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The Invasion of Europe by the Barbarians

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Bury tells of the dismantling of the Roman Empire in the West by the Germanic tribes. This book is based on a series of lectures delivered by Bury at Cambridge University. He begins with a description of German life in the forests outside the Empire and then tells how population pressures and migrations eventually ruptured the border of the Roman Empire, letting in tribe after tribe of German warriors.

They came as federates, seldom thinking of themselves as conquerors, seeking to partake of the goodness of Roman civilization, not destroy it. Seen in this light, the Western Empire didn't so much fall as fade away under the successive waves of migrating tribes.

Most history books date the fall of the Western Empire from the date on which Odovacer deposed the last Western Emperor, Romulus Augustulus. Bury makes the point that Odovacer and his successors, the Ostrogoths, recognized the authority of the Eastern Emperor. It wasn't until the Lombard invasion that a completely independent German state was set up in Italy.

My misconception always was that the Germans were pagan invaders. The major tribes of the invasion were all Christians. They weren't Catholic, they subscribed to the heretical doctrine of Arianism. Bury makes a compelling case that the Ostrogothic kingdom's short existence was caused by the fact that Italy was largely Catholic and hostile to their heretical overlords.

It is interesting that the first lasting Germanic kingdom was established by the Frankish king, Clovis, who converted to Catholicism. Bury makes the case that Clovis converted to Catholicism, not because of a battlefield prayer for victory and a sign from heaven, but because of a calculated decision of statecraft by a shrewd politician. Clovis correctly discerned that his rule would be more lasting if he adopted the religion of most of his subjects.

A compelling chronicle of a turbulent time peopled with remarkable protagonists. And it is told in masterful fashion. The only shortcoming of the book is the absence of maps. The reader can easily get lost in the arcane geographical references.

This is an excellent book that goes into great detail of how the barbarians went into the Roman Empire. It looks at how they were successful in establishing themselves as federates and how they basically became a part of the Roman Empire. It goes into great detail about many of the different barbarian groups. For example, it discusses the Visigoths, the Ostragoths, the Lombards, the Huns, Gepids, and many more. In conclusion, the book shows the side of the barbarians. Too often the barbarians are looked at from the Roman side because that is where most historians get the records from. However, J. B. Bury takes it from the Barbarian side and shows why they wanted to come into the Roman Empire. They really didn't want to destroy it, they just wanted a better way of living. Bury is an easy writer to read and it is written to a way you could teach it because it is broken up into 15 lectures. Highly recommended if you want to learn about the barbarians that invaded the Roman Empire and its outcome.

From a day when authors did not have to worry about offending people, and history could be truly nigh objective, J. B. Bury gives us a compilation of 15 of his most delicious lectures on the decline of Rome in the West between 375 and 575 A.D. He goes into great detail about the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Franks, Lombards, Vandals, and the Huns. I found this book to be an easy read; the lectures have been conveniently divided into sub-categories, making it even easier to understand the main points of each chapter. The book, while very entertaining, did become VERY boring in one of the Ostrogothic lectures, and I shall warn you, the beginning is moderately slow and boring. Fret not! It goes somewhere, and somewhere very interesting, I shall like to add. Great read, buy it today!

A clear introduction to the period of the barbarian invasions that led to important transformations of the Roman Empire, paved the way to its dismemberment, and started the transition from roman to medieval Europe, from A. D. 247 until the fifth century. From the historical perspective, of importance is the insistence of the author on the gradual encroachment of Barbarism upon Romanism during this period. The author, Professor Bury, was appointed (in 1902) successor to Lord Acton as holder of the Chair of Modern History at the University of Cambridge. A reputed scholar, he is well known for his illustrated edition of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1909) as well as his own seminal works Constitution of the Later Roman Empire (1910) and History of the Roman Empire (1923).
Not envisioned by Bury originally as a book, this is an ensemble of lectures given by him at the University (and edited by Professor Hearnshaw, from King's College at the University of London). This vivid excursion through the "barbarization" of the Empire, starts with a reference to the early German history and Gothic migrations. Then an account of the first invasions of the Goths in the third century follows, with a description of the Visigothic invasion of Dacia and the Ostrogothic settlements. According to Bury it is during the third century that the extension and heterogeneity of the Roman Empire led to a natural tendency of the parts of this huge empire to fall asunder. Two great subdivisions appeared- a western or Latin section and an eastern or Greek section. The emperor Diocletian was convinced that the empire was too extended to be ruled by one emperor and so he concocted a scheme to put it under two coequal emperors. This system was unsuccessful and it was abandoned after 150 years by Constantine. But it led to the decisive act of the foundation of a second Rome at Constantinople in A.D. 330. Bury presents an interesting overview of the much discussed issue of the size of the forces of the empire and of the barbarians during this period, as well as the general factors of the penetration of the Germanic element in the population of the empire. The advent of the Huns is a momentous event, because it forced the Visigoths into roman space, leading thereafter to the disastrous battle of Hadrianopole (well described by Ammianus Marcellinus) and the death of emperor Valens. From there, we follow the efforts of emperor Theodosius to deal with the Gothic problem pursuing a policy of conciliation and friendship with Alaric the Bold.
But at the death of Theodosius, Alaric, then elected king of the Visigoths turned against the empire. And he turned to the West, in events that led to the sack of Rome and the invasion of Gaul. And so professor Bury's refreshing narration takes us to the following episodes of this dramatic saga: The death of Alaricus; the Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse; the invasion of the Vandals in Spain and in Africa; the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain; the Hunnic invasion of Italy; the decline of the roman power in the west; the Ostrogothic conquest of Italy; and the Lombard invasion of Italy.
For its freshness and clarity, this book is highly recommended as a first approach to the study of the complex structural problems that led to the dissolution of the great Roman Empire.

This transcription of lectures dates from 1927 yet it still shows up on Norman Cantor's "Core Bibliography in Medieval Studies" (Inventing the Middle Ages, p. 443). There is good reason to continue to include it among a list of works generally of much more recent vintage.

Lucid and engaging, Bury presents a convincing case for the idea that the Roman Empire in the West did not "fall" but rather transformed through assimilation of the various Germanic tribes. Bury's description of the extent to which the "barbarians" strove to work within the empire and co-existed with remnants of Roman society are of particular interest.

Good companions to this work are "Before France & Germany" (Geary) and "The World of Late Antiquity" (Peter Brown).

This book is a collection of 15 fascinating lectures given over 100 years ago by University of Cambridge professor J. B. Bury concerning the invasion of the Roman Empire during the third through the sixth century by various tribes from in and around Europe. Historians consider this book a classic work on the topic.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the story is that the fall of the Roman Empire did not occur by military conquest as I had always assumed, but instead mostly by the gradual assimilation of various barbarian tribes into the empire itself. As these tribes became more independent, the empire gradually disintegrated.

Bury tells how the various Germanic tribes, such as the Goths, Visigoths, and Ostrogoths, concentrated in settlements along the Northern border of the empire. The empire allowed members of these tribes to join its military forces, which they came to dominate led by their German leaders in service of Rome.

The effect on the Roman Empire of other groups, such as the Huns, Vandals, Franks and Lombards, through invasion and otherwise are also part of the interesting story. The roles of key leaders of these tribes, such as Alaric the Visigoth, Attila the Hun, Theoderic the Ostrogoth, and Clovis the Frank, are woven into the narrative.

Despite covering several centuries and the events across the full expanse of Europe, Bury's concise and lucid presentation holds the reader's interest. The one major drawback is that although he refers to hundreds of places, using both historical and modern names for them, there is not a single map in the book. Unless you have a pretty good mental map of Europe over the past two millenia, you are either going to need to go find maps or you will simply be skimming over the names of many places without a clear idea of their location. To me, including maps would have made this book a five star experience. Maybe the editors will come to their senses in the next edition.

_The Invasion of Europe by the Barbarians_ by J. B. Bury is a very readable and well written book that outlines the sequence and consequences of the migratory movements of the northern barbarians into Roman territory, migrations of the third through sixth centuries AD that eventually lead to Germanic peoples occupying the western half of the Roman Empire, from Britain to North Africa and ultimately largely dismembering the Empire.

It would be difficult for one to guess how old this work is from reading it; the book was basically a compilation of lectures Bury gave on the subject originally in 1903 (Bury himself passed away in 1927). The book read quite well for the most part as it had a brisk pace and the author a rather dry wit. My only complaints are that the final sections delved too much into what were for me the esoteric nature of Roman versus Lombard law (not as interesting or as useful to me at least as his coverage of the migrations and their consequences) as well as the complete lack of maps.

One of Bury's main themes was that the barbarians became a threat from inside the Empire's borders - what he called disintegration from within - as various Germanic peoples became federates of the Empire, invited to settle within its boundaries and in return generally for some form of tribute protected the frontiers and supplied contingents of troops. Nearly all the German peoples were for a time federates of the Empire before becoming independent masters of the lands they seized. Sometimes the rulers of the various tribes worked closely with the Emperor, at other times they were actually kings of their people and only nominally within the Empire. A system of establishing federate states within the Empire paved the way for the system of independent states that eventually replaced the Empire, a process that though not without conflict was also not cataclysmic either.

The Germanic federati became quite important in part because as Bury wrote the population of the old civilized lands around the Mediterranean had become "too highly civilized, and not physically fit enough" and thus were "quite useless for military service." The bulk of the army came from frontier provinces and from adventurers, many of which were barbarian volunteers from outside the Empire. Before Germanization of the lands under the federates began a dangerous Germanization was underway in the military (a military which was increasingly important, particularly in the West), a Germanization he called a "peaceful penetration," as by the end of the fourth century Germans had largely replaced most of the peoples from within the Empire and due to their ability had risen to hold the highest officer posts as well. This "grave danger" was overlooked by too many Emperors, too liberal in their policies in allowing Germans to occupy positions of supreme command due to their desire to attract the best men for the job. Eventually when the Empire had to face not only the threat of Germanic invaders from without but from the Germanic peoples already within the Empire military leadership fell predictably to Germans. Two of the chief actors of the fifth century for instance - the enemy leader Alaric and the Roman military leader Stilicho - were both German.

The traditional end given for the Western Roman Empire (AD 476) is addressed by Bury and in a manner supporting some of his key points. First, he said "Western Empire" is improper; it was the western provinces of the Empire, as there was really only one Empire. Second, on several occasions in the fifth century the death or deposition of an emperor in the west was followed by a considerable span of time with no emperor in Rome or Ravenna. Third, the rule of the Germans Odovacar and later that of Theoderic the Ostrogoth in Italy was not at all unlike that of other federates leaders; they acted with some coordination with the Emperor in Constantinople and both leaders respected Roman laws with regard to their Roman subjects; they were but intermediary stages between Italy being part of the Roman Empire and being a true Germanic kingdom.

Bury spent some time analyzing the populations of the Germanic peoples during the migrations and comparing military sizes with that of the Romans, noting that from the fourth to the sixth centuries most battles were fought by roughly even numbers of troops; the problem of military defense was not all hopeless or even "superlatively difficult," and it was not through battle alone that the Empire was dismembered.

For their part the Germans did not feel like hostile invaders, but rather regarded the Empire as a great institution that they had a rightful place within, their struggles less that of hostile external enemies but more a disenfranchised segment of society struggling for its rights. Alaric marched through Italy and attacked Rome not to destroy the Empire but to put pressure upon the imperial government to meet his various demands.

An interesting thread was the real legacy of the Huns. The Huns defeat of the Visigoths lead the latter to seek the shelter of the Roman Empire, an unprecedented decision as Emperor Valens permitted a nation of 80,000+ people to settle within his borders, allowing in essentially a foreign nation of a warlike nature and with strong national unity, a situation that eventually resulted in a war, culminating in the battle of Hadrianople in AD 378, one of the greatest disasters that befell Rome due to the Germans (and by the way the last battle the Romans fought mainly with infantry, as cavalry prevailed as a result and Europe did not see much infantry use again until the fourteenth century). Also the Hun invasion served to delay the process of German dismemberment of the Empire, both by the Huns controlling many of the East German peoples beyond the Danube (the ones most a threat to Rome) and by providing Roman generals with auxiliaries that proved an invaluable resource against their German enemies.

One of the earlier reviewers of this book expressed surprise that J.B. Bury delivered the lectures on which it is based after being appointed Professor of Modern History. This was not a personal whim. British institutional usage (that is, what was done at Oxford and Cambridge) had long divided time between "Classical" and "Modern." Until well into the twentieth century, medievalists held the "Modern History" chairs. Bury was doing what was expected of him. And very well, I might add.

Despite dating from the 1920s, Bury is an excellent place to start, but the fact that these are essentially lectures limits their usefulness. Those seriously interested in more up-to-date information on the period might turn to Peter Heather's "The Goths," and continue with the elaborately documented consideration of the evidence in Herwig Wolfram's "History of the Goths" (translated from the German). The differences between those two books will illuminate how much that Bury could take for granted is now open to debate. Peter Llewellyn's "Rome in the Dark Ages" is easier reading, and concentrates on a single region, but the invaders are incidental players in his narrative.

(Reposted from my "anonymous" review of September 11, 2003)

Bury takes a unique perspective in this work. He describes how the early Germanic peoples migrated, and later penetrated into the confines of the Roman Empire; likewise, he focuses on the flood of Asiatic barbarians as well. Bury does an excellent job portraying the motives of the Barbarians, and how they ended up contributing to the formation of modern Europe. The epic un-barbarianization, rather than the deterioration of the Empire, is the crux of this work. This book is complete,concise, and very time saving for busy students...highly recommended.

This book gives an excellent and thorough presentation of the developments in Europe in the early medieval age. However, it has one serious shortcoming: no maps. Being European myself, I have some vague idea of locations mentioned, but i must confess to ignorance relating to the location and borders of the various Roman provinces. Just a sketchy map, showing the natural borders like rivers and mountain ranges would greatly facilitate the understanding of the developments.