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Ralph Mathisen and Danuta Shanzer, eds.
Romans,
Barbarians, and the Transformation of the Roman World: Cultural
Interaction and the Creation of Identity in Late Antiquity.
Publisher: Ashgate.
Publication due: March 2011.
Size: 234 x 156 mm.
Page count: 398pp.
Illustrations: 27 b&w .
Publisher's recommended price
Hardback ISBN 9780754668145, £65.00
Description:
One of the most significant transformations of the Roman world in Late Antiquity was the integration of barbarian peoples into the social, cultural, religious, and political milieu of the Mediterranean world. The nature of these transformations was considered at the sixth biennial Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity Conference, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in March of 2005, and this volume presents an updated selection of the papers given on that occasion, complemented with a few others.
These 25 studies do much to break down old stereotypes about the cultural and social segregation of Roman and barbarian populations, and demonstrate that, contrary to the past orthodoxy, Romans and barbarians interacted in a multitude of ways, and it was not just barbarians who experienced "ethnogenesis" or cultural assimilation. The same Romans who disparaged barbarian behavior also adopted aspects of it in their everyday lives, providing graphic examples of the ambiguity and negotiation that characterized the integration of Romans and barbarians, a process that altered the concepts of identity of both populations. The resultant late antique polyethnic cultural world, with cultural frontiers between Romans and barbarians that became increasingly permeable in both directions, does much to help explain how the barbarian settlement of the west was accomplished with much less disruption than there might have been, and how barbarian populations were integrated seamlessly into the old Roman world.
Contents:
Introduction, Ralph W. Mathisen and Danuta Shanzer; Part I Constructing
Images of the Impact and Identity of Barbarians: A. Literary
Constructions of Barbarian Identity: Catalogues of barbarians in late
Antiquity, Ralph W. Mathisen; Augustine and the merciful barbarians,
Gillian Clark; Reguli
in the Roman empire, late Antiquity and the early medieval Germanic
kingdoms, Steven Fanning; Were the Sasanians barbarians? Roman writers
on the 'empire of the Persians', Scott McDonough; A Roman image of the
'barbarian' Sasanians, Jan Willem Drijvers; B. Political and Religious
Interpretations of Barbarian Activities: Banditry or catastrophe?:
history, archaeology and barbarian raids on Roman Greece, Amelia
Robertson Brown; John Rufus, Timothy Aelurus, and the fall of the
Western Roman empire, Edward Watts; C. Imperial Manipulation of
Perceptions of Barbarians: Imperial religious unification policy and
its divisive consequences: Diocletian, the Jews and the Samaritans,
Yuval Shahar; Hellenes, barbarians and Christians: religion and
identity politics in Diocletian's Rome, Elizabeth DePalma Digeser;
Barbarians as spectacle: the account of an ancient 'embedded reporter' (Symm.
Or. 2.10-12), Cristiana Sogno. Part II Cultural Interaction on the
Roman/Barbarian Frontiers: A. Becoming Roman: Movements of People
across the Frontier and the Effects of Imperial Policies: The ius colonatus
as a model for the settlement of barbarian prisoners-of-war in the late
Roman empire?, Cam Grey; Spies like us: treason and identity in the
late Roman empire, Kimberly Kagan; The 'runaway' Avars and late Antique
diplomacy, Ekaterina Nechaeva; B. Becoming Roman: Social and Economic
Interchange: Captivity and Romano-barbarian interchange, Noel Lenski;
Barbarian raiders and barbarian peasants: models of ideological and
economic integration, Hartmut Ziche; C. A New Era of Accommodation:
Kush and Rome on the Egyptian southern frontier: where barbarians
worshipped as Romans and Romans worshipped as barbarians, Salim Faraji;
Petra and the Saracens: new evidence from a recently discovered
epigram, Jason Moralee; Elusive places: a chorological approach to
identity and territory in Scythia Minor (2nd-7th centuries), Linda
Ellis; Barbarian traffic, demon oaths, and Christian scruples: (Aug. Epist.
46-47), Kevin Uhalde. Part III Creating Identity in the Post-Roman
World: Visigothic settlement, hospitalitas, and army payment
reconsidered, Andreas Schwarcz; Building an ethnic identity for a new
Gothic and Roman nobility: Córdoba, 615 AD, Luis A.
GarcÃa Moreno; Vascones and Visigoths: creation and
transformation of identity in northern Spain in late Antiquity, Scott
de Brestian; Identity and ethnicity in the era of migrations and
barbarian kingdoms in the light of archaeology in Gaul, Patrick
Périn and Michel Kazanski; Text, artifact and genome: the
disputed nature of the Anglo-Saxon migration into Britain, Michael E.
Jones. Part IV Epilogue: Modern Constructions of Barbarian Identity:
Auguste Moutié, pioneer of Merovingian archaeology and the
Spurlock Merovingian collection at the University of Illinois, Bailey
Young and Barbara Oehlschlaeger-Garvey.