the aftermath, with the new emperor Theodosius, marks a turning point in the fortunes of the empire that was increasingly dominated by weak ineffective rulers.