The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization
Page 24
7. Faulkner, The Decline and Fall of Roman Britain, 11–12, 54, 70, 180 (the ‘Golden Age’ sentence closes his book). Chris Wickham, from a similar (but now far less extreme) Marxist background, sometimes makes similar points: e.g. in Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages, 707, where Roman economic sophistication is described as more a sign of ‘exploitation’ and ‘resultant hierarchies of wealth’ than of ‘development’. Marxists are by nature suspicious of commerce, and of empires.
8. Diodorus of Sicily V.38 (trans. C. H. Oldfather, in the Loeb Classical Library edition, slightly adapted).
9. Dung-foundlings: M. Manca Masciadri and O. Montevecchi, I Contratti di baliatico (Milan, 1984), 11–12.
10. F. R. Trombley and J. W. Watt (trans. from the Syriac), The Chronicle of Pseudo-Joshua the Stylite (Liverpool, 2000), 37–46.
11. L. Duchesne (ed.), Le Liber Pontificalis, i (Paris, 1886), 385 (R. Davis (trans.), The Book of the Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis) (Liverpool, 1989), 88); S. Waetzoldt, Die Kopien des 17. Jahrhunderts nach Mosaiken und Wandmalereien in Rom (Vienna and Munich, 1964), figs. 477–83, 489.
12. A good impression of these seventh-century churches can be formed from X. Barral I Altet, The Early Middle Ages: From Late Antiquity to A.D. 1000, (Cologne, 2002), 98–117.
13. C. Wickham, ‘L’Italia e l’alto Medioevo’, Archeologia Medievale, 15 (1988), 105–24, at 110. For similar sentiments: M. Carver, Arguments in Stone: Archaeological Research and the European Town in the first Millennium (Oxford, 1993), 50; T. Lewit, ‘Vanishing Villas: What Happened to Elite Rural Habitation in the West in the 5th and 6th Centuries A.D.?’, Journal of Roman Archaeology, 16 (2003), 260–74.
14. For two particularly splendid examples: M. M. Mango, The Sevso Treasure. Part 1 (Ann Arbor, 1994); K. J. Shelton, The Esquiline Treasure (London, 1981).
15. Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, IV, no. 2184 (and Tab. XXXVI.22): ‘Hic Phoebus unguentarius optime futuet’.
16. For general discussions of Roman literacy: W. V. Harris, Ancient Literacy (Cambridge, Mass., 1989); J. H. Humphrey (ed.), Literacy in the Roman World (Journal of Roman Archaeology, supplementary series, no. 3; Ann Arbor, 1991) (in which the article by Keith Hopkins is particularly useful); G. Woolf, ‘Literacy’, in A. K. Bowman, P. Garnsey, and D. Rathbone (eds.), The Cambridge Ancient History. Second Edition, xi. The High Empire, A.D. 70–192 (Cambridge, 2000), 875–97.
17. Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum IV, nos. 575 (universi dormientes), 576 (furunculi), 581 (seri bibi). See also A. E. Cooley and M. G. L. Cooley, Pompeii: A Sourcebook (London and New York, 2004), 115.
18. Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum IV, no. 1245.
19. Discussed by J. L. Franklin, ‘Literacy and the Parietal Inscriptions of Pompeii’, in Humphrey (ed.), Literacy in the Roman World, 82–3. See also Cooley and Cooley (as cited in n. 17), 79.
20. S. S. Frere, R. S. O. Tomlin et al. (eds.), The Roman Inscriptions of Britain, vol. II (in 9 fascicles) (Gloucester, 1990–5).
21. W. S. Hanson and R. Conolly, ‘Language and Literacy in Roman Britain: Some Archaeological Considerations’, in A. E. Cooley (ed.), Becoming Roman, Writing Latin? Literacy and Epigraphy in the Roman West (Portsmouth, RI, 2002), 151–64 (see also the paper by Tomlin in the same volume).
22. The Roman Inscriptions of Britain, II.5, p. 138 (no. 2491.147), p. 142 (no. 2491.159), p. 140 (no. 2491.153).
23. A. K. Bowman, Life and Letters on the Roman Frontier: Vindolanda and its People (London, 1994), 82–99, esp. p. 88.
24. Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum I, n. 684; C. Zangemeister, Glandesplumbeae Latine inscriptae (Ephemeris Epigraphica, Corporis Inscriptionum Latinarum Supplementum, vol. VI; Rome and Berlin, 1885), 59–60 n. 65.
25. B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt, New Classical Fragments and Other Greek and Latin Papyri (Oxford, 1897); the papyrus illustrated in Fig. 7.8 is published on p. 82, as no. 50f2.
26. R. Marichal, Les Graffites de la Graufesenque (XLVIIe supplément à Gallia; Paris, 1988).
27. A. Grenier, Manuel d’archéologie gallo-romaine, pt 2 (J. Déchelette (ed.), Manuel d’archéologie préhistorique et gallo-romaine, Vol. VI.2; Paris, 1934), 643–63.
28. The best collection is that from Monte Testaccio: Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum XV.2.1, nos. 3636–4528; J. M. Blázquez Martinez, Excavaciones arqueológicas en el Monte Testaccio (Roma): Memoria campaña 1989 (Madrid, 1992), 39–178. These particular amphorae were for the state-run distribution of oil in Rome; but other similar painted inscriptions have been recovered from all over the empire.
29. R. Egger, Die Stadt auf dem Magdalensberg, ein Grosshandelsplatz, die ältesten Aufzeichnungen des Metallwarenhandels auf den Boden Österreichs (Vienna, 1961).
30. Justin: Procopius, Secret History, 6.11–16 (Procopius, Works, vol. VI, 70–3). Maximinus: Scriptores Historiae Augustae, trans. D. Magie (Loeb Classical Library; London and Cambridge, Mass., 1924), ii. 316–17, 331–3 (‘Maximini Duo’, II.5 and IX.3–5). See B. Baldwin, ‘Illiterate Rulers’, Historia: Zeitschrift für alte Geschichte, 38 (1989), 124–6.
31. C. Carletti, ‘Iscrizioni murali’, in C. Carletti and G. Otranto (eds.), Il santuario di S. Michele sul Gargano dal VI al IX secolo: Atti del convegno tenuto a Monte Sant’Angelo il 9–10 dicembre 1978 (Bari, 1980), 7–180 (Turo is p. 86, no. 79.)
32. Code of Rothari, 224 and 243, in G. H. Pertz (ed.), Legum, iv, (Monumenta Germaniae Historica; Hanover, 1868), 55, 60; The Lombard Laws, trans. K. Fischer Drew (Philadelphia, 1973), 93, 100. N. Everett, Literacy in Lombard Italy c. 568–774 (Cambridge, 2003), is an excellent survey of the uses of writing in one post-Roman society.
33. I. Velásquez Soriano, Documentos de época visigoda escritos en pízarra (siglos VI–VIII), 2 vols. (Turnhout, 2000) (the ‘Notitia de casios’ is vol. i, no. 11).
34. For instance, the tiles of two proud builders, the Lombard king Agilulf (591–616) and the Roman pope John VII (705–7): G. P. Bognetti, Santa Maria di Castelseprio (Milan, 1948), tav. VIIa; A. Augenti, Il Palatino nel medioevo: Archeologia e topografia (secoli VI–XIII), (Rome, 1996), 56, fig. 29.
35. Other groups of similar graffiti exist, but Rome’s catacombs and the Gargano have produced much the largest and finest collections (327 and 159 graffiti respectively, for the most part shorter than Turo’s—often just a name). For the catacombs: C. Carletti, ‘Viatores ad martyres: Testimonianze scritte altomedievali nelle catacombe romane’, in G. Cavallo and C. Mango (eds.), Epigrafia medievale greca e latina: Ideologia e funzione (Spoleto, 1995), 197–226. For the Gargano, see n. 31.
36. A post-Roman tile found near Crema, in northern Italy, with a Germanic name and part of the alphabet written with a finger into the clay while wet, is, to the best of my knowledge, quite exceptional: A. Caretta, ‘Note sulle epigrafi longobarde di Laus Pompeia e di Cremasco’, Archivio storico lombardo, ser. 9, vol. 3 (1963) 193–5.
37. K. Düwel, ‘Epigraphische Zeugnisse für die Macht der Schrift im östlichen Frankenreich’, in Die Franken, Wegbereiter Europas (Mainz, 1996), i. 540–52; É. Louis, ‘Aux débuts du monachisme en Gaule du Nord: Les Fouilles de l’abbaye mérovingienne et carolingienne de Hamage (Nord)’, in M. Rouche (ed.), Clovis, histoire et mémoire, ii (Paris, 1997), 843–68.
38. B. Galsterer, Die Graffiti auf der römischen Gefäskeramik aus Haltern (Münster, 1983).
39. A. Petrucci, Writers and Readers in Medieval Italy: Studies in the History of Written Culture, trans. C. M. Radding, (New Haven and London, 1995), 67–72: of 988 subscribers, 326 wrote their own name.
40. P. Riché, Éducation et culture dans l’occident barbare VIe–VIIe siècles (Paris, 1962), 268–9, 304–5.
41. Einhard, Vita Karoli 25 (Éginhard, Vie de Charlemagne, ed. L. Halphen (Paris, 1947), 76).
Chapter VIII. All for the Best in the Best of All Possible Worlds?
1. For much of what follows, see also a number of interesting articles that have discussed the new Late Antiquity: Cameron ‘The Perception of Crisis’; G. Fowden, ‘Elefantiasi del tardoantic
o’, Journal of Roman Archaeology, 15 (2002), 681–6 (which is in English, despite its title); A. Giardina, ‘Esplosione di tardoantico’, Studi Storici, 40.1 (1999), 157–80; J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz, ‘Late Antiquity and the Concept of Decline’, Nottingham Medieval Studies, 45 (2001), 1–11.
2. A. Carandini, ‘L’ultima civiltà sepolta o del massimo desueto, secondo un archeologo’, in A. Carandini, L. Cracco Ruggini, and A. Giardina (eds.), Storia di Roma, III.2. L’età tardoantica. I luoghi e le culture (Rome, 1994), 11–38. Giardina, ‘Esplosione di tardoantico’; A. Schiavone, La storia spezzata: Roma antica e Occidente moderno (Rome and Bari, 1996). English edition, The End of the Past: Ancient Rome and the Modern West, trans. M. J. Schneider, (Cambridge, Mass., 2000). P. Delogu, ‘Transformation of the Roman World: Reflections on Current Research’, in E. Chrysos and I. Wood (eds.), East and West: Modes of Communication (Leiden, Boston, and Cologne, 1999), 243–57.
3. Valerio Massimo Manfredi, The Last Legion: A Novel, English edn. (London, 2003).
4. In practice, the new Late Antiquity acknowledges this by abandoning most aspects of western history after about 500, and of the Byzantine world after the early seventh century.
5. Exemplified by Jones’ magisterial The Later Roman Empire.
6. For a strong statement of the new, above all American, position: Fowden, ‘Elefantiasi del tardoantico’.
7. C. Dawson, The Making of Europe: An Introduction to the History of European Unity (London, 1932), pp. xvii-xviii.
8. E. Power, Medieval People (10th edn., London and New York, 1963), 1–17 (this particular essay was included in Medieval People only after her death, by her husband Michael Postan). Power is somewhat reticent about the Anglo-Saxons.
9. A. Piganiol, L’Empire chrétien (325–395) (Paris, 1947), 422: ‘La civilisation romaine n’est pas morte de sa belle morte. Elle a été assassinée.’ Ungendered English, unfortunately, cannot quite capture the full horror of a feminine ‘Civilisation’ murdered by barbarians.
10. Courcelle, Histoire littéraire. His book is divided into three parts, ‘L’invasion’, ‘L’occupation’, and ‘La libération’—the latter referring rather implausibly (as he himself admitted) to Justinian’s conquests.
11. Ibid. 197–205, 59–60 (for a case of Frankish fidelity to Rome), 197–205. See Demougeot, La Formation de l’Europe, Vol. 2.2, 873–6, for almost the same sentiments, thirty years later.
12. E. Demougeot, La Formation de l’Europe et les invasions barbares, 2 vols. in 3 parts (Paris, 1969–79).
13. Goffart, ‘Rome, Constantinople’, 21.
14. The project, of course, pre-dated the 2004 enlargement of the EU: it is not clear where the Slavs fit into this history. The Celts have already been honoured with an exhibition at Palazzo Grassi in Venice in 1991: ‘The Celts. The First Europe’.
15. Karl der Grosse: Werk und Wirkung (Aachen, 1965), p. ix.
16. Die Franken, Les Francs. Wegbereiter Europas, Précurseurs de L’Europe, 5. bis 8. Jahrhundert (Mainz, 1996).
17. Bede, Vita Sancti Cuthberti, X, ed. and trans. B. Colgrave, Two Lives of Saint Cuthbert (Cambridge, 1940), 188–91.
18. Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction (1994), 131, as cited in Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd. edn. OED Online, ‘medieval’ (draft of June 2001).
19. See, above all, C. J. Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages (Oxford, 2005), 1–5.
20. e.g. Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom.
21. For other recent critiques of ‘smooth historiography’ and ‘unruptured’ History: Schiavone, La storia spezzata; P. Horden ‘The Christian Hospital in Late Antiquity: Break or Bridge?’, in F. Steger and K. P. Jankrift (eds.), Gesundheit-Krankheit (Cologne and Weimar, forthcoming).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Contemporary Sources
Wherever possible, I have cited texts that include an English translation; or I have also cited a separate translation. The translations of passages used in this book are my own, unless specifically attributed to a particular translation.
Ammianus Marcellinus, History
Ammianus Marcellinus, Rerum Gestarum Libri qui Supersunt, parallel Latin and English text, trans. J. C. Rolfe, 3 vols. (Loeb Classical Library; Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1935–9).
Cassiodorus, Variae
Magni Aurelii Cassiodori Variarum Libri XII, ed. Å. J. Fridh (Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina, XCVI; Turnholt, 1973). There is a translation of a selection of the Variae in S. J. Barnish, The Variae of Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (Translated Texts for Historians, 12; Liverpool, 1992). All the letters (but only in abbreviated translations) are available in English in T. Hodgkin, The Letters of Cassiodorus, being a Condensed Translation of the Variae Epistolae of Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (London, 1886).
Chronicle of 452
Chronica Gallica a. CCCCLII, in Chronica Minora saec. IV. V. VI. VII, ed. T. Mommsen (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi, IX; Berlin, 1891–2), 646–62.
Ennodius, Works
Magni Felicis Ennodi Opera, ed. F. Vogel (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi, VII; Berlin, 1885). For an English translation of the Life of Epiphanius: G. M. Cook, The Life of Saint Epiphanius by Ennodius (Washington, 1942).
Eugippius, Life of Severinus
Eugippius, Das Leben des heiligen Severin, ed. and German trans. R. Noll (Schriften und Quellen der alten Welt, 11; Berlin, 1963). English translation: Eugippius, The Life of Saint Severin, trans. L. Bieler with L. Krestan (The Fathers of the Church, 55; Washington, 1965).
Gildas, The Ruin of Britain
Gildas, The Ruin of Britain (De Excidio Britanniae), ed. and trans. M. Winterbottom (London, 1978).
Gregory of Tours, Histories
Gregori Episcopi Turonensis Historiarum Libri X, ed. B. Krusch (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum, I.1; Hanover, 1937–42). English translation: Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, trans. L. Thorpe (Harmondsworth, 1974).
Hydatius, Chronicle
R. W. Burgess (ed. and trans.), The Chronicle of Hydatius and the Consularia Constantinopolitana: Two Contemporary Accounts of the Final Years of the Roman Empire (Oxford, 1993).
Jordanes, Gothic History
Iordanis Romana et Getica, ed. T. Mommsen (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi, V.1; Berlin, 1882). English translation: The Gothic History of Jordanes, trans. C. C. Mierow (2nd edn., Princeton, 1915).
Olympiodorus, History
Olympiodorus’ fragmentary history, parallel Greek and English text, in ed. and trans. R. C. Blockley, The Fragmentary Classicising Historians of the Later Roman Empire: Eunapius, Olympiodorus, Priscus and Malchus, 2 vols. (Liverpool, 1981–3), ii. 151–210.
Orosius, History against the Pagans
Pauli Orosii Historiarum adversum Paganos, ed. C. Zangemeister (Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, V; Vienna, 1882). English translation: Orosius, The Seven Books of History against the Pagans, trans. R. J. Deferrari (Washington, 1964).
Paul the Deacon, History of the Lombards
Pauli historia langobardorum, ed. L. Bethmann and G. Waitz (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum saec. VI-IX; Hanover, 1878). English translation: Paul the Deacon, History of the Lombards, trans. W. D. Foulke (Philadelphia, 1907).
Paulinus of Pella, Thanksgiving
Paulin de Pella, Poème d’action de grâaces et prière, Latin and French text, ed. C. Moussy (Sources Chrétiennes, 209; Paris, 1974). Parallel Latin and English text in Ausonius, Works, trans. H. G. Evelyn White (Loeb Classical Library; Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1921), ii. 304–51.
Possidius, Life of Augustine
Possidius, Life of Augustine, in A. A. R Bastiaensen (ed.), Vita di Cipriano, Vita di Ambrogio, Vita di Agostino (Verona, 1975). English translation: in Early Christian Biographies, trans. R. J. Deferrari et al. (Fathers of the Church, 15; Washington, 1952).
Priscus, History
Priscus’ fragmentary hist
ory, in ed. and trans. R. C. Blockley, The Fragmentary Classicising Historians of the Later Roman Empire: Eunapius, Olympiodorus, Priscus and Malchus, 2 vols. (Liverpool, 1981–3), ii. 222–377.
Procopius, Secret History and Wars
in Procopius, Works, parallel Greek and English text, trans. H. B. Dewing, 7 vols. (Loeb Classical Library; Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1914–40).
Ruricius, Letters
Ruricii Lemovicensis epistularum libri duo, in Foebadius, Victricius, Leporius, Vincentius Lerinensis, Evagrius, Ruricius, ed. R. Demeulenaere (Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina, 64; Turnholt, 1985), 313–94. English translation: Ruricius of Limoges and Friends: A Collection of Letters from Visigothic Gaul, trans. R. W. Mathisen (Translated Texts for Historians, 30; Liverpool, 1999).
Rutilius Namatianus, A Voyage Home
Rutilius Namatianus, De reditu suo, parallel Latin and English text, in Minor Latin Poets, trans. A. M. Duff (Loeb Classical Library; Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1934), 764–829.