Fifth-Century Gaul: A Crisis of Identity?

by John F. Drinkwater (Editor), Hugh Elton (Editor)

The papers presented in this book take as their subject the military, political and economic changes forced upon the inhabitants of Gaul during the fifth century AD. They seek to describe and explain how Gallo-Romans of all orders of society reacted to barbarian invasion and the growing debilitation of the western imperial government. The unusually wide range of topics dealt with allows the Gallic experience to be viewed and interpreted from many different directions. Much is made of the problematic, because highly subjective, nature of the literary sources; but close attention is also given to modern advances in our understanding of the archaeological and numismatic data. The whole presents a picture of a society under immense stress, as the people of the Gallic provinces abandoned, perforce, their allegiance to Roman emperors and yielded to the rule of Germanic kings, while yet preserving a significant element of their late antique culture.

Genres: History, Ancient History, Nonfiction, Medieval

398 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1992

About the author

British classicist John Frederick Drinkwater

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F....

Reviews

[Jari Havela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enlightening. Parallels to our times are remarkable. 2015 was 406 to Europe.

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

My interest in post Roman ( dark age ) Britain lead me to this - definitely a bridge too far. This is extremely dry and academic collection of papers on specialist aspects of the transition of fifth-century Gaul from a Roman province to a collection of barbarian kingdoms. For the amateur a lot of sifting is needed to get a more general picture of the process and apart from a few tidbits I found little of direct interest. Academically I’m sure it is a fine book but for the interested amateur I could only give it 3 stars.

[Maya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very specialised collection of papers on fifth century Gaul. A bit dry but very informative.