Rome's Gothic Wars_ From the Third Century to Alaric - Michael Kulikowski [0]
This series is composed of introductory-level texts that provide an essential foundation for the study of important wars and conflicts of classical antiquity. Each volume provides a synopsis of the main events and key characters, the consequences of the conflict, and its reception over time. An important feature is the critical overview of the textual and archaeological sources for the conflict, which is designed to teach both historiography and the methods that historians use to reconstruct events of the past. Each volume includes an assortment of pedagogical devices that students can use to further their knowledge and inquiry of the topics.
Rome’s Gothic Wars
From the Third Century to Alaric
Michael Kulikowski
University of Tennessee-Knoxville
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Cambridge University Press
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© Cambridge University Press 2007
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First published in print format 2007
ISBN-13 978-0-511-25126-9 mobipocket
ISBN-10 0-511-25126-2 mobipocket
ISBN-13 978-0-521-84633-2 hardback
ISBN-10 0-521-84633-1 hardback
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For T. D. Barnes and Walter Goffart
Contents
Maps
Acknowledgements
Before the Gates of Rome
1 The Goths Before Constantine
2 The Roman Empire and Barbarian Society
3 The Search for Gothic Origins
4 Imperial Politics and the Rise of Gothic Power
5 Goths and Romans, 332–376
6 The Battle of Adrianople
7 Theodosius and the Goths
8 Alaric and the Sack of Rome
The Aftermath of Alaric
Glossary of Ancient Sources
Biographical Glossary
Further Reading
Notes
Index
Maps
1 The Italian peninsula
2 The Roman Empire at the time of Septimius Severus
3 The Roman Empire of Diocletian
4 Asia Minor, the Balkans and the Black Sea region, showing Roman cities and Sântana-de-Mureş/Černjachov sites mentioned in the text
Acknowledgements
To quote with approval Geoffrey Elton at the beginning of the twenty-first century may seem perverse, even lunatic. Yet for all that Elton was (to borrow a phrase from Averil Cameron) a ‘dinosaur of English positivism’, his Practice of History got one thing absolutely right: the historian has a duty to make history intelligible and, however complex the past may have been, there is nothing in it that cannot be explained to any audience if only we choose the right words. This book aims to do no more than that, to make the first two centuries of Romano-Gothic relations comprehensible to everyone – student, scholar, and aficionado alike – and to explain why, for the specialist at least, Gothic history remains a subject of painful controversy. As an aid to readers for whom this material is unfamiliar, I have included glossaries of persons named in the book and of ancient authors used, and while specialists may find that my citations of primary sources are insufficiently abbreviated, I hope it will help those who are just beginning the advanced study of late antiquity to easily locate the texts I have used.
Even in a book so short, one incurs debts of gratitude to family, friends, and colleagues. I have long relied on my father and my wife for first reactions to my work, and both have read this text, parts of it repeatedly. Andrew Gillett read the whole book in draft; Guy Halsall, Andy Merrills, and Philipp von Rummel each read several chapters; all saved me from error and gave me much