The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History

by Peter Heather

  3 Dahn ((1861–1909), (1877).

  4 An excellent survey, bringing out the strategic differences between the various frontiers, is Whittaker (1994).

  5 As Kossinna put it in the 1926 version of The Origin of the Germani, ‘clearly defined, sharply distinctive, bounded archaeological provinces correspond unquestionably to the territories of particular peoples and tribes’. Kossinna’s ideas were disseminated most influentially in the Anglophone world through the works of V. Gordon Childe (1926), (1927). For an introduction to recent reinterpretations of the meaning of archaeological cultural areas, see Renfrew and Bahn (1991).

  6 Ariovistus: Caesar Gallic War 1. 31–53; Veleda: Tacitus Histories 4. 61, 65; 5. 22, 24. Useful introductions to early Germanic society are Todd (1975); (1992); Hachmann (1971).

  7 Bructeri: Tacitus Germania 33; Ampsivarii: Annals 13. 56.

  8 Annals 1. 68.

  9 Elton (1996b), 66–9.

  10 Strabo 4. 5. 3.

  11 On Chinese expansion, see e.g. Lattimore (1940). For an introduction to the Oppida culture: Cunliffe and Rowley (1976); Cunliffe (1997). On the Jastorf culture, Schutz (1983), Ch. 6. For the Germani adopting La Tène cultural forms, see Hachmann et al. (1962). Much has been written on the dynamics of Roman imperial expansion, but for an introduction see CAH 2. 9 esp. Ch. 8a; CAH 2. 10 esp. Chs 4, 15; Isaac (1992), esp. Ch. 9; Whittaker (1994), Chs 2–3. Modern studies have shown that the process was much more anarchic than old views of planned conquests implied.

  12 Trans. Dodgeon and Lieu (1991), 43–6, 50, 57.

  13 For an introduction to Near Eastern history in the early Roman imperial period, see Millar (1993).

  14 Chronicon Paschale, 510.

  15 On the Sasanian revolution, see Christiansen (1944); Howard Johnson (1995); McAdams (1965); Dodgeon and Lieu (1991).

  16 Global figures: Agathias History 5. 13; John Lydus On the Months (de Mensibus) 1. 27. General discussions: Jones (1964), 679–86 (inclined to accept an increase up to 600,000 after Diocletian); Hoffmann (1969); Elton (1996a); Whitby (2002). The widely disseminated arguments of MacMullen (1963) on the military ineffectiveness of limitanei have been overturned.

  17 On the confiscations of city funds, see Crawford (1975), which remains controversial. Constantius returned one-quarter to the cities of Africa, Valentinian and Valens one-third to all cities; cf. Jones (1964), Ch. 19.

  18 On these measures, see Jones (1964), esp. Ch. 13 and 623–30.

  19 The one exception, a heavy Roman defeat in 363, was caused by the overambition of the emperor Julian, to which we will return in a moment. For relations between Rome and Persia in the fourth century see e.g. Dodgeon and Lieu (1991); Matthews (1989), Chs 4 and 7.

  20 For an introduction to these third-century events, see Jones (1964), Ch. 1; Drinkwater (1987).

  21 This quotation is from Ammianus 28. 5. 4, and the next two from 28. 5. 7.

  22 It was mentioned by two contemporary spin-doctors (Pan. Lat. 7. 10ff.; 10. 16. 5–6), and made it into one of the main fourth-century annalistic Histories: Eutropius 10. 3. 2.

  23 Relatio 47.

  24 Themistius Or. 10. 131b–c. On Themistius and his career, see Heather and Moncur (2001), esp. Ch. 1.

  25 Roman ideological constructions of the barbarian were directly descended from those of the Greeks. See e.g. Dauge (1981); Ferris (2002).

  26 Calo Levi (1952) and McCormick (1986) amongst many others underline the importance of victory.

  27 Themistius Or. 5. 66a–c with Matthews (1989), Ch. 7, and Smith (1999) on the campaign.

  28 Themistius Or. 6. 73c–75a.

  29 The next two quotations are from Themistius Or. 10. 205a–b and 10. 202d–203a.

  30 For full analysis of the different circumstances of Constantine’s peace with the Goths in 332 and Valens’ in 369, see Heather (1991), Ch. 3, with full refs. Themistius Or. 8. 116, delivered in March 368, refers to the arrival of the Iberian prince Bacurius at Valens’ headquarters and dates the start of Chosroes’ manoeuvres to the middle of the Gothic war. The story of the other waterborne fourth-century summit is told at Ammianus 30.3.

  31 The 369 treaty is reported as a reasonable outcome to the war at Ammianus 27. 5. 9; Zosimus 4. 11. 4. Even after defeating the Alamanni in the 350s, the emperor Julian still made annual gifts part of the peace treaties he negotiated with their various kings: Heather (2001); cf. Klöse (1934) for many earlier examples. A Gothic force of perhaps 3,000 (no small number when expeditionary armies probably numbered about 20–30,000) had been provided on four occasions since Constantine’s victory over the Goths in 332: in 348 (Libanius Or. 59. 89), 360 (Ammianus 20. 8. 1), 363 (Ammianus 23. 2. 7) and 365 (Ammianus 26. 10. 3).

  32 Statue: Themistius Or. 15. 191a. Oath: Ammianus 27. 5. 9. On the use of hostages: Braund (1984). Cultural influence did not always have the desired effect. Arminius, three and a half centuries before, had served as a Roman officer in the auxiliaries before plotting Varus’ destruction.

  33 On these two MSS, see respectively Tjäder (1972); Gryson (1980).

  34 The two main sources for Ulfilas – the letter of Auxentius and fr. 2. 5 of the Church history of Philostorgius – pose a problem over the dates of his ordination and his time in Gothia. See Heather and Matthews (1991), Ch. 5, with refs and translations for the reasoning behind my preferred solution. For a similar community of Roman prisoners among the seventh-century Avars, see Miracles of St Demetrius 285–6.

  35 The Gospel text of the Codex Argenteus preserves Ulfilas’ work more or less untouched, whereas others worked after his death on the Epistle text: Friedrichsen (1926), (1939). Before Ulfilas, the Goths used runes for divinatory and other limited purposes, but, as mentioned elsewhere, Gothic did not exist as a written language. Ulfilas had first to devise an alphabet for it, which he did working largely from Greek with a few additions for particular Gothic sounds, and then render the Bible into the language he had created.

  36 For an introduction to these theological debates and the manoeuvres, see Hanson (1988); Kopecek (1979).

  37 Ammianus 16. 12. 26 and 63 for the numbers; 16. 12 generally for the battle.

  38 For the theory and practice of these treaties, see Heather (2001).

  39 Chnodomarius: Ammianus 16. 12. Macrianus: Ammianus 29. 4. 2. Alamannic, Burgundian and Frankish wars: Ammianus 28. 5. 9–10, 30. 3. 7.

  40 It is traditional to envisage only two, the Visigoths and Ostrogoths, but this is an anachronism. As we shall see in Ch. 5, the traditional equation between the Tervingi and the Visigoths cannot stand; the latter were created on Roman soil in the reign of Alaric in the 390s.

  41 The evidence is an amalgam of written and archaeological materials (Heather (1996), Ch. 3).

  42 There is a little archaeological evidence, but linguistic evidence is very much stronger. The fifth- and early sixth-century Burgundian language is distinctly east rather than west Germanic, despite the fact that they were then living in the west (Haubrichs (forthcoming)).

  43 Frankish subgroups: Gregory of Tours Histories 2. 9. Strasbourg: Ammianus 16. 12. Chnodomarius and Macrianus: n. 39 above. Vadomarius: Ammianus 21. 3–4. One source refers to Athanaric as the ‘Judge of Kings’ (Ambrose On the Holy Spirit prologue 17), and the confederation of the Tervingi contained a number of subservient ‘kings’ (the Greek and Latin terms probably translate the Germanic reiks, which may have meant ‘noble’ rather than ‘monarch’).

  44 On Wijster and Feddersen Wierde, see Van Es (1967); Haarnagel (1979). For a broader run of evidence with refs: Heather (1996), Ch. 3.

  45 Poland: Urbancyzk (1997), 40. Gothic pottery and combs: Heather and Matthews (1991), Ch.3 with refs. Glass: Rau (1972); cf. Hedeager (1987) and Heather (1996), Ch. 3, for broader discussion.

  46 Heather (1996), 65–75 with refs.

  47 Tervingi: Wolfram (1988), 62ff.

  48 Heather (1996), 66, 70–2 with full refs.

  49 Ørsnes (1968); cf. Hedeager (1987) with refs.

  50 Ammianus 16. 12. 60.r />
  51 Passion of St Saba 4. 4, 7. 1–5.

  52 Annals 13. 57.

  53 Continental evidence: Heather (2000); Wickham (1992). Anglo-Saxons: Harke (1990); a number of those buried with weapons couldn’t possibly have fought, including one individual with spina bifida who couldn’t even have walked.

  54 Militarized freedmen among the Germani appear in sixth- and seventh-century Visigothic and Frankish law codes and also in fifth- and sixth-century literary evidence: Heather (1996), App. 2; Heather (2000).

  55 Wormald (1999), Ch. 2.

  56 Passion of St Saba passim.

  57 Tacitus Annals 12. 25.

  58 Ammianus 17. 12. 9.

  3. THE LIMITS OF EMPIRE

  1 Ammianus 28. 6. 26.

  2 Probably those due from Valentinian’s accession in 364. Offerings of crown gold, such as that taken by Symmachus to Valentinian in 369 (Ch. 1), were used to finance these payments.

  3 Army returns: Jones (1964), Ch. 19. Lost cash: Symmachus Relationes 23. Mac- Mullen (1988) lovingly catalogues many of the documented scams.

  4 Libanius Letters. 66.2 trans. in Norman (1992) as Letter 52. Themistius on an emperor’s friends: e.g. Or. 1. 10c ff. Connection and position: Matthews (1975), esp. Chs 1–2.

  5 The creation of the Roman Empire had been driven by the link between revenues from overseas and political influence (Ch. 2). The same was true of the British Empire: Ferguson (2001). Valentinian and corruption: Ammianus 30. 9.

  6 The Theophanes archive is edited and discussed in Roberts and Turner (1952), 104–56.

  7 Including Chanel No. 5, I am reliably informed.

  8 Many letter collections – including that of Symmachus – betray signs of having been put together from originals stored in such a fashion, and the archives of the early papacy (usually taken to reflect late Roman governmental practice) certainly operated in this way (Noble (1990); Markus (1997), App.). To find anything, therefore, you’d have to know which year it belonged to; there is no sign of any attempt to cross-reference by subject or place. Kelly (1994) explores what is known about the imperial archives in Constantinople.

  9 To decide a city’s tax bill, the landed resources of each civitas were divided into units called iugera (sing., iugum). The iugum was a unit of value, not size, so a iugum of better-quality land would be smaller than a iugum of poorer quality. Each iugum was ascribed the same value of annual output, and had the same amount of tax levied on it. Deciding the total number of iugera for each city was the work of central government and required a thorough survey of agricultural assets (much complained about in our sources). Even this was not carried out uniformly throughout the Empire. In Syria, the assessors distinguished between three qualities of arable land and two types of olive grove. Elsewhere, a much simpler distinction between arable and pastoral was applied; while in Egypt and North Africa, existing land measures were approximated to the new tax units and no reassessment took place, presumably in part because it was too difficult and in part because it might have aroused resistance. The poll tax, similarly, was not applied equally throughout the Empire, sometimes applying to urban and rural plebeians, sometimes just the latter. On the details of Roman taxation, see Jones (1964), Ch. 13.

  10 Local communities are known to have got into debt, for instance, in their determination to build the kind of buildings that would secure the necessary constitutional grant. In this context, the case of Irni in Spain is very interesting. Archaeologists have so far failed to identify its site, so unimpressive are the remains in the vicinity, and despite its wonderful constitution you begin to wonder whether it was ever much more than a notional or legal town.

  11 P. Columbia 123; cf. Millar (1992), 245; Honoré (1994).

  12 CTh 1. 2.

  13 Jones (1964), Ch. 25, is the most considered and coherent statement of this kind of analysis. The orthodoxy is expressed in more strident terms in some of the older literature: Rostovtzeff (1957); CAH 1. 12, esp. Ch. 7; CMH 1. 1. esp. Ch. 19.

  14 For the standard vision of ‘curial flight’, see Jones (1964), 737–63, commenting above all on the massive run of legislation collected at CTh 12. 1.

  15 Agri deserti: Jones (1964), 812–23. Tying of peasantry to their land: Jones (1964), 795–812.

  16 His findings were published most fully in Tchalenko (1953–8). More recent work has suggested that some of his conclusions as to the source of these villages’ prosperity need revision, but not the basic fact of it (e.g. Tate (1989)).

  17 I have seen figures between 5 and 8 million bandied about.

  18 Recent summaries and discussions of the survey evidence are: Lewitt (1991); Whittaker and Garnsey (1998); Ward Perkins (2000); Duncan Jones (2003).

  19 In medieval England (up to c. 1300), bonds of serfdom tightened as the population grew and the peasants’ need for land increased, but loosened after the Black Death, when landowners needed labour, rather than land. Revised view of agri deserti: Whittaker (1976). Tax and subsistence agriculture: Hopkins (1980).

  20 In imperial capital cities like Trier, Antioch and Constantinople at the highest level, and lesser regional ones such as Aphrodisias in south-west Asia MinOr. On this development, see e.g. Jones (1964), Ch. 19; Roueché (1989).

  21 Some ancient historians use the Greek-derived term ‘euergetism’, ‘good works’, to describe the local competitive display of the early Roman period commemorated in the thousands upon thousands of inscriptions surviving from the first two and a half centuries AD. This is at least in part euphemistic.

  22 Libanius Or. 42. 24–5.

  23 Waiting lists: CTh 6. 30. 16; cf. Libanius Letters 358–9, 365–6, 362, 875–6. General reassessment of the problem: Heather (1994b) with full refs.

  24 Among the main losers were builders and inscription-cutters in the small towns of the Empire.

  25 Efficiency: Elton (1996a); Whitby (2002). Amongst the outside groups providing contingents for campaigns were the Gothic Tervingi (see Ch. 2). The really damaging sea-change came, after 382, when large contingents were recruited from barbarian groups who had established themselves on Roman soil and began to act as centrifugal political forces (see Chs 4 and 5). Much of the traditional argument has focused on the behaviour and loyalty of generals-cumpoliticians of non-Roman origin who rose to positions of great influence. Although called ‘barbarians’, many of these, like Stilicho, were second-generation immigrants and hence Roman; and anyway, the behaviour of such men betrays no sign of disloyalty. On Stilicho in particular, see in more detail p. 216ff.

  26 Gibbon (1897), vol. 4, 162–3 (from General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West).

  27 Liebeschuetz (1972), 37–8, 104–5.

  28 Coinage: Calo Levi (1952). Ursulus: Ammianus 20. 11. 5 and 22. 3. 7–8. Tax minimization: Jones (1964), 462ff., who, in my view, is inclined to make too much of what is highly normal human behaviour.

  29 Grammarians: Augustine Confessions, esp. books 2–4 passim. This cultural revolution, and the cases of Melania and Paulinus of Nola in particular, have been much explored in recent years. For an introduction, see the many works of P. R. L. Brown, esp. (1981), (1995); Markus (1990); Trout (1999).

  30 CTh 16. 5. 42 of the year 408 debarred pagans from imperial service. On the ideologies of the Christian Empire, see Dvornik (1966).

  31 The story of this remarkable MS is told in Matthews (2000), Ch. 3.

  32 There were currently two emperors, Valentinian III in the west and Theodosius II in the east.

  33 The Egyptian papyri preserve some nice acclamation evidence: Jones (1964), 722ff.

  34 Scholarship has concentrated on the Christianization of the Empire, so that the full story of the other side of the coin has yet to be told. For an introduction, see Jones (1964), Ch. 22; Markus (1990).

  35 Gibbon’s case is actually much easier to make in relation to the Arab takeover of the eastern half of the Empire in the seventh century, where hostility between Greek and Syrian Orthodox (the latter often wrongly called monophysite
s) played a role in the process. On the contrary, religious disaffection played no substantial part in the Germanic takeover of the west in the fifth century.

  36 On this softly-softly approach of fourth-century emperors to Christianizing their upper classes, see (most recently) Brown (1995); Bradbury (1994); Barnes (1995); Heather and Moncur (2001), esp. Ch. 1.

  37 ‘Constitution’ is the official term for a formal imperial edict.

  38 Rather than in shorthand. Late Roman bureaucratese had many ways of speeding up the laborious process of writing out, but shorthand involved some risk that a word might then be read wrongly.

  39 Dvornik (1966); Barnish (1992), introduction; Heather (1993).

  40 The full story is told in Matthews (2000), esp. Chs 4–5.

  41 Matthews (1986) is a fascinating exploration of how Symmachus found ways to express criticism and conflict within the massive constraints imposed by the etiquette of Roman public life.

  42 For Augustine’s education, see Brown (1967), esp. Chs 3–4.

  43 Cohortales of Aphrodisias and Egypt: Roueché (1989), 73–5. Legal profession: Jones (1964), Ch. 14. McLynn (1994) and Van Dam (2003) are recent studies of the first generation of upper-class bishops; cf. Brown (1967), esp. Chs 17–19, on the stir created by the highly educated Augustine among the backwoods bishops of North Africa.

  44 In large cities, chariot-racing was conducted through four teams, or factions: greens, blues, reds and whites. These were highly organized and could occasionally be mobilized – not least through rioting – to exert political pressure or to fulfil civic functions.

  45 Maratacupreni: Ammianus 28. 2.

  46 Letters 1. 1–5 (quotation above from 1. 5. 2). Further estate management letters: 2. 30–1; 5. 81, 6. 66, 6. 81, 7. 126. Another good example of late Roman ‘improvement’ is Paulinus of Pella Eucharisticon 187–97.

  47 E.g. Letters 2. 87, 6. 11.