Despite being one of history's most important women, the story of Galla Placidia's life has been largely forgotten. Though the Roman empress witnessed the decline and fall of the Roman Empire in the ...5th century and lived a life of almost constant suffering, her actions helped postpone the fall of Rome and had massive, widespread impact on the empire that can still be felt today. She watched the barbarian king Alaric and his horde of Visigoth warriors sack Rome, slaughter many of the city's inhabitants, and take her hostage. Surviving captivity, Galla Placidia became the queen of the barbarians who had imprisoned her. Eventually, she became the only woman to rule the Roman empire alone. Soldiers obeyed her commands while Popes and Christian saints alike sought her advice. Despite all obstacles and likely suffering from PTSD, she lived to old age. This book uses the letters and writings of Galla Placidia's contemporaries to reconstruct, in more depth and detail than has yet been attempted, the remarkable story of her life and the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.
We can all agree that World War II, beyond its military, political or economic coordinates, countless tragedies, convulsions propagated around the world, tensions and dramas often felt to our day, ...was for all of us a lesson of geography. From this perspective, the invasion of Poland in September 1939 by the German and Soviet troops was a first lesson, continued on another level by the Soviet-Finnish Winter War. The invasion of Norway (and Denmark) by the Germans in April 1940, followed by the allied reaction and the transformation of the Scandinavian states into a theatre of military operations, was monitored with distinct interest in Romania, at political, diplomatic and military level, but also at the level of general perception of a society that was both worried and avid, in the context of the European (for the time being) war, of information on the evolution of the conflict and not only. Names such as Oslo, Narvik, Trondheim, Åndalsnes, Namsos, Bergen, Lillehammer, Stavanger or Tromsø become familiar to the Romanian public. We find, especially in the Romanian media of the time, a luxurious abundance of accounts, commentaries, editorials, telegrams or interviews related to the conduct of military operations in northern Europe, beyond the censorship and restrictions imposed by the conditions of the war. From this perspective, we find it difficult to attempt even to pursue the conflict in Norway in April-May 1940 only in the light of articles in the Romanian press. Central newspapers, in the first place, abound with telegrams that alternately feature views, news, and information from both camps. Inevitably there were various denials, rumors, or what we call today "fake news", often taken over by the sensational rush, even by big press agencies of the time, without mentioning newspapers in European capitals including Bucharest. For this reason, our objective is to identify and analyze some of the Romanian echoes generated by the invasion of Norway, both in the Romanian media, but also at a diplomatic or military level, in a context in which Romania, as a neutral state, lived its own tensions and worries about its future fate as the war spread across the old continent.
Skin-clad barbarians ransacking Rome remains a popular image of the "decline and fall" of the Roman Empire, but why, when, and how the Empire actually fell are still matters of debate among students ...of classical history. In this pioneering study, Ralph W. Mathisen examines the "fall" in one part of the western Empire, Gaul, to better understand the shift from Roman to Germanic power that occurred in the region during the fifth century AD Mathisen uncovers two apparently contradictory trends. First, he finds that barbarian settlement did provoke significant changes in Gaul, including the disappearance of most secular offices under the Roman imperial administration, the appropriation of land and social influence by the barbarians, and a rise in the overall level of violence. Yet he also shows that the Roman aristocrats proved remarkably adept at retaining their rank and status. How did the aristocracy hold on? Mathisen rejects traditional explanations and demonstrates that rather than simply opposing the barbarians, or passively accepting them, the Roman aristocrats directly responded to them in various ways. Some left Gaul. Others tried to ignore the changes wrought by the newcomers. Still others directly collaborated with the barbarians, looking to them as patrons and holding office in barbarian governments. Most significantly, however, many were willing to change the criteria that determined membership in the aristocracy. Two new characteristics of the Roman aristocracy in fifth-century Gaul were careers in the church and greater emphasis on classical literary culture. These findings shed new light on an age in transition. Mathisen's theory that barbarian integration into Roman society was a collaborative process rather than a conquest is sure to provoke much thought and debate. All historians who study the process of power transfer from native to alien elites will want to consult this work.
This is the first work in any language that offers both an overarching exploration of the flight and evacuation of Soviet Jews viewed at the macro level, and a personal history of one Soviet Jewish ...family. The book makes a significant contribution to the history of the Holocaust and Second World War in the Soviet Union, presenting one Soviet region as an illustration of wartime social and media politics.
In this book Marx is revealed as a powerful contributor to the
debates that now dominate philosophy and political theory. Using
the techniques of analytic philosophy to unite Marx's general
...statements with his practice as historian and activist, Richard W.
Miller derives important arguments about the rational basis of
morality, the nature of power, and the logic of testing and
explanation. The book also makes Marx's theory of change useful for
current social science, by replacing economic determinist readings
with a new interpretation in which systems of power relations are
the basis of change. Part One discusses Marx's criticisms of the
moral point of view as a basis for social choice. The outlook that
emerges is humane but antimoral. Part Two argues that Marx's
concept of the ruling class is a means, of measuring political
power that is ignored yet urgently needed by present-day social
science. Part Three bases Marx's theory of history on the dynamics
of power, challenging both the standard, economic determinist
readings of the theory and standard conceptions of science.
How Rome Fell Goldsworthy, Adrian
2009, 2009-05-12
eBook
In AD 200, the Roman Empire seemed unassailable. Its vast territory accounted for most of the known world.By the end of the fifth century, Roman rule had vanished in western Europe and much of ...northern Africa, and only a shrunken Eastern Empire remained.What accounts for this improbable decline?Here, Adrian Goldsworthy applies the scholarship, perspective, and narrative skill that defined his monumental Caesar to address perhaps the greatest of all historical questionshow Rome fell.It was a period of remarkable personalities, from the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius to emperors like Diocletian, who portrayed themselves as tough, even brutal, soldiers.It was a time of revolutionary ideas, especially in religion, as Christianity went from persecuted sect to the religion of state and emperors.Goldsworthy pays particular attention to the willingness of Roman soldiers to fight and kill each other. Ultimately, this is the story of how an empire without a serious rival rotted from within, its rulers and institutions putting short-term ambition and personal survival over the wider good of the state.How Rome Fell is a brilliant successor to Goldsworthy's "monumental" (The Atlantic) Caesar.
A leading authority on the late Roman Empire, Peter Heather reveals how how Europe's barbarians, transformed by centuries of contact with Rome on every possible level, eventually pulled the empire ...apart. He shows first how the Huns overturned the existing strategic balance of power on Rome's European frontiers, to force the Goths and others to seek refuge inside the Empire. This prompted two generations of struggle, during which new barbarian coalitions, formed in response to Roman hostility, brought the Roman west to its knees. Heather convincingly argues that the Roman Empire was not on the brink of social or moral collapse. What brought it to an end were the barbarians.
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