[Millennium Jahrbuch / Millennium Yearbook] Millennium-Jahrbuch (2011) Volume 8 ||

✍ Scribed by Brandes, Wolfram; Demandt, Alexander; Leppin, Hartmut; Krasser, Helmut; Möllendorff, Peter von

• Book ID: 120945049
• Publisher: DE GRUYTER
• Year: 2011
• Weight: 604 KB
• Volume: 10.1515/9783110236453
• Category: Article
• ISBN: 3110236451
• ISSN: 1867-030X
• DOI: 10.1515/9783110236453.175

✦ Synopsis

The "barbarization", although accepted by some scholars and rejected by others, remains a crucial theme when one studies the Late Antique period. This paper focuses on a particular timeframe (376 -395 A.D.) and tries to deny the importance of this phenomenon in the events that led to the "fall" of the western Empire.

We usually see Theodosius I st as the one responsible for aggravating the "barbarization" in the Empire and the army. However, an investigation of the battle of Andrinople, the peace treaty (foedus) of 382 with some of the "Goths" and the Notitia Dignitatum shows that "barbarization" was not as dramatic as previously conceived. Moreover, the analysis of terms such as "barbarization", "barbarian", b\qbaqor and "Roman" as well as the difficulty to define the ethnicity and identity of "barbarians" based on archaeological remains shows the precarious character of taking a rigid position on the "barbarization" phenomenon. For a short summary of my main points see passage 19 of this article.