[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
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.

Das Reich und die Germanen: Zwischen Antike und Mittelalter (Das Reich und die Deutschen)

Wolfram, Herwig

United States, United States of America

Berkeley LosAngeles London, 1997

First Edition, PT, 1997

Includes bibliographical references (p. 335-345) and index.

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.

The names of early Germanic warrior-tribes and leaders resound in songs and legends, and the real story of the part they played in transforming 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.
Wolfram's narrative is far from the "decline and fall" interpretation that held sway until recent decades. He describes the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages as a generally unsettled, frequently violent time of decentralization, depopulation, and shifts of power. Byzantium became the only center of the old Roman Empire while the western empire ceased to exist as such.
Only the increasing authority of the papacy in the Christian-Catholic world helped Rome survive as an imperial capital for the medieval Frankish kingdom and the Holy Roman Empire. This story, based on Wolfram's sweeping grasp of documentary and archaeological evidence, brings new clarity to a poorly understood period of Western history.

xx, 361 p. : 24 cm
Includes bibliographical references (p. 335-345) and index

2023-06-28