The Pirenne Thesis and the End of Antiquity, Part 2a

[sharp_blue]

As described in the first part of this essay, the Roman Empire had survived the strategic crisis caused by the rise of Sassanid Persia in the third century AD by comprehensively reorganising its military, political, economic and social structures. Following this restructuring, Rome once again flourished in the fourth century. However, unfortunately

Comments

[liadnan]

I take issue with use of the terms Visigoth and Ostrogoth at that time. The people at Adrianopole were two quite distinct Gothic tribes, the Grethuingi and the Tervingi, with separate leaderships, though co-operating. They didn't become one people -the Visigoths- until Alaric. Fritigern led the Tervingi and though he claimed in his embassy the night before Adrianopole that he was in overall command it seems very likely this was more something he aspired to achieve through his negotiating rather than a genuine statement of fact. Ermanaric was actually king of the Grethuingi, not one of the tribes who became part of the Ostrogoths, and his sons were leading the Grethuingi at Adrianopole. The two tribes went separate ways after the battle for a while. Similarly the Ostrogoths didn't come into existence as a recognisable single group (from several disparate groups of Goths which formed part of the Hunnic Empire) until the late 5th century, Amal family propaganda notwithstanding.

[liadnan]

PS the wikipedia articles on the subject are a bit confused. The Ostrogoths and the Grethuingi are not the same thing under different names at all. See Jordanes Getica, Ammianus Bk 31 and Heather, Goths and Romans

[kalashnicough]

Very good, but it needs more zombies.

Zombies rule!

[vacuum_dentata]

Yay! Zombies!

Um, Rich this year I want to do the 3 day novel contest. Since you want to write sci fi (I believe you do), I thought you might be interested in the contest. Here is a link

www.3daynovel.com

Anyway, do you have MSN or yahoo messenger? I have both.

My MSN email if you want to write me is: save_all_animals@hotmail.com

My Yahoo Messenger email is insatiablexphile@yahoo.ca

I am doing pretty well at school (remember when you wanted me to go to college) and I know you are busy, but I am so excited to update you! :) I didn't want to write you earlier, until I was a lot more stable.

I don't even drink alcohol anymore (not even beer!)

Anyway, just excited to fill you in, I guess. I'm doing really well. I am going to Boston in late August to visit Jyl (Goo).

Anyway, take care!

Lex

P.S. How do you stay focused on academia so much? I have trouble focusing.

Re: Zombies rule!

[sharp_blue]

That novel thing looks interesting, but the probability that I'll be able to devote a whole three days to any new project is hovering around zero at the moment.

I have a whole range of IM accounts, which you can find listed on my LJ user info.

I'm glad you're doing well :) I never doubted that your life would improve.

Sometimes I have trouble focusing too, but I'm interested in so many things that I just tend to switch from one interest to another for a while. This evening I've been alternating between reading about the early New Kingdom and studying advanced topics in database application architecture.