Review of Andy Merrills & Richard Miles: The Vandals, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell 2014, in Sehepunkte 14 (2014), Nr. 10 [15.10.2014] (original) (raw)
Related papers
Strategy and structures along the Roman frontier. LIMES XXV, vol. 2, 2024
The starting-point of this paper is a stratum of early Roman rural sites discovered in the Utrecht region over the past 25 years. Most of them seem to be new settlements, with occupation being limited to the pre-Flavian period in several cases. Handmade pottery with a clear northern-coastal connection is present in significant amounts at some sites. At one, specific house forms and the use of cow dung as fuel support the idea that northern groups, perhaps Chauci, took part in this apparent settlement wave in the Utrecht region. Small military items are a regular occurrence and may hint at early service in Roman auxiliary or irregular tribal units. In a handful cases a start date around AD 10 or 20 is demonstrable, suggesting a possible relation with the nearby Roman base at Vechten. The paper goes on to explore similar proximities in place and time between early Roman military installations and the settlement of immigrant groups in the Rhine and Danube provinces. Controlled colonisation of deserted borderlands appears to be a fixed element of early Roman frontier policy, emphasising the dual facing aspect of military investment along the rivers Rhine and Danube.
There are two objectives behind this article. First, it seeks to trace down the pedigree of a theory described in scholarly discourse as the 'ethnogenesis model'. As is often believed, the theory originally was, essentially, an innovative concept proposed by Reinhard Wenskus, the German researcher. My article puts forth the idea whereby it was Walter Schlesinger who had laid the foundations for the theory, whose concept was further developed by Wenskus. My other purpose was to verify the basics of the theory itself, based on relevant empirical material; specifi cally, I mainly deal with original sources reporting on the ethnic composition and history of the Vandal people.
The Vandals and Sarmatians in a New Perspective
Collegium Medievale, 2017
This study discusses the relations between the peoples known as Sarmatians, Alans, Vandals, and other groups in the context of fluid identities and political affinities of Late Antiquity and early medieval Europe. It is argued that the Vandals underwent a substantial transformation from being dominantely farmers to centre on horse breeding and mounted warfare. In this process, Sarmatian and Alanian influence on the Vandals was crucial. One could speak of a 'Sarma-tisation' of Vandal warfare, economy, dressing, and conduct, but also of a Vandal confederation of identities to which other 'barbarian' peoples could be connected .
Acta Archaeologica Carpathica 55, 2020
This article addresses a few archaeological finds from the earliest stage of the Great Migration Period (late fourth to the first half of the fifth century AD) in the territory of the Western Roman Empire related to Central Europe by origin, which could testify to the migration of the Vandals and the Suebi to the Roman West in 406 AD. These finds comprise different types of crossbow brooches discovered in the Roman provinces in Gallia, Spain, and North Africa, which parallels originate from the lands to the north of the Danube, in the zone where the Vandals and the Suebi lived by the moment of the migration to the West in 406 AD. Besides, some features of the funeral rite discovered in the early Great Migration Period in Eastern Gallia, particularly ritually destroyed weapons, meet with analogies in the cemeteries of Central European barbarians, particularly in the Przeworsk culture. These archaeological pieces of evidence were partially related to the arrival of the Vandals and the Suebi to the Roman Empire's territory in 406 AD, and also reflected the presence of the Central European barbarians in the Roman military service.
The Sack of Rome - revised: Quodvultdeus' description of the Vandal Conquest of Carthage
This paper focuses on the sermon On Barbarian Time, which was delivered after the Vandal conquest of Carthage in 439 by Quodvultdeus, bishop of Carthage. The paper claims that Quodvultdeus used the first book of Augustine's City of God as a literary source, and aimed to portray the conquest of Carthage as a direct continuation of the sack of Rome. Thus, Quodvultdeus saw the sack of Carthage as part of the eschatological sequence and the soon to arrive end of the world and testified to the centrality of Carthage in fifth-century western thought.
The Vandal Conquest of North Africa: Origins of a Historiographical Persona
Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2017
A close reading of sources documenting the Vandal conquest (429–39 ce) reveals that contemporary authors did not present the event as a persecution. To be sure, they insisted on the devastation that the Vandals caused, the typical woes of war, but not on its religious motivation. The article argues that it was Augustine who, in his ep. ccxxviii, first presented a theological interpretation of the event that allowed later sources writing within the Augustinian tradition to frame the conquest retroactively as a persecution.
2020
The Fall of Rome (or more specifically the Western Roman Empire) remains a hotly debated subject in the history of Late Antiquity. The Battle of Adrianople can be argued to be the beginning of Rome's end, but the cause of the battle lay more with Rome's imperial mismanagement than any deliberate attempt at war from the barbarians. Rome turned against those who would have defended the empire, and for many centuries had done just that. Despite being forced into an antagonistic relationship with Rome, their reputation as the cause of Rome's calamity has remained to the present day. This thesis will first argue that the fault lies more with Rome than with the various barbarian tribes. After making that argument, it will investigate why the "barbarian invader" myth has remained in the public consciousness for more than 1500 years after Rome's fall. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank all of those involved in helping me through my academic career, and helped me shape this argument. Dr. Edward Dandrow, Dr. Barbara Gannon, and Dr. Amelia Lyons for giving me the chance to prove myself and supporting me every step of the way. Also, I want to thank my committee members Dr. Duncan Hardy and Dr. Amy Foster, who provided invaluable suggestions and critiques. My future wife Samantha, who put up with hours spent on the table and around the world. My father, who has always pushed me to better myself, been supportive of my endeavors and helped establish my love of learning. My classmate Jim, who helped keep me sane during the process.