The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History

by Peter Heather

  42 The ‘colonial’ view of North Africa can be found in Baradez (1949). See also the more recent revisions of Whittaker (1994), 145–51, and the collected essays of Shaw (1995a), nos 1, 3, 5, 6, and (1995b), no. 7. Readily accessible general accounts of Roman North Africa are: Raven (1993); Manton (1988).

  43 Carthage: Ennabli (1992), 76–86. Utica: Procopius Wars 3. 11. 13–15.

  44 CTh 13.5 and 6 contain a long run of relevant imperial pronouncements.

  45 Lepelley (1979–81). Even elsewhere, as we saw in Ch. 3, this change had more to do with the restructuring of city finance in the third-century crisis and its political repercussions than with economic decline.

  46 ILT 243.

  47 CIL 8, 18587. Again, the French colonial view held that it was European settlers who brought with them new water technologies, such as the 50-kilometre aqueduct which serviced Carthage in the late antique period, required to make North Africa bloom. But that massive construction brought water to the city for luxury, not agricultural, purposes, particularly to service its massive Antonine baths.

  48 Mactar inscription, olives and rural expansion: Raven (1993), 84–6, 92–6. A good general account of the rural survey findings is Mattingly and Hitchner (1995).

  49 Expositio Totius Mundi 61.

  50 The amusements of the amphitheatre included everything from wild beast hunts, in which two hunters might be pitted against nine bears in a battle to the death, to risqué representations of the loves of Jupiter, to novelty acts such as acrobats acting out dramas on tightropes. At the circus, you could find the everpopular chariot-racing, but the young Augustine particularly loved the theatre. At the age of sixteen he had come to Carthage, where ‘a cauldron of illicit loves leapt and boiled about’ him; and in response to the stage: ‘In my wretchedness, I loved to be made sad and sought for things to be sad about: and in the misery of others – though fictitious and only on the stage – the more my tears were set to flowing, the more pleasure did I get from the drama and the more powerfully did it hold me’ (Confessions 3. 2).

  51 For an introduction to the findings of the UNESCO excavations, see Ennabli (1992).

  52 Gregory of Tours 2. 8, after Renatus Frigeridus. On the background of Aetius, see most recently Stickler (2002), 20–5, with refs.

  53 Zosimus 6. 2. 4–5; Hydatius Chronicle, 125, 128.

  54 For revisionary views of the Bagaudae, see Drinkwater (1993); Halsall (1993); arguing against an older, more Marxist strand of interpretation, e.g. Thompson (1956).

  55 They vary in form from Latin prose, to hexameters, to elegiac couplets, to Phalacean metre.

  56 The base and commemorative inscription still survive (CIL 6. 1724).

  57 On Merobaudes, see generally Clover (1971), who discusses the manuscript as well as editing and translating the Poems; with further discussion in PLRE 2, 756–8.

  58 The quotations in the next few pages, unless otherwise indicated, are from Merobaudes’ Panegyrics 1 and 2.

  59 The insurgents are called ‘Nori’, but this pre-Roman conquest tribe hadn’t existed for centuries, so they may well have been another quasi-Bagaudic group.

  60 Sources as PLRE 2, 166; cf. Courtois (1955), 155–71; Stickler (2002), 232–47.

  61 Priscus fr. 11. 1, p. 243; the date and extent of the concession has occasioned much debate: for an introduction, see Maenchen-Helfen (1973), 87ff.

  62 Merobaudes Panegyric 1 fr. IIB.

  63 Refs as PLRE 2, pp. 24–5; most recent commentary, with full refs: Stickler (2002), 48ff. Procopius Wars 3. 3. 15 refers to Aetius (and Boniface) as the last of the Romans.

  64 Quodvultdeus In Barbarian Times 2. 5.

  65 Merobaudes Carmen IV.

  66 Nov. Val. 5. 1, 6. 1.

  67 Nov. Val. 9.

  68 Force from the east: Theophanes AM 5941, with CJ 12. 8. 2 on Pentadius. Secondary commentary: Courtois (1955), 171–5.

  69 Panegyric 2. 51–3. The next two quotations are from Panegyric 2. 61–7, 2. 98–104.

  70 Nov. Val. 34: 13 July 451.

  71 Basic terms of the 442 treaty: Procopius Wars 3. 14. 13, with Clover (1971).

  72 Panegyric 2. 25–33.

  73 Carmen 1. 5–10.

  74 ‘Allotment’ may conjure up visions of Vandals and Alans on the outskirts of Carthage tending their vegetable patches, putting up sheds and comparing the sizes of their marrows. And, in fact, that connotation is not entirely inappropriate: see next note.

  75 Victor of Vita 2. 39. I owe this point to Moderan (forthcoming), whose discussion renders redundant the suggestion of Goffart (1980), 67–8 n., that the Vandal settlement after 439 merely reallocated provincial tax revenues. Goffart’s suggestion was based on an argument by analogy rather than detailed consideration of the North African evidence. On this historiographical issue, see further pp. 423–4ff.

  76 Celestiacus: Theodoret of Cyrrhus Letters 29–36; Maria: 70.

  77 This is where the allotment image breaks down, and, in any case, any residual agricultural expertise among the north-central European Vandals would have been inappropriate for the Mediterranean littoral.

  78 This wasn’t as good as outright ownership, but the new tenants were given emphyteutic leases with full inheritance rights, so that they had some security (Nov. Val. 34).

  79 Nov. Val. 13. This degree of remission is comparable with that granted to areas around Rome affected by Alaric’s Visigoths between 408 and 410 (see p. 245–6).

  80 These were the kinds of things that emperors often gave as favours, and when the tax-base was large they could be easily absorbed. Now, however, as the law put it: ‘the weight of the tribute which is withdrawn from certain persons individually falls back on the others’ (Nov. Val. 4).

  81 Nov. Val. 7. 1; slightly modified in 7.2 of 27 September 442.

  82 Nov. Val. 10.

  83 Four thousand two hundred solidi (one-eighth of the old total) were now to be paid by Numidia under the general tax account, together with 1,200 military subsistence allowances and 200 units of animal fodder. Five thousand solidi (again, one-eighth of the previous figure) and 50 units of animal fodder were demanded from Mauretania Sitifensis. Each military subsistence allowance and fodder unit had also been reduced by one solidus (Nov. Val. 13).

  84 Following the calculations of Elton (1996a), 120–5, which must be approximately correct, even if detailed points are arguable.

  85 The next two quotations are from Panegyric 2. 55–8, 75–6.

  7. ATTILA THE HUN

  1 Opinions on Attila: Thompson (1996), 226–31; Maenchen-Helfen (1973), 94ff. Thompson and Maenchen-Helfen are the two main accounts available in English. The quotation is from Marcellinus Comes, Chronicle s.a. 447.2. A few years ago, I was asked to revise the old article on Attila in The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. They said change whatever you like, but keep ‘scourge of God’.

  2 One source dates Rua’s death to 434, but is demonstrably wrong (Maenchen- Helfen (1973), 91–4).

  3 The next three quotations are from Priscus frr. 2, 6.1, 6.2.

  4 Compare the approaches of Thompson (1945) and Blockley (1972).

  5 Julian, Letter to the Athenians 279A–B; Ammianus 16. 2ff.; cf. Matthews (1989), Ch. 6.

  6 For an introduction to the development of the Silk Road cities, see Boulnois (1966).

  7 Ammianus 31. 10. 3–5 gives an excellent example of cross-border intelligence from winter 377/8. The Alamanni learned about Roman troop movements from a retired guardsman, but also observed them for themselves.

  8 On the context of his life, see Toynbee (1973); Runciman (1929).

  9 That we have part of volume 50 suggests that most of them did once exist; the quotation is from the Preface to Constantine’s Excerpts concerning Virtues and Vices.

  10 For an introduction to Constantine’s project, see Lemerle (1971), 280–8.

  11 I here broadly follow Maenchen-Helfen (1973), 116–17.

  12 Working with his book is a bit like working with Priscus. As its editor’s
introductory note explains, the author brought a ‘beautifully typed’ manuscript into the offices of California University Press in early January 1969, but then died just a few days later. The manuscript turned out not to be a completed book, but only some chapters, and despite much editing the book as finally published remains highly episodic, missing a great number of connecting passages. But none of this detracts, again like the fragments of Priscus, from the quality of what is there.

  13 Maenchen-Helfen (1973), 86–103, discussing Theophanes AM 5942.

  14 Given that 442–7 is six years, 8,400 pounds should have been paid in this period, but that the arrears were 6,000 suggests that only 2,400 were ever handed over.

  15 Nov. Theod. 24.

  16 On the recruitment of Isaurians, see Thompson (1946).

  17 Quoted in Maenchen-Helfen (1973), 121.

  18 Life of Hypatius 104.

  19 Poulter (1995), (1999).

  20 Priscus fr. 9. 3, p. 238; cf. its survival of Avar attacks, too, 150 years later: Theophylact Simocatta History 7.3. The next two quotations are from Priscus fr. 9. 3.

  21 Road: fr. 11. 2, p. 263. Tents: fr. 11. 2, p. 251.

  22 Priscus fr. 11. 2, p. 275.

  23 We have virtually the whole of Priscus’ account transmitted in a number of different fragments. They are arranged in chronological order and translated in Gordon (1960), Ch. 3 (with commentary), and Blockley (1983), frr. ll. 1–15. 2, whose translation is quoted in what follows. Except where otherwise indicated, the quotations in the rest of this chapter are from Priscus.

  24 Fr. 11. 2, pp. 247–9.

  25 Circuit walls: Priscus fr. 11. 2, p. 265; buildings: fr. 11. 2, p. 275; seating arrangements: fr. 13. 1, p. 285; furnishings: fr. 11. 2, p. 275; greeting: fr. 11. 2, p. 265.

  26 Rather as in the old game of Kremlin-watching, this ceremonial life made it abundantly clear when someone had been promoted or demoted.

  27 The next two quotations are from Getica 34: 182; 35: 183 (= Priscus fr. 12. 2).

  28 Fr. 2, p. 227.

  29 Fr. 14, p. 293.

  30 Priscus fr. 11. 2, p. 267. The sharing of booty is, as we shall see in a moment, fully reflected in the archaeological evidence, but also referred to in passing in the literary evidence: e.g. Priscus fr. 11. 2 p. 263f.

  31 Priscus fr. 15.2, p. 297.

  32 Olympiodorus fr. 19.

  33 Some commentators have taken Matthews (1970) to task for simply assuming this to have been the case (see Matthews (1985), additional note), but the text is ambiguous and his original thought could easily be correct.

  34 ‘Er, yes – I’m afraid I gave the best gifts to the wrong king and the Akatziri are now our mortal enemies. Sorry, Sir.’ Nearly as good a diplomatic foul-up as the occasion when the Queen referred to the battle of Waterloo as an excellent example of Anglo-German cooperation, much to the chagrin of the French.

  35 It also puts a further nail in the coffin of any idea that Uldin, prominent before 411, possessed anything like the power of Attila. There are other reasons, as we have seen, for rejecting this idea (p. 198), but, just as important, it is clear that no Hun king was so dominant at such an early date.

  36 Heather (1996), 113–17, on the rise of Valamer among the Pannonian Goths: he killed Vinitharius, the head of one line (but also married his granddaughter), and forced Beremud, from another, to flee; but Gensemund, Beremud’s uncle, accepted his overlordship. See further Ch. 8.

  37 Part of the manoeuvre to catch Vigilas involved banning the Romans from making further purchases of Hunnic horses, and the first trouble with Attila and Bleda involved a surprise attack on market day (Priscus fr. 6. 1).

  38 Itself worth the far from negligible sum of nearly seven pounds of gold.

  39 The figures are those of Lindner (1981) who, in a famous article, concluded that, since Hunnic armies in the time of Attila certainly numbered tens of thousands, the Huns could no longer have been nomads, since there wasn’t enough space in Hungary for so many horses. He missed the important point that most of the manpower for Attila’s armies was provided by his Germanic subjects, not by the Huns themselves, so we don’t need to postulate so many horses anyway. The military manpower point is fully explored later in this chapter.

  40 Languages: Priscus fr. 11. 2, p. 267: ‘Being a mixture of peoples, in addition to their own languages they cultivate Hunnic or Gothic or, in the case of those who have dealings with the Romans, Latin.’ Names: Maenchen-Helfen (1973), 386ff.; cf. Jordanes Getica 9:58 on the adoption of names between different language groups.

  41 Sozomen HE 9.5; CTh 5. 6. 3.

  42 Theophanes AM 5931; cf. Procopius Wars 3. 2. 39–40, with Croke (1977). The date could be either 421 or 427.

  43 Gepids, Rugi, Suevi, Sciri and Herules are all named in the post-Attilan narrative of events on the Great Hungarian Plain (see Ch. 8), while Attila intervened in the internal politics of the Franks (Priscus fr. 20. 3), which makes it very likely that he exercised some kind of hegemony over Lombards and Thuringians, and possibly Alamanni too, all of whom lived closer to the Hunnic heartland.

  44 I find Priscus perfectly comprehensible, unlike Baldwin (1980), who argues that these terms were all used in a confused and confusing fashion.

  45 You can tell how people were dressed by where they wore their safety-pins – all that tends to survive of clothing in most graves.

  46 Reasons for archaeological invisibility can range from the dramatic, where bodies are left exposed to the elements and wild animals, to the prosaic: cremation followed by the scattering of ashes, or bodies being buried without any chronologically indentifiable grave goods – which often makes medieval northern European cemeteries undatable once populations convert to Christianity.

  47 Although written sources occasionally provide information, which can be used in conjunction with archaeological evidence to identify particular groups.

  48 The archaeological ‘horizons’ are differentiated from one another by discernible variations in the manner in which broadly similar sets of grave goods were decorated. In chronological order – and there are overlaps – the sequence starts with the Villafontana horizon, followed by those of Untersiebenbrunn and Domolospuszta/Bacsordas (names not for the faint of heart!).

  49 Many of the Germanic groups of central Europe in the first to third centuries had practised cremation, but inhumation was already spreading more widely before the arrival of the Huns.

  50 For introductions to these finds, see Bierbrauer (1980), (1989); Kazanski (1991); Tejral (1999). Wolfram (1985) has some excellent illustrations.

  51 The point was first emphasized by Bury (1928).

  52 Priscus fr. 15. 4, p. 299.

  53 Priscus fr. 11. 2, p. 277.

  54 Sources as PLRE 2, 568–9. Besides, this kind of thing is typical of the rich and underemployed – especially those of energy and determination – caught up in the empty ceremonies of a highly orchestrated court life. In Nepal in 2001 a drunken prince went berserk and shot ten of his relatives, including the reigning monarch, before killing himself; readers with slightly longer memories will recall the much covered-up death of a Saudi princess who strayed from the expected paths of inaction.

  55 Plate: Priscus fr. 11. 2, pp. 263, 265, 277. Frankish succession: Priscus fr. 20. 3. On contacts with Geiseric and the general diplomatic context: Clover (1972).

  56 Getica 33: 182.

  57 Poem 7. 319ff.

  58 My account of Attila’s two western campaigns draws heavily on Thompson (1996), Ch. 6; Maenchen-Helfen (1973), 129ff. The latter deals only with the Italian campaign: an account of the attack on Gaul was not found among the extant fragments (see n. 12 above).

  59 Jordanes Getica 195.

  60 The battle narrative is from Jordanes Getica 38:197–41:218.

  61 Fr. 22. 2, p. 313 = Procopius Wars 3. 4. 33–4.

  62 Hydatius Chronicle 154.

  63 The fact that Aetius was either unable or unwilling to confront Attila head-on with another confederation, as in Gaul,
has often aroused comment. Prosper Tiro s.a. 451 says that Aetius was caught unprepared, and some have believed this to be so. Maenchen-Helfen (1973), 135ff., convincingly reconstructs Aetius’ countermeasures and sets them in the context of other contemporary Roman defences of the Po valley. I also follow Maenchen-Helfen in understanding Hydatius Chronicle 154 to mean that Aetius received eastern military help in Italy, as well as benefiting from a campaign by eastern troops on the Danube.

  64 Even in more modern eras, armies campaigning over these kinds of distances have come unstuck. In the summer of 1914, German armies reached the gates of Paris, before rolling back again (there’s no record that St Genevieve had anything to do with this). They were brought to a halt by a bold tactical manoeuvre on the part of the French army on the River Marne, but also by exhaustion, which gave the French their opportunity. A British trooper, falling back before the German advance, reported: ‘The greatest strain . . . was . . . fatigue . . . I fell off my horse more than once, and watched others do the same, slowly slumping forward, grabbing for their horse’s neck, in a dazed, barely conscious way. At any halt men fell asleep instantaneously’ (quoted in Keegan (1988), 107). There were, of course, a number of differences between 451 and 1914. In 1914, the distance from Belgium to Paris was covered at speed in about two weeks, the men marching 40 kilometres a day, day after day. The Hunnic advance was a much more leisurely affair. In 1914 the Germans had travelled to the German-Belgian border by train, leaving only about 500 kilometres to cover on foot and on horseback, and they did have supplies and wagon trains.

  65 Getica 49: 256–8.

  66 Although they did attempt to broker a peace between the Suevi and the Gallaecian provincials.

  67 Any account of Spain in the 430s and 440s has to be built up from Hydatius 91–142.

  68 The Pelagian heresy is named after the Romano-British theologian Pelagius, who argued, not least against Augustine, that salvation required not just Divine Grace, upon which others put the emphasis, but also great individual effort to live a virtuous life.