The Barbarian Invasions of the Roman Empire

Italy and her Invaders #1

by Thomas Hodgkin

Thomas Hodgkin's The Barbarian Invasions of the Roman Empire was first published under the title: Italy and her Invaders, in six volumes, by The Clarendon Press, between 1880-1899.

From the General Introduction from volume I:

In 1880 Thomas Hodgkin published the first edition of the first two volumes of a projected eight-volume history of the invasions of Italy in the late Roman and early medieval periods. A full nineteen years later, with the appearance of volumes VII and VIII in 1899, he completed his magnum opus, having taken the story from the time of the emperor Valentinian I (AD 364-375) down to the Frankish invasions of the late eighth century and the death of Charlemagne in 814. In between had appeared two other two-volume sets (volumes III and IV in 1892, and V and VI in 1895), along with revised editions of volumes I and II in 1892 and of III and IV in 1896. In its final form, The Barbarian Invasions of the Roman Empire amounted to nearly five thousand pages of text (including indexes), or well over a million words. Hodgkin had manufactured a great historical classic, a worthy successor to, and in some important ways an advance upon, the work of Edward Gibbon. But Hodgkin was not a professional historian, nor even a professional aithor. How did a Quaker banker, who took his responsibilities as a recognised minister of his faith extremely seriously, come to write one of the great masterpieces of nineteenth-century British historiography?

Genres: History

3431 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1880

Reviews

[Jack Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

A monumental work, requiring a serious investment of time on any reader's part. But (speaking personally) I would certainly recommend it -- it immerses you in an almost unknown world, and the Folio edition could not be more beautifully arranged for reading.

[John Tarttelin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author of this immense series - this book is just the first of eight - has to be commended for his incredible scholarship, even though he was not a trained historian. His attention to detail is simply phenomenal and his handling of so many disparate characters highly commendable. Hodgkin's aim in this first volume, published in 1880, was to see things from the Gothic viewpoint but that does nor prevent him looking at the decline of Rome at the same time through the eyes of a host of contemporary witnesses and later recorders of the Empire.

Anyone who can argue the toss between Greek, Latin and Gothic versions of the Bible and a plethora of arcane items of historical note is worthy of admiration. In this book he covers the early history of the Goths and their putative original homeland, and goes on to adumbrate in greater detail both what was happening in the Western and Eastern Roman Empire whilst the Goths were undergoing travails of their own. Basically, they wanted to be allowed to enter the Empire to escape from the even more formidable Huns who were sweeping westwards and causing carnage and upheaval wherever they went.

Hodgkin describes the rule of many Emperors in detail, including the host of usurpers who flash like momentary gold dust before being washed away completely by the tide of history. Some of their names might seem strange to us today but even in their own time they were little more than pawns doing their best to play against a Fate that had already consigned the Western empire, at least, into oblivion. What is striking is just how much the Romans and their fellow 'civilized' compatriots in Constantinople depended on these self-same 'barbarians' for their own survival. Certain barbarian chiefs, and certain Romans, changed sides so often that it is a wonder even Hodgkin could keep track of them all.

In this book we also see that Rome was far from invincible and only the pens of innumerable Latin scribes of the period have hidden this fact beneath a sea of obscurating ink. Three Roman legions were utterly destroyed in AD 9 by Arminius in the Teutoburgian Forest while at Hadrianople on August 9th 378 AD the over-confident Emperor Valens was destroyed by a Gothic host under Fritigern. And they were primarily defeated by cavalry, despite the oft-quoted statement that the well-armed legions took everything in their stride.

I found it a real pleasure to read of peoples and characters I had either never heard of or knew so little about and I am very much looking forward to reading more books in this series. A well-deserved Four stars.

[Nicolas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading a book written in the XIX Century in the XI could be challenging, nonetheless I could not recommend this book less to anyone interested in history. Modern historians have lost, it seems, the beautiful storytelling of some of the past as is the case of Hodgkin. In his first Volume on his series of the Invaders of Italy, we are presented with the history of the Romans at the moment it was intertwined with that of the Goths, from roughly the middle IV Century after the death of Julian the Apostate until the death of Galla Placida in the middle of the V; we will be able to dive into the history of the decaying Roman Empire amidst internal struggles, usurpers and barbarian invasions, one of which, the one of Alaric and his "Visigoths" (Probably more correctly said just Goths or Tervingi) swept through the Julian Alps and heralded a series of events which would seen the end of the western Roman Empire.

Hodkin begins the book contextualizing the reader with summarizes on both the Roman imperial history from the time of Octavian, passing though the five good emperors, the crisis of the III Century, Diocletian and The dynasty initiated by Constantine; as well as with the history of the Goths, in which he mixes historical accounts with old legends to tell the migration of the teutonic people from their alleged homeland in Scandinavia southwards along the course of the Vistula to end at the shores of the black see and in direct contact with the Romans.

Even as the name of the book has Italy at its heart, here we are presented with a story situated on the vast territory of the Roman Empire; first more concentrated in the eastern part; where most of the first wars and treaties with the goths took place (without ignoring all events taking place in the west); and after the division of the empire between Honorius and Arcadius, the narration concentrates on the western Empire; giving special emphasis in this first volume to the roman civil wars between the emperors and some "usurpers", alongside its relationships with the visigoths, rather than any other barbarian group, which are only mentioned towards the end of the book (Will be treated in the next volumes).

The author mixes real history, beautiful poem extracts (incredibly translated into poetry also to english) with many welcome anecdotes take from their sources of different events taking place inside the empire; including some mythical and extraordinarius stories written by ancient sources to describe the many miracles of many of the christian mythological characters; although at any part he himself made any comment regarding his belief of them. His commentaries are actually one the best features of the book, in which his own thoughts on different events, people's characters, acts or situations are written down as another integral part of his narration.

The author has of course 150 years less knowledge of archeological discoverments and revisionist modern historian remarks and therefore could have many old prejudices or assumptions that we now either know to be false or that are in discussion; such as the thought of all Huns as savages, or the ever present racial supremacy of the "Aryan Race". We also seem in many of his remarks the black and white side of the many emperor's histories, as always history have been keaner with some and meaner with many.

By reading Hodkin one can not stop thinking of the series of errors and misrules that fell on the roman empire and specially on its western half. With every chapter and with the commentaries of the author one can not stop thinking that the empire survived rather longer than it should have, and was only saved by a mix strong men, luck and with some dubious accounts, on the change of plans of the empire's enemies. One sees how the whole struggle between christians were more nocive to the Empire than that of them with the "heathens", cracking the empire internally with time and setting up the ruptures that would made it impossible to save and the main political tendencies that would go on to dominate the middle ages.

"These sluggish Theodosians had not energy enough even to live” - Referring to Arcadius' death shows the contempt by which the author saw Honorius and Arcadius, seeing on The dynastic dreams of Theodosian and its division of the empire the main reason for its downfall. The many boy-emperors that came to rule nominally, as other bellicose men, mostly non-romans, alongside their mothers, held the real power, left the seat of the roman throne as nothing but a puppet figure and degrading the stand of the Romans towards its people, cementing even more rebellions.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of eight volumes. They all involve a serious investment of time and effort to read, but the knowledge you would gain from them is immense. The books are hard work. They were written at the end of the nineteenth century and adopts the language of the day. To a modern reader, this can feel a little archaic and inaccessible. However, once you have found the rhythm of the writing, it becomes a lot easier. I found that, in order to retain my focus, I stopped reading the footnotes. I didn't even attempt the appendices.

What is the book about? The series examines the fall of Rome and the dawn of the early modern age. This volume focuses on the end of the fourth century and the beginning of the fifth. It was a time when the Church rose to ascendancy, when eastern Christendom parted company with western Christendom, and when the barbarians penetrated Italy to sack Rome. The Empire abandoned the outer parts, such as Britannia, who were then left to fend for themselves. The original Brexit, one might say.

It is interesting to see how much of the modern world originates from this period. We saw the submission of the state to the Church, we saw the origins of the Holy Roman Empire, we saw the establishment of the central creed of the Church, we saw the integration of a succession of invaders and newcomers. There was a lot happening in the book. We also saw some of the interesting characters of the period - St Ambrose, Valens, Theodosius, Stilicho, and Alaric.

We are also given a number of hints about why the Empire was in such decline. An over-bloated public sector, the collapse in private sector productivity, an excessive legalism, no real vision of how the Empire ought to be. The picture painted is one of degeneration that was just about ripe for a determined man of action, with a clear vision, to come along and shake the Empire to its foundations. Alaric was that man. However, the story of the Huns is reserved for future volumes.