Studenda Mira

Peter Heather's The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians came out in 2005, but the paperback only hit U.S. shelves a few weeks ago. Heather summarizes his thesis—yes, it was barbarians, and Rome made them—in a new essay at HNN.

Anthropologist Stefano Fait offers an essay on the 5th century invasions that nicely surveys the major events of the period while framing the "barbarians" within the modern debate on immigration, assimilation and ethnic identity.

This is premiering on the History Channel next weekend. So much for the mostly-benign Christian metamorphoses of Late Antiquity, huh?

Prosper of Aquitaine was a contemporary, so I'll let him tell it: ""In the year 406, the Vandals and Alans, having crossed the Rhine, entered Gaul on the day before the kalends of January..." A few years ago, Michael Kulikowski published a paper which made a good argument that the invasion actually began on 12/31/405, but in recognition of the long acknowledged 406 date (and because I wasn't blogging about stuff like this last year), I'll call today the anniversary. Happy Barbarians Day! * For want of an approved term