Ethnic identity among the barbarians of the

late imperial and post-Roman period

Eric Limbach

11/03

2

The problem of barbarian identity in the post-Imperial period has, over the past few

decades, become one of the major areas of research and debate among scholars of late antiquity

and the early Middle Ages. In order to provide an overview of recent work in this field, several

points need to be addressed. The first is the importance of national histories in Europe over the

past few centuries, an emphasis that was maintained from the Renaissance through much of the

twentieth century. However, events of the twentieth century discredited much of this earlier

work, as nationalistic movements (especially in Germany) based many of their claims of

superiority on ethnic histories. The expansion of historical methodologies over the last hundred

years has also influenced the study of ethnic identity, as archaeologists, anthropologists and

sociologists have begun to make their own major contributions, leading to questions about earlier

assumptions and conclusions. Much of the current debate stems from the theoretical nature of

these disciplines. The issue of early medieval identity is also tied up with other discussions

regarding the nature of late imperial Roman society, as well as the evolution of political authority

over the course of the first millennium. Political and social historians are therefore forced to

address the various points of the identity debate even as they present their own research on post-

imperial society or the growth of barbarian kingdoms in Western Europe.

It is important to come to terms with the uses of identity and ethnicity throughout the past

few centuries. The historiography of barbarian identity dates back to the rediscovery of

Tacitus’s Germania in the fifteenth century and its use, along with the Getica and Historia

Langobardorum of Jordanes and Paul the Deacon, respectively, by sixteenth century scholars to

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create a Germanic past in opposition to the Roman culture upheld by the Renaissance. The

authors of the earliest histories of ethnicity intended to not only create the idea of an unbroken

line of ethnic identification extending back through history, but to provide justification for each

particular group wishing to subscribe to a certain identity.

1

This led to a conception of ethnicity

that was objectively biological and, in many cases, territorial. Such assumptions were central to

the field of ethnicity research for centuries, and when combined with the past-oriented Romantic

movement of the nineteenth century, they contributed to numerous ethnically based national

identities across Europe. While these ideal identities were intended to foster national unity and

pride across the boundaries of class, wealth and political views, extreme versions produced a

particularly violent and superior version of nationalism most associated by Hitler and the Nazi

Party in mid-twentieth century Germany.

2

However, one cannot use past abuses of history to discredit the entire identity debate.

Few scholars, if any, would today make the same arguments as have been written in past

centuries regarding the superiority (and victory) of Germanic culture over that of the Romans.

However, this does not mean that the field of ethnic identity research is lacking in controversy;

several different theories of ethnicity have gained wide support over the course of the past half-

century. Many scholars have debated the traditional thesis, dating back to the Renaissance, that

1

Andrew Gillett, “Introduction: Ethnicity, History and Methodology” in On Barbarian

Identity: Critical Approaches to Ethnicity in the Early Middle Ages, ed. Andrew Gillett
(Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2002), 5.

2

For an excellent overview of the uses and misuses of ethnic identity, see the

introduction and first chapter of Patrick Geary, The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of
Europe. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002). Note especially the change from the
eighteenth century, when ethnic identity was used to uphold class privilege. Geary points out
that for centuries, the French aristocracy had considered themselves as descended from the
Franks, while the commoners were the Romano-Gallic natives their “ancestors” had subjugated
during the fifth and sixth centuries. This played into the revolutionary rhetoric of Abbé Sieyès,
who considered the commoners the “true French people” as opposed to the Germanic invaders
who had repressed them for centuries.

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massive waves of barbarians invaded the later Roman Empire, causing its downfall and creating

the Middle Ages. Over the past few decades, research has placed a great deal of emphasis on the

idea of barbarian migration, rather than violent invasion. Even more recently, several scholars

have even proposed that the arrival of the barbarians was not much of a disruption, nor was it

much of an arrival, either. Most students of this era are familiar with the traditional

interpretation of migration, represented as a multitude of arrows drawn on a map of Europe and

intended to show the various routes taken by barbarian groups as they wandered through the

empire.

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In reality, much of the work done by historians in the area of ethnicity has begun with

an intention to challenge this view, either in terms of where specific groups originated

(ethnogenesis) or in the effect of these events on Roman society and governmental structures.

One theory that takes up the idea of a barbarian migration in terms of ethnogenesis is that

of the Traditionskern, popularized by the German-language scholars Reinhard Wenskus, Herwig

Wolfram and Walter Pohl, all associated with the University of Vienna. This theory is

essentially historical, as it is based on research in the same sources that have been consulted for

centuries, while it breaks with past ideas of identity in that it does not subscribe to a biological

basis for identity. The Traditionskern theory that first emerged during the 1960s and 1970s

posits that, during the early medieval period, those groups that considered themselves one single

nation of people were, in reality, far more heterogeneous. These groups, which existed primarily

for military purposes, were bound by a set of shared traditions (Traditonskern means “core/

3

Recent insights into the idea of migration have tended to emphasize that the Roman

writers of late antiquity (Tacitus and Ammianus Marcellinus, to name two) tended to see the
barbarians as migratory, whether they actually were or not. Thomas S. Burns points out that this
was a recurring theme in Roman society; instead of recognizing change in their own society, they
were quick to point out the recurrence of such wandering barbarian groups throughout Roman
history as the vehicle for change. Thomas S. Burns, Rome and the Barbarians 100 B.C.- A.D.
400. (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), 8.

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nucleus of tradition”) imparted to them by their leaders. These leaders may have shared a similar

ethnic origin; however, it is important to note that the majority of the members of such

communities would not share such genetic origins, and indeed may have been quite diverse, not

only in their personal origins, but also in language and culture. Over time, though, the group

began to integrate due to the shared traditions of the leadership, not because of any genetic

relationship. What is important, as Walter Pohl argues, is that this theory is able to supersede

past theories of biologically transmitted ethnicity, an important concern to many Continental

scholars.

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One of the criticisms of Traditionskern theory is the perceived impossibility of

transmission of ethnic identity over more than a handful of generations. This view, proposed by

Walter Goffart, places the “distant past” for the early medieval barbarians as three generations,

or barely a half-century before their own times. He argues that any ethnic memory prior to that

point can no longer be personal, instead requiring some sort of external source, either written or

as a ritual survival. He is able to demonstrate that many of the accepted origins of barbarian

ethnic groups have little basis in reality, as the only written records of them are from long after

the chain of historical memory would have failed.

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Some historians, notably Charles R. Bowlus,

argue that the entire concept of ethnogenesis is more sociological than historical, and that it is

impossible to make assumptions regarding what people during that period thought of their own

ethnic identity without any textual proof. He points out that most proponents of the

Traditionskern theory work with larger barbarian groups, such as the Goths and Lombards,

4

Walter Pohl, “Ethnicity, Theory and Tradition: A Response” in On Barbarian Identity:

Critical Approaches to Ethnicity in the Early Middle Ages, ed. Andrew Gillett (Turnhout,
Belgium: Brepols, 2002), 221-223. (Collection hereafter cited as Gillett)

5

Walter Goffart, “Does the Distant Past impinge on the Invasion Age Germans?” in

Gillett, 21-24.

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which occupy a relatively major position in the written record. When the assumptions of this

theory are applied to other groups without the benefit of such sources, parts of the theory become

untenable.

6

While much of the research in ethnic identity once implied a Germanic replacement of an

earlier Roman culture, more recent work has been able to highlight a Roman core to the early

medieval kingdoms. This was first proposed by Herwig Wolfram in his history of the Goths,

supported by Patrick Geary in his work on the Frankish kingdom and expanded upon by Walter

Pohl in several articles.

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By the time barbarians (and one will notice that they are no longer

Germanic, as that assumes a consistent identification with modern Germans through the

intervening centuries) were on the verge of establishing kingdoms on imperial territory, most had

lived along or within the imperial borders for generations. In addition, most of these barbarians

had participated in the Roman state as soldiers and occasionally administrators. The successor

states to the empire, in many ways, were built on an essentially Roman foundation, and not only

because they counted among their subjects those of Roman or Gallic origins. This interaction is

implied by most recent works supporting the Traditionskern ethnogenesis theory; in many parts

of the Empire, those people whose ancestors considered themselves Romans were subsumed into

6

Charles R. Bowlus, “Ethnogenesis: The Tyranny of a Concept” in Gillett, 241-246.

7

Herwig Wolfram. History of the Goths. trans. by Thomas J. Dunlap. (Berkeley:

University of California Press, 1988), Patrick Geary. Before France and Germany: The Creation
and Transformation of the Merovingian World. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), Walter
Pohl, “Introduction: The Empire and the Integration of Barbarians,” in Walter Pohl, ed.
Kingdoms of the Empire: The Integration of Barbarians in Late Antiquity. The Transformation
of the Roman World, ed. Ian Wood, vol. 1. (Leiden: Brill, 1997), and Walter Pohl,
“Introduction: Strategies of Distinction,” and “Telling the Difference: Signs of Ethnic Identity”
in Walter Pohl and Helmut Reimitz, eds. Strategies of Distinction: The Construction of Ethnic
Communities, 300-800. The Transformation of the Roman World, ed. Ian Wood, vol. 2.
(Leiden: Brill, 1998).

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other ethnic identities. The barbarians, for their part, had been helped along to this point by the

Romans, whose existence gave them a basis for their own self-identity.

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This relatively smooth evolution of Western European societies from imperial Roman to

barbarian is the basis of Walter Goffart’s thesis in Barbarians and Romans.

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He argues that it is

impossible for the barbarians to have set up stable kingdoms so quickly without retaining some

sort of Roman organization. In discussing the sources regarding the settlements of barbarian

groups (mostly, the variae of Cassiodorus), Goffart believes that they could not have been as

disruptive as previous scholarship has portrayed them, taking land away from the established

landowners, because there are few records of any protest to the terms of settlement. Rather than

actively settling the barbarians on their own land, the Romans allowed the tax system to evolve

in order to accommodate the barbarians in Italy and Gaul, allowing them to act as tax collectors

from the major landowners in return for financing defense. Given their military nature, this

would not have been a stretch.

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Goffart’s theory, in turn, is subject to criticism from Wolf

Liebeschütz, who offers a different interpretation of the same sources. He argues that there is no

conclusive evidence for Goffart’s claims, and does find a few sources that refer explicitly to the

granting of land to the barbarian settlers. He also believes that the small size of the groups

involved (the Goths under Theodoric, who were settled in Italy in the late 5

th

century, probably

8

The American scholar most associated with the Traditionskern school, Patrick Geary,

summed this up in his book Before France and Germany, which he opens with the statement:
“The Germanic world was perhaps the greatest and most enduring creation of Roman political
and military genius.” Patrick Geary. Before France and Germany: The Creation and
Transformation of the Merovingian World. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).

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This is not to say that Goffart agrees with the Traditionskern theorists like Pohl and

Geary. In his introduction to this work, he criticizes them for their reliance on questionable
narratives of ethnic origins composed in the centuries following the large-scale settlement of
barbarians in the empire.

10

Walter Goffart, Barbarians and Romans A.D. 418-584: The Techniques of

Accommodation. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980), 8-9.

8

numbered around 25,000 men).

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Another important issue to deal with regarding barbarian

interaction with Romans is their conversion to Catholic Christianity. Historians tend to believe

that Christianity was the vehicle for much of the Romanization of the barbarians, from the Latin

language and Roman culture, to Roman law and political systems. In essence, as the

Mediterranean world was broken up by the events of the early medieval period, a sense of

‘Roman-ness’ survived in Western Europe.

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Up to this point, most of the discussion has centered on either textual analysis or

theoretical sociology as they apply to the period of late antiquity. However, much of the current

work in this area, even that of historians, is aided by archaeological research. Because of their

emphasis on material objects rather than historical texts, archaeologists are not limited to

researching literate societies. As a result, a much wider range of cultures can be studied,

especially when one considers that very little was written about barbarian groups before they

came into contact with the Romans. Archaeological evidence can help determine the identity of

groups as they might have seen it, regardless of their level of verbal communication, by looking

at similarities in artifacts between sites and drawing conclusions as to how these show cross-

influences.

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Drawing on this, several histories of particular ethnic groups have been written recently,

utilizing archaeological evidence for many of their conclusions. One notable scholar in this

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Wolf Liebeschütz, “Cities, Taxes and the Accommodation of the Barbarians” in Walter

Pohl, ed. Kingdoms of the Empire: The Integration of Barbarians in Late Antiquity. The
Transformation of the Roman World, ed. Ian Wood, vol. 1. (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 146.

12

Richard Fletcher, The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity. (New

York: Henry Holt and Co., 1997), 2.

13

An excellent introduction to the role archaeology can play in the research on identity is

provided in the first chapter of Peter S. Wells, Beyond Celts, Germans and Scythians:
Archaeology and Identity in Iron Age Europe. Duckworth Debates in Archaeology vol. 4, Ed.
Richard Hodges. (London: Duckworth, 2001), 13-19.

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aspect is Peter Heather, whose studies of the Goths incorporate a great deal of archaeological

research done by the Soviets in present day Poland, Ukraine and Romania, the heartland of

Gothic culture before many settled in the Roman Empire. Archaeology has allowed the narrative

history of these groups to be extended back over a century, while questioning the Roman

division of the Goths into Visigothic and Ostrogothic, as well as Jordanes account of their

Scandinavian heritage.

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Neil Christie has performed a similar service for the history of the

Lombards/ Longobards, a later arrival in Western Europe, by showing the archaeological

evidence for their presence along the Elbe in the first century.

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One of the challenges for this sort of research is the difficulty in connecting

archaeological sites with historical cultures as described in the texts. In the case of the Goths, it

is easier due to the large area of continuity between the archaeological culture and Gothic

territory as described by Roman authors. However, in regions with greater archaeological

variation as well as records of multiple ethnic groups, such as the area that is modern Germany,

there is a great deal of difficulty in separating the groups. Also, given that archaeology as a

discipline can usually only deal with long periods of time, it is hard to label specific events based

on archaeological discoveries. As a result, it is impossible to be entirely sure when assigning

ethnic identities in this manner.

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Throughout much of the research on ethnic identity in late antiquity and the early

medieval period, there are some continuities. The amount of work done so recently in this area

14

For an overview of this research, see Peter Heather, The Goths. The Peoples of

Europe, vol. 17, ed. James Campbell and Barry Cunliffe. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1996)
and Peter Heather and John Matthews, The Goths in the Fourth Century. Translated Texts for
Historians, vol. 11. (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1991).

15

Neil Christie, The Lombards: The Ancient Langobards. The Peoples of Europe, vol. 9,

ed. James Campbell and Barry Cunliffe. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995) 1-5.

16

Sebastian Brather, “Ethnic Identities as Constructions of Archaeology” in Gillett, 152,

174.

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makes it rather unique; in not much more than a single generation, the debate has evolved

considerably. This is due not just to the work of historians, but also sociologists, archaeologists

and anthropologists. The debate continues, as many of the leading figures are still researching

and publishing. Indeed, the next few years will probably see the completion of the Studies in

Historical Archaeoethnology series, and, doubtless, the publication of a number of other

pertinent monographs and compilations.

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General Histories –

Some of these works discuss a much wider range of topics than just barbarians. For
example, the Cambridge Ancient History is a basic collaborative work discussing the
post-Constantine Roman Empire. It is notable in this study for Peter Heather’s article on
the Goths and Huns. Most of the other works listed here tend to present either overviews
of specific geographical areas or concentrate on one aspect of late antique and early
modern society, either economic or political. Two of these concentrate on the history of
ethnic identity studies in Europe. Patrick Geary’s The Myth of Nations includes a
chapter discussing the various conceptions (and misconceptions) of national identities
since the medieval period before going on to present his views on ethnic identity. Karl
Leyser’s article discusses the roots of the medieval idea of Europe (possibly the antithesis
to national identity) in late antiquity.

Brown, Peter. The World of Late Antiquity AD 150-750. London: Thames and Hudson, 1971.

Cameron, Averil and Peter Garnsey, eds. The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. XIII: The Late

Empire, A.D. 337-425. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Doehaerd, Renée. The Early Middle Ages in the West: Economy and Society. trans. by W. G.

Deakin. Europe in the Middle Ages: Selected Studies, ed. Richard Vaughan, vol. 13.
Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Company, 1978.

Fleckenstein, Josef. Early Medieval Germany. trans. by Bernard S. Smith. Europe in the

Middle Ages: Selected Studies, ed. Richard Vaughan, vol. 16. Amsterdam: North-
Holland Publishing Company, 1978.

Geary, Patrick. The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe. Princeton: Princeton

University Press, 2002.

La Rocca, Cristina, ed. Italy in the Early Middle Ages 476-1000. Oxford: Oxford University

Press, 2002.

Leyser, Karl J. “Concepts of Europe in the Early and High Middle Ages.” Past and Present,

No. 137, The Cultural and Political Construction of Europe (Nov., 1992): 25-47.

McKitterick, Rosamond, ed. The Early Middle Ages: Europe 400-1000. The Short Oxford

History of Europe, ed. T. C. W. Blanning. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Mitteis, Heinrich. The State in the Middle Ages: A Comparative Constitutional History of

Feudal Europe. Trans. by H. F. Orton. North-Holland Medieval Translations, Vol. 1, ed.
Richard Vaughan. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co., 1975.

Wickham, Chris. Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society 400-1000. Ann Arbor,

MI: The University of Michigan Press, 1989.

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Barbarian Populations before and during the Migration Period –

One glance at most of these titles is enough to give an idea of their position in the ethnic
identity debate. Among these are classics in the study of barbarian societies, such as
Wolfram’s History of the Goths and Pohl’s Die Germanen, along with Lucien Musset’s
The Germanic Invasions. Several are volumes in the Peoples of Europe series, and
therefore provide an introduction to the literature without contributing much to the
various debates on identity. Some utilize various interdisciplinary approaches, such as
archaeological and sociological emphases in Lotte Headeager’s Iron Age Societies and
Peter Heather and John Matthews’ The Goths in the Fourth Century, which brings
together archaeological and anthropological texts discussing pre-migration Gothic
society.

Christie, Neil. The Lombards: The Ancient Langobards. The Peoples of Europe, vol. 9, ed.

James Campbell and Barry Cunliffe. Oxford: Blackwell, 1995.

Hedeager, Lotte. Iron Age Societies: from tribe to state in Northern Europe, 500BC to AD 700.

trans. by John Hines. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992.

Heather, Peter. The Goths. The Peoples of Europe, vol. 17, ed. James Campbell and Barry

Cunliffe. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1996.

Heather, Peter and John Matthews. The Goths in the Fourth Century. Translated Texts for

Historians, vol. 11. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1991.

James, Edward. The Franks. The Peoples of Europe, vol. 3, ed. James Campbell and Barry

Cunliffe. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1988.

Lund, Allan A. Die ersten Germanen: Ethnizität un Ethnogenese. Heidelberg: Winter, 1998.

Musset, Lucien. The Germanic Invasions: The Making of Europe AD 400-600. trans. by

Edward and Columba James. London: Paul Elek, 1975.

Pohl, Walter. Die Germanen. Enzyklopädie deutscher Geschichte, Bd. 57. Munich: R.

Oldenbourg, 2000.

Todd, Malcolm. The Early Germans. The Peoples of Europe, vol. 7, ed. James Campbell and

Barry Cunliffe. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1992.

Todd, Malcolm. The Northern Barbarians: 100 BC- AD 300. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1975,

rev. 1987.

Ulrich, Jens. Barbarische Gesellschaftsstruktur und römische Aussenpolitik zu Beginn der

Völkerwanderung : eine Versuch zu den Westgoten 365-377. Bonn : R. Habelt, 1995.

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Wells, Peter S. Beyond Celts, Germans and Scythians: Archaeology and Identity in Iron Age

Europe. Duckworth Debates in Archaeology vol. 4, Ed. Richard Hodges. London:
Duckworth, 2001.

Wolfram, Herwig. History of the Goths. trans. by Thomas J. Dunlap. Berkeley: University of

California Press, 1988.

Barbarians and Romans: Reaction and Assimilation –

These works cover multiple aspects of Roman-barbarian interaction. Some, including
Walter Goffart’s Barbarians and Romans, Peter Heather’s Goths and Romans and Herwig
Wolfram’s The Roman Empire and its Germanic Peoples, tend towards a general
treatment of the subject, discussing several different areas in which Romans and
barbarians influenced each other. Others show the influence of Roman political and legal
systems on barbarian societies, both before and after settlement. The rest tend to explore
one specific aspect of society, as in religion (see Fletcher’s The Barbarian Conversions
and Russell’s The Germanization of Early Christianity for different approaches to this) or
language (Green’s Language and History in the Early Germanic World discusses the
effect of Latin on Germanic languages).

Burns, Thomas S. Rome and the Barbarians 100 B.C.- A.D. 400. Baltimore, MD: The Johns

Hopkins University Press, 2003.

Drew, Katherine Fischer. Law and Society in Early Medieval Europe: Studies in Legal History.

London: Variorum Reprints, 1998.

Fletcher, Richard. The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity. New York:

Henry Holt and Co., 1997.

Gillett, Andrew. Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West, 411-533.

Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, 4

th

series, vol. 55, ed. D. E. Luscombe.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Goffart, Walter. Barbarians and Romans A.D. 418-584: The Techniques of Accomodation.

Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980.

Green, D. H. Language and History in the Early Germanic World. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1998.

Heather, Peter. “Cassiodorus and the Rise of the Amals: Genealogy and the Goths under Hun

Domination.” The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 79 (1989): 103-128.

Heather, Peter. Goths and Romans 332-489. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.

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Heather, Peter. “The Huns and the End of the Roman Empire in Western Europe.” The English

Historical Review, Vol. 110, No. 435 (Feb., 1995): 4-41.

Leibeschuetz, J. H. W. G. Barbarians and Bishops: Army, Church, and State in the Age of

Arcadius and Chrysotom. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990.

Little, Lester K. “Romanesque Christianity in Germanic Europe.” Journal of Interdisciplinary

History, Vol. 23, No. 3, Religion and History (Winter 1993): 453-474.

Mathisen, Ralph and Danuta Shanzer, eds. Society and Culture in Late Antique Gaul: revisiting

the sources. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2001.

Randsborg, Klavs. “Barbarians, Classical Antiquity and the Rise of Western Europe: An

Archaeological Essay.” Past and Present, No. 137, The Cultural and Political
Construction of Europe (Nov., 1992): 8-24.

Russell, James C. The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity: A Sociohistorical

Approach to Religious Transformation. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Wolfram, Herwig. The Roman Empire and its Germanic Peoples. Trans. by Thomas Dunlap.

Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1990.

Settled Populations/ Post-Imperial Kingdoms –

While many of these works seem to be logical extensions of the works in the previous

category, they are separated by their emphasis on the era after Imperial power had all but
disappeared in the West and various kingdoms, often built around barbarian leaders, had arisen
to maintain order. While a few look at multiple regions, such as Katherine Fischer Drew’s
article, which specifically calls for such a macrohistorical approach, and Richter’s The
Formation of the Medieval West, which discusses the role of oral culture in the formation of
post-Roman states. The others tend to discuss one single geographic area or barbarian group (as
can be seen from an examination of the titles). Patrick Geary’s Before France and Germany
provides an in-depth look at many of the issues he would draw on in his later work (listed above)
The Myth of Nations.

Amory, Patrick. People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489-554. Cambridge Studies in

Medieval Life and Thought, 4

th

series, vol. 33, ed. D. E. Luscombe. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Daly, William M. “Clovis: How Barbaric, How Pagan?” Speculum, Vol. 69, No. 3 (Jul. 1994):

619-664.

Drew. Katherine Fischer. “Another Look at the Origins of the Middle Ages: A Reassessment of

the Role of the Germanic Kingdoms.” Speculum, Vol. 62, No. 4 (Oct., 1987): 803-812.

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Fouracre, Paul. “Merovingian History and Merovingian Historiography.” Past and Present, No.

127 (May, 1990): 3-38.

Geary, Patrick. Before France and Germany: The Creation and Transformation of the

Merovingian World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.

King, P. D. Law and Society in the Visigothic Kingdom. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life

and Thought, vol. 5, ed. Walter Ullmann. Cambridge: The University Press, 1972.

Lewis, Archibald. “The Dukes in the Regnum Francorum. A.D. 550-751.” Speculum, Vol. 51,

No. 3 (Jul., 1976): 381-410.

McKitterick, Rosamond. The Frankish Kings and Culture in the Early Middle Ages. Variorum

Collected Studies Series. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Variorum, 1995.

Moisl, Hermann. Lordship and Tradition in Barbarian Europe. Studies in Classics, vol. 10.

Lewiston, NY: E. Mellen, 1999.

Pearson, Kathy Lynne Roper. Conflicting Loyalties in Early Medieval Bavaria: A View of

Socio-Political Interaction 680-900. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 1999.

Richter, Michael. The Formation of the Medieval West: Studies in the Oral Culture of the

Barbarians. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994.

Compilations/ Series –

Much of the recent work in this field, especially that of European scholars, has been
published in compilation volumes, notably the two major series Studies in Historical
Archaeoethnology (series edited by Giorgio Ausenda) and Transformation of the Roman
World (series edited by Ian Wood) along with a number of independent collections.
Andrew Gillett’s historiographical introduction to his volume On Barbarian Identity is
especially worth noting, as it presents a clear discussion of the various theories that have
dominated the ethnic identity debate. Others present papers grouped around a more
specific topic, either ethnic (Ferreiro) or geographic (Drinkwater and Elton). The Little
and Rosenwein compilation covers a much wider time period, but does contain articles by
several well-known participants in the ethnicity debate, notably Walter Goffart and
Walter Pohl.

Bowersock, G. W., Peter Brown and Oleg Grabar, Eds. Interpreting Late Antiquity: Essays on

the Postclassical World. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University
Press, 2001.

Davies, Wendy and Paul Fouracre, eds. Property and Power in the Early Middle Ages.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

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Drinkwater, John and Hugh Elton, eds. Fifth-century Gaul: a crisis of identity. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Ferreiro, Alberto, Ed. The Visigoths: Studies in Culture and Society. The Medieval

Mediterranean: Peoples, Economies and Cultures 400-1453, ed. Michael Whitby et al.,
vol. 20. Leiden: Brill, 1999.

Gillett, Andrew, Ed. On Barbarian Identity: Critical Approaches to Ethnicity in the Early Middle

Ages. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2002.

Little, Lester K. and Barbara H. Rosenwein, eds. Debating the Middle Ages: Issues and

Readings. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1998.

Murray, Alexander Callander, ed. After Rome’s Fall: Narrators and Sources of Early Medieval

History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998.

Reuter, Timothy, ed. The Medieval Nobility: Studies on the ruling classes of France and

Germany from the sixth to the twelfth century. Europe in the Middle Ages: Selected
Studies, ed. Richard Vaughan, vol. 14. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Company,
1979.

Ridyard, Susan J. and Robert G. Benson, eds. Minorities and Barbarians in Medieval Life and

Thought. Sewanee Medieval Studies, vol. 7. Sewanee, TN: University of the South
Press, 1996.

Sawyer, P. H. and Ian N. Wood, eds. Early Medieval Kingship. Leeds: University of Leeds,

1977.

Shennan, Stephen, ed. Archaeological Approaches to Cultural Identity. One World

Archaeology, vol. 10. London: Routledge, 1994.

Smyth, Alfred P., ed. Medieval Europeans: Studies in Ethnic Identity and National Perspectives

in Medieval Europe. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave, 1998.

Webster, Leslie and Michelle Brown, eds. The Transformation of the Roman World AD 400-

900. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.

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Studies in Historical Archaeoethnology:

This series is intended to present an interdisciplinary approach to the study of post-
Roman populations in Europe. The Center for Interdisciplinary research sponsors an
annual conference in San Marino that brings together archaeologists, anthropologists and
historians into a common discussion about various Germanic peoples. Each volume is
the result of a single conference, and contains the papers presented at that conference,
along with the transcribed discussion that followed each presentation. After the first
conference, which produced After Empire, the contributions focused on more specific
groups. This is an ongoing project, and more volumes are in the publishing process,
notably on the Continental Saxons, Ostrogoths and Langobards.

Ausenda, Giorgio, ed. After Empire: Towards an Ethnology of Europe’s Barbarians. Studies in

Historical Archaeoethnology, ed. Giorgio Ausenda, vol. 1. San Marino: Center for
Interdisciplinary Research on Social Stress, 1995.

Heather, Peter, ed. The Visigoths from the Migration Period to the Seventh Century: An

Ethnographic Perspective. Studies in Historical Archaeoethnology, ed. Giorgio Ausenda,
vol. 4. San Marino: Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Social Stress, 1999.

Wood, Ian, ed. Franks and Alamanni in the Merovingian Period: An Ethnographic Perspective.

Studies in Historical Archaeoethnology, ed. Giorgio Ausenda, vol. 3. San Marino:
Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Social Stress, 1998.

Transformation of the Roman World:

This series of compilations grew out of scholarly conferences organized by the European
Science Foundation during the 1990s. Their intention is to help integrate the study of late
antiquity and early medieval Europe, as well as to challenge the various national schools
of thought that have dominated past studies of ethnic identity. While not as explicitly
stated as in the Studies in Historical Archaeoethnology series, there is an interdisciplinary
component to the works included in these volumes as well.

Corradini, Richard, Max Diesenberger and Helmut Reimitz, eds. The Construction of

Communities in the Early Middle Ages. The Transformation of the Roman World, ed. Ian
Wood, vol. 12. Leiden: Brill, 2003.

De Jong, Mayke and Frans Theuws, eds.. Topographies of Power in the Early Middle Ages. The

Transformation of the Roman World, ed. Ian Wood, vol. 6. Leiden: Brill, 2001.

Goetz, Hans Werner, Jörg Jarnut and Walter Pohl, eds.. Regna and Gentes: The Relationship

between Late Antique and Early Medieval Peoples and Kingdoms in the Transformation
of the Roman World. The Transformation of the Roman World, ed. Ian Wood, vol. 13.
Leiden: Brill, 2003.

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Pohl, Walter, ed. Kingdoms of the Empire: The Integration of Barbarians in Late Antiquity. The

Transformation of the Roman World, ed. Ian Wood, vol. 1. Leiden: Brill, 1997.

Pohl, Walter and Helmut Reimitz, eds. Strategies of Distinction: The Construction of Ethnic

Communities, 300-800. The Transformation of the Roman World, ed. Ian Wood, vol. 2.
Leiden: Brill, 1998.

Pohl, Walter, Ian Wood and Helmut Reimitz, eds. The Transformation of Frontiers from Late

Antiquity to the Carolingians. The Transformation of the Roman World, ed. Ian Wood,
vol. 10. Leiden: Brill, 2001.

Theuws, Franz and Janet L. Nelson. Rituals of Power: From Late Antiquity to the early Middle

Ages. The Transformation of the Roman World, ed. Ian Wood, vol. 8. Leiden: Brill,
2001.