The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples [Hardcover]

Herwig Wolfram (Author), Thomas Dunlap (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520085116 | ISBN-13: 978-0520085114 | Publication Date: November 26, 1997 | Edition: 1

The names of early Germanic warrior tribes and leaders resound in songs and legends; the real story of the part they played in reshaping the ancient world is no less gripping. Herwig Wolfram's panoramic history spans the great migrations of the Germanic peoples and the rise and fall of their kingdoms between the third and eighth centuries, as they invaded, settled in, and ultimately transformed the Roman Empire.
As Germanic military kings and their fighting bands created kingdoms, and won political and military recognition from imperial governments through alternating confrontation and accommodation, the "tribes" lost their shared culture and social structure, and became sharply differentiated. They acquired their own regions and their own histories, which blended with the history of the empire. In Wolfram's words, "the Germanic peoples neither destroyed the Roman world nor restored it; instead, they made a home for themselves within it."
This story is far from the "decline and fall" interpretation that held sway until recent decades. Wolfram's narrative, based on his sweeping grasp of documentary and archaeological evidence, brings new clarity to a poorly understood period of Western history.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

In a comprehensive reinterpretation of the role of barbaric tribes in Roman history, Wolfram (History/Univ. of Vienna) seeks to ``trace the beginnings of a history of the Germans'' by examining in depth the role of the Germanic tribes in the development, transformation, and collapse of the Roman Empire. Wolfram takes issue with the conventional view that the Germanic peoples precipitated the decline of Rome, arguing instead that they unremarkably ``made a home for themselves within'' the Roman Empire. Nonetheless, his detailed survey makes clear the breathtaking transformation wrought by the Germanic tribes: At first simply alien ``new peoples'' who at the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180 a.d. seemed subjugated like the Gauls before them, Germanic tribes, particularly the Franks, Alamanni, and Goths, began attacking the Roman frontier with vigor and increasing success in the early third century. After gaining territory along the Rhine, they won further territorial concessions in return for military allegiance to Rome. After the sackings of Rome in the fifth century, Christianized Germanic tribes blended Roman with barbaric influences, creating a distinctive culture that dominated the continent. Wolfram details the pervasive influence of Germanic tribes on the growth of early medieval Europe, including the development of Visigothic, Vandalic, Burgundian, Frankish, and Longobard kingdoms on Roman soil; the 100-year kingdom of Toulouse, which codified and helped perpetuate Roman law in the West; the dominance of North Africa for over 100 years by the Arian Christian Vandals; and the defeat and probable absorption of the Huns by the Germanic peoples. Despite himself, Wolfram establishes that the Germanic nations arose from the darkness of prehistory to transform the great culture of Rome and in so doing set the stage for the emergence not only of Christendom, but also ultimately of Germany and the other nation-states of Europe. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

"[Wolfram's] detailed survey makes clear the breathtaking transformation wrought by the Germanic tribes." - Kirkus Reviews "[A] classic work.... This clever and subtle text... comes over clearly, unravelling the kaleidoscopic hybridity of the world of Goths, Vandals, Huns, Burgundians, Franks and Lombards." - Times Literary Supplement "[Wolfram] explores the high points in the history of a number of closely related Germanic societies as they faced the power of the Roman Empire and Roman imperial society.... This is a learned, sophisticated, and valuable book - one which can address the interests of people on all levels of erudition." - Robert L. Benson, co-editor of Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century"

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 379 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (November 26, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520085116
• ISBN-13: 978-0520085114
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #194,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worthy Topic., February 23, 2006

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SUPPORT THE ASPCA. "PILUM THROWER!" (?????) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples (Paperback)

After a brief narrative of early German history, he gives thorough details on the individual peoples or tribal confederations. Actually, you could read ch.15 first and then go to the Introduction. The main emphasis is on the Danubian Goths. He gives a good structural analysis of their institutions and how they blended with Roman culture. His thesis that the majority of Germanic peoples wanted to become part of the Roman World does seem to be valid to this ancient history buff. The German Kings do appear to have tried to maintain both the socio-economic conditions and Administration. It is a vivid picture of an often neglected subject. There is a good bibliography and a plethora of footnotes to research further. The omission of the Franks, who arguably were the most influential is why I'm deducting one star.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Of Romans and Germans, April 21, 2008

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K. Murphy "Fortune favors the Bold" (The thriving metropolis of Masury, OH) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples (Hardcover)

Mr. Wolfram has definitely done his homework; this is a well-written and extremely informative, if a rather dry, look at the relationship between Roman and German for really the entire Roman Imperial Period, though naturally focusing mostly on the AD 300-600 area (not to sound petty, but I was hoping for more information on the Germans of the earlier centuries, other than the Cherusci in AD 9 and the Marcomannic Wars you don't hear much about them). Much of the book is about the various Germanic kings who carved out their own pieces of the Roman Empire in the 5th and 6th Centuries, like Gaiseric, Theodoric, Clovis, Odovacar, and others, and the movements and separate cultures and personalities of the major groups, the Goths, Vandals, Burgundians, and others are also profiled. I particularly appreciated the author's look at the events of AD 476 in Chapter Eight, the `Empire that Did Not End'. Also, he makes it clear that he sees the Barbarian `Invasions' as not invasions but immigration, from Italy to England. Also included are some useful genealogy charts and chronologies. Overall, a single great book on the early Germanic Kingdoms for those with a serious interest.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A very interesting yet complex read, August 2, 2003

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Brendan J. Foreman (University Heights, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples (Hardcover)

This book, a survey of the histories of the various so-called Germanic tribes that eventually assumed control of Europe, spanning the years from roughly 250AD to somewhere around 800AD. One of Wolfram's main theses is that the actual barbarian "invasions" were events that were much more complicated than a simple onslaught of Germanic hordes. He does a relatively good job in describing how exactly the migrations took place. Along the way, he gives the reader some good ideas about how the Germanic tribes functioned as societies.

This is an enormously complicated subject. I'm sure no two people agree on everything involved, but I must take issue to some of the criticisms that has been written here. First, this is no easy book to read. It's a history book written by and for specialists. So, it's not simply a narrative of events that happened; there's a great deal of analysis and moving back and forth in time in order to make comparisons. He does provide a time-line, though. Nevertheless, it's going to be rough-going for someone looking for a quick scan of the topic.

As for Wolfram's sources, most of them are Roman texts or in German (the book itself is a translation from the German). There's nothing quoted here that's any more spurious than any other history book I've read. In fact, Wolfram spends a lot of time weeding out what's reliable in the Roman sources and what isn't.

Lastly, it should be pointed out that another of Wolfram's big points is to distinguish the Germanic tribes as political units as opposed to ethnic units (and thus somehow "related" to modern Germans). He's very effective at convincing me at least that most of these tribes were ethnically polyglots that subsumed various "races" according to political and economic need.