If Rome Hadn't Fallen

by Timothy Venning

  30. See S. Williams and G. Friell, Theodosius: the Empire at Bay (Batsford, 1994), pp. 130–3.

  31. See Prudentius, In Symmachum, book 1, chapters 1 and 2, Gibbon chapter 28, and discussion by J.T. Matthews, Western Aristocracies and the Imperial Court AD364–425, p. 204

  32. Life of St. Germanus, chapter 12.

  33. See Liber Pontificalis, vol 1, pp. 371–82.

  34. Procopius, Secret History, book 8, chapters 22 and 24–6. In contemporary terms of supernatural belief, he claimed that the Emperor was possessed by a demon and wandered around the Palace at night without a head. But how much of this was stock rhetoric or later disillusion, not intended for publication?

  35. Gibbon chapter 30.

  36. See Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, sub ann. 893: edited by Michael Swanton (Dent, 1996), p. 84. Discussion in Richard Abels, Alfred the Great: War, Kingship and Culture in Ninth Century England (Longman, 1993), pp. 195–203.

  Chapter 5

  1. See Stephen Oppenheimer, Blood of the British (Constable and Robinson).

  2. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. Swanton, pp. 77–8.

  3. See H. Lamb, Climate From 1000BC to AD1000 in M. Jones and G. Dimbleby, The Environment of Man, British Archaeological Report 87 (Oxford 1953–65).

  4. See Hesiod, Theogony, verses 214–16 and Pliny, Natural History book 6, chapter 36 for the western location of the ‘Hesperides’ (beyond the Canary Islands?) and Andrew Collins, Gateway to Atlantis (Headline, 2000), pp. 87–92 for the possible interpretation of this. The whole question of Roman coins or ships found in the New World remains controversial and unproven. For the interpretation of St. Brendan’s voyage, see Geoffrey Ashe, Land to the West: St. Brendan’s Voyage to America (Collins, 1962) and Tim Severin, The Brendan Voyage.

  5. Their mythic land of origin, the ‘tlapallan’ (red land), could logically have been Cuba from its direction from Yucatan and the colour of the soil. The complex nature of Mexican and Maya myth makes it unclear if the founder cult-hero of the Toltecs around 900, who bore the same name as the god Quetzalcoatl, genuinely came from overseas or was a white man (?European) as interpreted by the Spanish in the sixteenth century.

  6. See Nigel Davies, The Aztecs (New York, 1973), The Cambridge History of Latin America, vol. 1 (ed. Leslie Bethell, Cambridge 1980) and Hugh Thomas, The Conquest of Mexico (Hutchinson, 1993) chapter 1.

  7. See N. Davies, The Toltec Heritage (Norman, 1980).

  8. See Michael Cox, The Mayas (Thames and Hudson, 1999 edition).

  9. See Tacitus, Annals, ed. Michael Grant (Penguin 1996) p. 327 for the Roman attack on Mon. Caesar also deplored Druidic practices.

  10. David Keays, Catastrophe: An Investigation into the Origins of the Modern World (1999), and review by E. James, Did Medieval History Begin with Catastrophe? in Medieval Life vol. 12 (2000), pp. 3–6. Further evidence for unusual phenomena in the mid-530s, interpreted differently, is in M. Baillie, Exodus to Arthur: Catastrophic Encounters with Comets (London, 1991).

  11. Procopius, quoted in ibid, and Antti Arjava, The Mystery Cloud of 536 CE in the Mediterranean Sources in Dumbarton Oaks Papers no. 59 (2006), pp. 73–93.

  12. As n. 98; and see J.D. Gunn, The Years Without a Summer: Tracing AD536 and its Aftermath in British Archaeological Report International Series, (Oxford, 2006).

  13. See Williams and Friell, Theodosius: the Empire At Bay, pp. 120–5 on the Emperor’s suppression of paganism; and Zosimus, book 1, chapter 4 on the iconoclastic purge by Cynegius.

  14. Socrates, book 4, chapter 18; Gibbon, chapter 28 (part 3, pp. 129–32).

  15. Original story in Theodoret, Historia Ecclesiastica, book 5, chapter 26. Now thought to be a myth.

  16. Alan Cameron, Circus Factions: Blues and Greens in Rome and Byzantium (Oxford, 1976).

  17. Procopius, Persian Wars, book 1, chapter 24.

  18. Procopius, Secret History, chapters 1–5. See Averil Cameron’s discussion of Procopius’ attitude to Theodora in Procopius and the Sixth Century (Routledge, 1985), pp. 67–83.

  19. Original source for the story of the closure: John Malalas, Chronicle, book 18, chapter 47. Discussed in Michael Maas, Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian (Cambridge U.P. ,2005), pp. 330–3.

  20. See Psellus, Chronographia, translated (as Fourteen Byzantine Rulers) by E.R.A. Sewter (Penguin, 1966) pp. 254–8 for Psellus’ own account.

  21. See Anna Comnena, Alexiad, trans. E.R.A. Sewter (Penguin 1969), pp. 174–80.

  22. Constantine VII, De Administrando Imperio, ed. Romilly Jenkins (Dumbarton Oaks, 1967), chapters 1–13.

  23. See H. Chadwick, The Early Church (Penguin, 1967), pp. 40–4, 81–2.

  24. See Philip Rousseau, The Early Christian Centuries (Longman, 2002) p. 67; and discussion of the emerging definitive canon in pp. 64–9. One probably late second or early third century list, the ‘Muratorian Fragment’, left out 1 and 2 Peter and included the ‘Apocalypse of Peter’; Irenaeus, main proponent of a finalised list, probably excluded James and 2 Peter; the Roman Church at first left out the Epistle to the Hebrews (Chadwick, p. 81). The Shepherd of Hermas was eventually removed as not by an Apostle.

  25. The centrepiece of the Gnostic (hidden) tradition was probably the collection of writings of which a copy was found hidden in a jar at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945. These ‘Nag Hammadi’ gospels (edited James Robinson, Leyden, 1977) and similar writings were more of a collection of wisdom literature about Jesus’ teachings than the letters of Apostles which were included in the eventually definitive canon. Modern scholars disagree over their dating, though some place the theologically non-Catholic Gospel of St. Thomas around 100. Their early date, and thus authenticity, as well as theological positions were seen as suspect by the mainstream Church Fathers (eg Irenaeus and Tertullian) by 180–200; their exclusion’was not the work of Constantine or the Council of Nicaea as Dan Brown et al. would have it.

  26. See A.H.M. Jones, Decline of the Ancient World, p. 60.

  27. See Odahl, Constantine and the Christian Empire (Routledge, 2004), p. 168 ff.

  28. As stated enthusiastically by Athanasius.

  29. See Lindsay, Arthur and His Times, pp. 70–87.

  30. For the original myth of the burning of the library by Omar, see Gibbon, part 5, pp. 275–6 and J. Butler, The Arab Conquest of Egypt (Oxford, 1978). P. Hitti, History of the Arabs (Macmillan, 1970 edition, p. 66,) traces the story to Abd-al-Latif al-Baghdadi, who died in 1231; Gibbon cites ‘Abdulpharagius’.

  31. Caesar does not mention the incident as including manuscripts at the relevant point in his Civil War (book 3, chapter 112). Recently, J. Empereur in Alexandria, Jewel of Egypt (2002) thinks it archaeologically clear that the building survived into the Empire, but was it extant as late as 391?

  32. As recounted by contemporary writer Nicetas Chroniates.

  Chapter 6

  1. See Paul Lemerle, Invasions et migrations dans les Balkans depuis le fin de l’epoque romaine jusqu’au VIII siècle, in Revue Historique 21 (1994) pp. 261–308.

  2. See Owen Moorhead, Justinian , 1994, pp. 145–53 on 540. For 559, see Agathias, book 5, chapter 14.

  3. There were indeed Romano-Turkish diplomatic contacts from 568, at the latter’s initiative, halted by the Turks due to Roman co-operation with the Turks’ Avar enemies c. 576.

  4. Treadgold, History of the Byzantine State and Society, p. 224.

  5. John of Ephesus, Ecclesiastical History, trans E.W. Brooks (1936), book 6, chapter 28.

  6. M. Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and His Historian (Oxford, 1988); Treadgold, History of the Byzantine State and Society, pp. 232–5.

  7. Origo Constantinis Imperatoris trans. J.C. Rolfe in his Ammianus Marcellinus (London 1964), book 6, chapter 32. Eusebius, Life of Constantine, book 4, chapter 6 trans. E.C. Richardson in NPNF, 2nd series, vol 1, (Grand Rapids, 1986).

  8. See Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and His Historian (Oxford, 1988) pp. 24–7 and Treadgold, History of the Byzantine State and Society, pp. 235–6. For the disastr
ous reign of Phocas and its implications, see David Olster, The Politics of Usurpation in the Seventh Century (Amsterdam, 1993), pp. 1–21. The basic details of Phocas’ reign are in Theophanes, Chronicle, ed. H. Turtledove, (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1982) pp. 1–8. Maurice’s Balkan campaigns are covered in detail by Theophylact Simocatta, History, ed. M. and M. Whitby, (Oxford, 1986) see book 6 on the 602 mutiny and books 9–10 on the overthrow of Maurice.

  9. See Averil Cameron, The Empress Sophia , in Byzantion, vol. 45 (1975). pp. 5–21.

  10. See Constance Head, The Emperor Justinian II of Byzantium (Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1972); and Theophanes, Chronicle, ed. Turtledove (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1982) p. 62.

  11. Theophanes does not mention the false Theodosius; see only local West Syrian chronicles. His survival is unlikely, but was rumoured as he was sent away to safety by Maurice in 602 and caught and killed separately from Maurice himself and his younger sons. For Priscus, see Patriarch Nicephorus, Short History, ed. Cyril Mango (Dumbarton Oaks, 1990), chapter 2 (relations with Phocas and Heraclius) and The Armenian History Attributed to Sebeos trans. R.W. Thomson (Liverpool Univ. Press, 1999) chapter 34, 113.

  12. See Sebeos, chapters 32–3, and Theophanes, Chronicle, ed. C. De Boor (Leipzig, reprint 1972) p. 299.

  13. Theophanes Chronicle, (ed. Turtledove), pp. 1–8.

  14. See Sebeos, chapter 34; Vie de Theodore de Sykeon, chapter 153; and Walter Kaegi, Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium (Cambridge U.P., 2003), pp. 58–83. The fact that Chosroes apparently turned down a request for peace on Heraclius’ accession shows that he was by then confidant enough to proceed with an outright war of conquest into Syria.

  15. Theophanes, Chronicle (ed. de Boor), pp. 306–35; Nicephorus, Short History, books 12–18 (ed. Mango), pp. 57–67; Sebeos, 126–7; Kaegi, Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium (Cambridge U.P., 2003), pp. 122–92. For the Arab attack on Iraq, see Hugh Kennedy, The Great Arab Conquests (Phoenix, 2007) pp. 98–138.

  16. It may also have helped that traditionally Abu Sufyan, related to the Prophet and father of the main invasion-commanders of Syria (Yazid and Mu’awiya), owned property in Jordan and the general who attacked invasions of the Byzantine Levant seem to have been a total of around 30,000 at most, provided the oral sources (written down generations later) were accurate. See Hugh Kennedy, The Great Arab Conquests (Phoenix, 2007), pp. 66–97, and Walter Kaegi, Byzantium and the Early Islamic Conquests (Cambridge, 1992).

  17. See Kennedy, The Great Arab Conquests, pp. 255–333.

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