Automotive Holiday Deals BOTYKT Shop Women's Dresses Learn more nav_sap_SWP_6M_fly_beacon Indie for the Holidays egg_2015 All-New Amazon Fire TV Get Ready for the Winter Gifts Under $100 Street Art Project Amazon Gift Card Offer mithc mithc mithc Amazon Echo Starting at $49.99 Kindle Voyage AntMan Outdoor Deals on Amazon.com BGG

Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your email address or mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader

Barbarians and Romans, A.D. 418-584 Limited Ed Edition

by
Walter A. Goffart (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Walter A. Goffart Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
Walter A. Goffart (Author), Carl Erdmann (Editor)
4.6 out of 5 stars 5 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0691102313
ISBN-10: 0691102317
Why is ISBN important?
ISBN
This bar-code number lets you verify that you're getting exactly the right version or edition of a book. The 13-digit and 10-digit formats both work.
Scan an ISBN with your phone
Use the Amazon App to scan ISBNs and compare prices.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Buy used On clicking this link, a new layer will be open
$19.45 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open
Buy new On clicking this link, a new layer will be open
$49.40 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open
More Buying Choices
31 New from $14.49 31 Used from $5.08
62 used & new from $5.08
See All Buying Options
Free Two-Day Shipping for College Students with Amazon Student Free%20Two-Day%20Shipping%20for%20College%20Students%20with%20Amazon%20Student

Get Up to 80% Back Rent Textbooks
$49.40 FREE Shipping. In stock but may require an extra 1-2 days to process. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Frequently Bought Together

  • Barbarians and Romans, A.D. 418-584
  • +
  • The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians
  • +
  • The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization
Total price: $73.48
One of these items ships sooner than the other. Show details
Buy the selected items together

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links

  (What's this?)
1.  Ad584 Datasheet opens new browser window
  -  
Ad584 Datasheet. 500 Million Parts. You can find Ad584 Datasheet.
www.alldatasheet.com/Ad584
2.  Free books on Romans opens new browser window
  -  
What faith leads us to receive the righteousness of God?
www.bjnewlife.org/
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE
No More Champagne
"No More Champagne: Churchill and His Money"
An insightful new look into the private life of one of the most iconic figures in British history. Learn more.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 296 pages
  • Publisher: Princeton University Press; Limited Ed edition (October 1, 1987)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0691102317
  • ISBN-13: 978-0691102313
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,577,206 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

5 star
60%
4 star
40%
3 star
0%
2 star
0%
1 star
0%
See all 5 customer reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Write a customer review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Careful revision of the "invasion" myth.
By A Customer on November 21, 1997
Format: Paperback
Goffart challenges the widely held perception that the "barbarians" (Goths, Lombards, Alans, etc.) were an invading horde that established themselves in Europe like marauding motorcycle gangs. Rather, their settlement in the West took place as an expediency of the Imperial system. What has commonly been viewed as grants (or capitulations) of land, involving major upheavals for the inhabitants, Goffart convincingly recasts as the transfer of units of taxation. In other words, barbarian warlords and their followers were not given land per se, but the right to the assessed tax proceeds from certain parcels. In a way, then, the Imperial government simply removed itself as the middleman between taxpayer and soldier. This, Goffart argues, entailed much less demographic and political turbulence than has commonly been thought, and explains (to a degree) the rather sparse and urban character of barbarian archaelogical evidence from this period. The legal and social roots of the later feudal system are also revealed. Extensive footnotes and appendices drill down into the details of late-Roman taxation and troop-billeting practices, supporting his conclusions. Very well done scholarship which has, judging from its citations, caused researchers in this field to stop and think.
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
23 of 26 people found the following review helpful
If you think you understood the Dark Ages, think again
By A Customer on June 24, 1998
Format: Paperback
Goffart takes issue not only with the common misperception of a violent and massive barbarian invasion of the Roman West, but also with the more prosaic picture which has been drawn in 19th and 20th century historical scholarship of the period--one in which the Goths, Burgundians, etc., were basically granted a third of all the useful lands in Gaul, Spain and Bavaria, causing a monumental upheaval in power and property. He feels this consensus springs from faulty assumptions and misinterpretations of the primary sources particularly those pertaining to Roman tax law. Instead of actual lands, he concludes that the barbarians were granted the proceeds from a third of the assessed properties that were taxed, and that little or no property changed hands as a result. The Empire, in effect, was dealing itself out of the military payroll game, letting the local (barbarian) militias collect their own damn pay. Although Goffart deduces this mostly from a close examination of the documentary evidence, he also feels it helps explain the anomalous paucity of barbarian archaeological finds from this period, and the usually urban nature of what little is found. There are several ramifications of this picture. Instead of painful disruption of Gallo-Roman property owners, we see instead a sort of book-keeping maneuver designed to minimize the impact of barbarian settlement. We see the opportunistic devolution of Roman taxation and bureaucracy, ingeniously devised to smoothly incorporate barbarian power, without reducing imperial revenues (the empire still received its customary third, the remaining third was for local govt). And, on a larger scale, Goffart believes that one can trace in all this the embryonic stages of early-Middle Ages seignurial arrangements.Read more ›
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Hospitalitas - and where do I get some; a review of Goffart's "Barbarians and Romans"
By Pam - because someone has to be GOOD TOP 500 REVIEWER on August 25, 2006
Format: Hardcover
Alas for those of us who are enamored of the visages of hordes of barbarians invading the Roman west. Walter Goffart has produced a pin to pop our bubbles. In this book Prof. Goffart makes a very interesting argument against the popular notion that hordes of rampaging barbarians invaded the Roman west in the 4th and 5th centuries.

He argues that the Germanic tribes were not in fact all that numerous and that they were provisioned, not with land ripped from the terrified fingers of its rightful citizen-owners; but rather that they were supported with the results of taxes. To support his argument Goffart looks at a diverse evidence: Everything from the homey reports of Sidonius, to legal records, archeology, and linguistic analysis.

Sidonius, Goffart notes, complained that he couldn't write because there were 10 bulky barbarians billeted in his home, cooking their foul smelling meals to his discomfort.

The archaeological and linguistic evidence, he adds, does not support the notion that the Visigoths were given land. With land holdings one would expect the Visigoths to become entrenched within their surrounding communities. And if that were so, one would not expect them, en masse, to suddenly arise one day and decide to move elsewhere.

Five Stars. [A-]. Academic work. Expect tons of long, useful footnotes; and thought-provoking Appendices.

Important rethinking of primary sources and archaeological data. Includes comprehensive consideration of recent historical thinking - i.e. a look at Dopsch, Pirenne, Lot and their ilk; what they thought and why.

Fantastic Bibliography.

The use of Latin is rather extensive in the Appendices.Read more ›
11 Comments Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Plausible, possible, but not convincing
By Caleb Hanson on May 3, 2011
Format: Paperback
This book is a study of one particular question: just what was the arrangement called 'hospitalitas', by which several Germanic tribes were peaceably (more or less) settled in Roman territory in the 5th and 6th centuries? The traditional view is that it was based on the old Roman system for quartering soldiers with civilians, and that one third of each Roman estate in the region was alienated from its Roman landlord and given over to barbarian "guests." Goffart proposes instead an accommodation based on Roman tax administration, and this book is his case for it - there is no historical narrative here, just a close analysis of the few sources we have on tax and land laws.

The analysis is very close and very carefully studied - I would guess that on average each page is two-thirds text and one-third notes, and that's *average* - his logic is persuasive, and his explanation makes better sense than the alternative. It's just that the more sources he looks at, and shows how they can be made to fit his model or how his model explains otherwise confusing passages, the more noticeable it becomes that no source ever actually *says* that's what was happening, whereas several do seem to be saying land was in fact expropriated (Goffart even acknowledges this himself from time to time), and to me that makes the theory "plausible" but still short of "convincing."

Still, and though I usually prefer more narrative with my history, I found it a good read, engaging, and like I said, plausible.
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more
Barbarians and Romans, A.D. 418-584
This item: Barbarians and Romans, A.D. 418-584
Price: $49.40
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com
Set up a giveaway

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.