The Debate About The Fall Of Rome History Essay

The Debate About The Fall Of Rome History EssayThe fight about the fall of Rome and the way it happened is a centuries-old sensation and its elan vital has been undiminished over the years. The traditional theory has the popish Empire being violently overturned by barbarian Germanic tribes who started invading en masse during the last years of the fourth century. That wasnt the first time that the Empire had to deal with pressure on its borders, but this time it til nowtually collapsed because it had already declined as a civilization due to internal problems.The first scholar to support this line of sight was Gibbon in the late eighteenth century. His coarse, multi-volume, work goes by the prenomen The Decline and fall of the papist Empire, which speaks for itself as for its writers thoughts (?). He argued that the most important cause which brought about the annul of the roman Empire was the expansion and gradual prepotency of Christianity. First, the spic-and-span rel igion and the structures that came with it (such as the church and the monasteries) interfered with the distribution of wealth in billet the Empire, by accumulating it in institutions that were inaccessible by the state.1Second, its pacifist ideology reduced the armys result to fight and its theology corrupted the classical ideals through the spread of superstition.2An a nonher(prenominal) scholar arguing a retentive the same lines was Rostovtzeff. He states the Late Empire was in retrogradation?, a sad and decadent remnant of its former self, partly because of the increase in absolutism during the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine and the emperors who succeeded them. Together with Gibbon, his arguments form the core of the traditional theory, which puts stress in particular on the issue of decline as the main reason which made the disintegration of the empire, as a political entity, eventually inevitable.3Due to the work of these deuce scholars, the Fall of Rome has ended up b eing seen as something like the platonic idea of decline.4Along with the traditional theory, we should consider the work of a to a greater extent recent scholar. Following the same methodological path as Rostovtzeff, Jones credited the barbarians with the destabilization and collapse of the papist Empire. Their invasions, he argues, should be seen as a damaging agent which placed strain on the Roman administration.5At the same time, in a well-kn hold passage, he speaks of a large part of the world that was consuming without producing anything, such as senators, soldiers and the clergy. These idle mouths, as he calls them, partly a result of barbarian pressure again, at least as farthest as the army was concerned, was the main reason for the economic waning of the Late Empire.6Jones section was 2fold. To begin with, he proposed a new chronological period, extending push than 476, the meshing traditionally considered as signaling the moment of death of the Roman Empire. His e nding date was 602, the year of the emperor Maurices death as he strongly believed that the Roman Empire continued its existence, albeit geographically diminished, in the East, at least until the advent of the Slavic tribes in the Balkans at the end of the sixth century.7This way, he managed to provide a connection between late- and post-Roman societies, hinting that there might withdraw been a causal relation between the two.8Secondly, he breathed new life in a period that was all but put aside by his contemporaries as of not often particular interest and after him scholars gradually started to get the picture the Late Roman Empire in its give birth right.9This was countered by traditionalists in 2005 with the publication of a go for under(a) the title The fall of Rome and the end of civilization. In this book, the author Bryan Ward-Perkins is arguing fervently that the fall of Rome was a violent experience for the people involved, which involved much bloodshed and catastroph e.10It was centered to a greater extent than on positive change than gradual transformation and was characterized by decline and resulted in a decline in civilized values which really that a number of Roman cultural achievements were lost.11Although this side has its merits and should not be discredited without consideration, it needs to be visualise outd carefully because it conceals the danger of oversimplification. First, it can be argued that the author has gone(a) too far with his emphasis on violence and catastrophe. Violence, no matter how hard on a society, is not by principle an agent of radical change which rules out any chance of transformation. Human history is full of violence and it would be surprising if the fourth and fifth centuries did not involve any at all. Despite Ward-Perkins vivid depictions, much of what was considered Roman did not disappear with the Empire. Roman qualities, such as a literate culture, can be shown to have survived as late as the sev enth century, proving that the devastating barbaric invasions did not actually have such a devastating effect after all.12Stemming from that, we should examine if there was a specific moment in time when Rome actually fell. If we cannot headway out such an instance, then we should regard it as a to a greater extent gradual process. Italy, for example, shows that society was able to maintain its order in the face of much devastation.13And if, as Ward-Perkins himself admits, there was no single moment, not even a single century of collapse14, then we should discard catastrophist theories as inadequate and try more.We should also keep in mind that the author comes from an archaeologic milieu15and, as a result, most of his proof comes from the study of material evidence.16Archaeologists of the period tend to be advocates of the notion of decline more often than historians, generally because such a decline is much more evident in the material remains of the Late Roman era.17In additio n to that we have to be careful with the origin the evidence. In the case of Ward-Perkins, he doesnt hesitate to support his theory on data from Britain,18but Brittania (i.e. the part of Britain which was conquered by the Romans) had never been the prototypical Roman province. So Britain is far from being the typical example of what happened after the Romans had left the island, particularly attached the fact that we can find other provinces of the Roman Empire, which shared a completely different fate, such as Egypt and Syria.19When talking strictly about the westerly, one has to be extremely cautious when trying to aggregate both the archaeological data with historical sources that might give the impression of persistency. One way approaches, such as the one nevertheless just discussed, allow for not do.Late antiquityWith good reason one might ask what the need of such a dramatic reassertion of the traditional view on the fall of the Roman Empire. The word traditional itse lf implies the existence of an opposite, neoteric theory.In 1971, Peter brownish published a book which defied all the assumptions of the traditionalist school.20His book The world of Late antiquity from Marcus Aurelius to Muhammad argues about continuity, transformation, cultural and religious renewal. The enthusiasm that the book was met with in academic circles, oddly in the United States, resulted in the ostracism of damage as catastrophe, change, crisis and decline.21Brown was influenced by the views of an earlier scholar, Henri-Irne Marrou, who argued that late antique art had not deteriorated and that it should be looked at in its own lines.Brown was influenced by the work of Henri Pirenne. In his works the Belgian scholar supported that there was continuity to be found in terms of long-distance call trade in the Mediterranean which was not affected by the barbarian invasions but collapsed with the great Arabic conquests of the seventh century.22Brown placed a new stres s on the period resulted in a recent rethinking of Pirennes views through the prism of the newly proposed notion of continuity.23Finally, Brown could also be considered an influence because, as we saw earlier, he was the first to propose a causal connection between the Late Roman Empire and the post-Roman era. Thus, given the entailed predominance of continuity which was soft detected in themes such as art and religious belief, a new historical period has been founded with its own characteristics, that of Late Antiquity,24in which some of the fundamental principle of classical civilization still survived25. Its boundaries stress from the troika to the eighth century, but they are still unfixed, with every writer proposing different dates, fit to the issues they deal with.Brown relied heavily on the methods of historical psychology and psychoanalysis. This methodological innovation is a general trend among scholars of Late Antiquity, particularly those in the United States. They h ave more or less identified themselves with the kind of history that falls outside the scope of socio-economic history. For example, the history of Christianity has proven very fertile for studying Late Antiquity, especially the effects it has had on different aspects of human life, such as death, sexuality and the family.26Thus, this school of thought has made astonishing contributions in such fields as gender and culture history, the history of mentalities and of popular belief. Such methods, however, often tend to function with no respect to periodization and as such they lead to fragmentation.27Indeed, the work of these scholars shows more emphasis towards somebodys and their perspectives than to the society they live in.28As a consequence, post- freshist theories concerning source analysis have relied heavily on the works of scholars after Brown, while, in the meantime, the old philological approach has been largely abandoned. Ancient texts are dealt with not so much for their narrative value, but as agents the mentality of their authors.29Of course, works exclusively focused on different authors have a lot to offer to the ongoing discussion of the period, but dogged commitment to them might create a handicap for our dread of the period as a whole.30Furthermore, partly as a response to the traditional view of catastrophe, scholars of Late Antiquity have been particularly keen on seeing continuity and transformation. But this attitude can be harmful in two ways. First, the notion of continuity fronts to have an overshadowing effect on the peculiarity of issues in a certain period. If everything is proven to carry on from the past not changed in the least, then historical periods will automatically lose their individual tone, by which it is findd.31Simultaneously, by relying to heavily historical sources (as they provide ampler evidence for continuity) we may be overturned by the findings of archaeological look into (in the way Ward-Perkins was).Second , emphasis on continuity and transformation is the expulsion of their opposites from contemporary history books. Terms such as crisis and decline seem to have been anathematized in modern interrogation and this has started to show objections, even by scholars who are not polemicists of continuity itself.32Powerful words like these falling into disuse can and be detrimental for historiography. These terms are usually avoided because of their moral implications, and it is somehow assumed that if there is decline someone needs to be charged with it.33But we always have to simulate in mind that history is a science and historians should concentrate purely on the facts of their research.Nevertheless, Late Antiquitys impact shouldnt be confined within strict scientific limits. Continuity along with transformation, apart from being objects of historiographical debate, is also too powerful of terms to be overlooked by contemporary politicians. From 1993 to 1998 a large research project, funded by the European Science Foundation (ESF), brought together scholars from across Europe. Its title was Transformation of the Roman World and its aim was to provide a widely recognized interpretation of the fall of Rome, along the lines of a smooth passage to what was to become todays Europe.34Two thousand years after Augustus history is being repeated the European Union is commissioning its poets to create its own foundation myth.Late Antiquity is a new period that has had to carve its way bravely into powerful, deep-rooted views of modern historiography, much like the barbarians who had to carve their kingdoms fighting against the mighty Roman Empire. But unlike the former, somewhere along the way it had to make sacrifices which rendered it less effective as a means of interpretation and more limited in its scope. Also, it came to associate itself with allies with political agendas, who might have promoted it, but in the long term damaged somewhat its credibility in terms o f objectivity. After all that, it is not surprising that Avril Cameron, a great advocate of the Brown school, herself admits Late Antiquity is in danger of having become an exotic territory, just forrader suggesting that it should be tested also in the fields of economic and administrative history.35Pekepersonal thekerkerethoughts-synthesis/LA+med westThus far, weve witnessed in brief a powerful debate Ward-Perkins book came as a vivid reaction to a whole school of thought formed around Browns work, which itself was another dramatic response to an older tradition. But extremism is inherent in violent reactions, because only through opposition one side can define itself and stand out in relation to its adversaries. Naturally, the existence of opposition itself should not lead us to believe that one side is absolutely right, while the other is absolutely wrong (and in most cases they are not). Rather, it should direct us towards an evaluation of the new conclusions that emerged from the conflict and setting the problem on a new base.However, it should be noted that both books have something in common they are heavily focused on different geographical areas, where their conclusions seem to be more frequently affirmed. This way, Brown was able to find plenty of continuity in the eastern part of the Empire, while Ward-Perkins discovered a great deal of catastrophe in its former western provinces. As Jones had underlined long before those two, historians often tend to forget that only a part of the Roman Empire actually fell to the barbarians.36So, nothing would be amiss if things were so well defined, but they are not. And although it seems that Late Antiquity is better suited for archeozoic Byzantine history, there are also those medieval scholars who deem it rewarding to try their hand at the concepts that this new approach brought with it.Late Antiquity and archaeozoic medieval historyOne of these was jean claude van dam (the muscles from brussels) mouahahhah ahahaLate Antiquity and the barbariansThe exclusion of notions of violence and catastrophe from the debates concerning the fourth and fifth centuries, which Late Antiquity scholars promoted, created a historiographical vacuum and a way had to be found for depicting the relations between the Roman Empire and the new arrivals. If violence could not be used to describe them, then the sources had to be searched for a different sort of evidence. The subsequent reexamination of the sources gave birth to the notion of accommodation.The first scholar to do that was Walter Goffart. In a well-known book,37published in 1980, he described in detail the way that the barbarians were settled on Roman lands. According to Goffart a evenhandedly straightforward arrangement between the late Roman administration and the barbarian tribes can be derived from the sources. The critical feature of this arrangement was that the Empire relinquished its rights on the taxation of the region in which a group of barbarians were settled and instead those taxes would be collected by the barbarians. However, according to this theory, there was no expropriation of land, no breakdown of it to smaller units to be apportioned and no need for extra money from the tax payers.38The only one who had something to lose in the process would be the interchange administration and this definitely helps explain the fact that there is no sign of any noteworthy resistance from the local population in the regions where the barbarians were settled in this way.39The aforementioned theory was further elaborated by Durliat. After analyzing the sources rigorously, he managed to take Goffarts theory one step further. He argued that land tax in the Late Roman Empire amounted to no more than 20% of the harvest and it was collected and administered by the curiales. They split it in three and kept one third for their citys expenses. The other two thirds were then sent to Rome to be used for the needs of the army and t he central administration. With the advent of the barbarians, this system was very conveniently modify to accommodate them the curiales no longer sent anything to Rome but instead conferred the appropriate amount to the barbarian group that happened settle in their citys administrative region. Furthermore, he argued that this modus operandi continued unaffected after the fall of the western Roman Empire, in the different successor-states, until the collapse of the Carolingian Empire.40This theoretical synthesis was attractive to scholars, not only due to its clarifying simplicity and astonishing applicability, but also because it served to explain the lack of any negative sentiment in the sources. The importance of it becomes clearer, if we take under consideration that actually there were complaints on the part of the sources, wherever the barbarians had not settled peacefully but by force.41As we saw earlier, the curiales were unconcerned if two thirds of the land tax changed rec ipients, as long as they were still obtaining their part undiminished. One can easily imagine the effect that this argument had on the debate on continuity, especially since it was centered on Western Europe. Of course, this theory didnt fail to raise some eyebrows.Liebeschtz criticized Durliats arguments on a twofold basis. First, he doubts that late Roman cities actually collected for themselves any part of the imperial taxes and second, he argues quite convincingly that such an agreement would eventually provide little actual warranter to the settling barbarians, as security is usually better ensured through direct property of the land, than through any pecuniary rights. Whats more, it seems perfectly reasonable to assume that it was only this security that the barbarians were looking for and of course, their position of power during the last centuries of the Roman Empire made sure that they were not likely to settle for anything less.42Moreover, Durliats theory was commented on further in an article in 1998.43There, Wickham analysis Durliats arguments and dismisses them one by one. Initially, he disagrees that the strict fiscal meaning which the latter ascribes to terms such as possessors and fundus is actually the one intended by the legislators of the fourth and the fifth century and in so doing he undermines the theory from the beginning. But he goes on to challenge other aspects such as the idea that Church constituted a part of the state administration in the post-Roman kingdoms (and thus church property consisted only of fiscal lands) and the view that servus is the term used to suggest a free landowner. By providing hard evidence following the chronological order (Late Empire, Romano-Germanic Kingdoms, Carolingian Empire), Wickham manages to discredit convincingly the arguments about fiscal continuity throughout this period. But, it should be noted that in the end of his article, where he discusses briefly the issue of continuity, he states that while he is not averse to it himself, it should not be considered tantamount to complete absence of change.44However, the predominance of continuity does not sit well with terms like barbarian invasions and Germanic immigration. So, historians had to find ways to circumvent this problem they started by looking at the ethnic identities of the Germanic peoples, because it could be argued for example that there was no clear-cut consciousness of common identity between barbarian groups, such as the Goths, or some common characteristics that defined Germanic then it would be possible to background the importance of the aforementioned terms. This way, Late Antiquity affected another heated debate (and in the meantime was affected by it) that of European national identities.The contribution of Walter Goffart has been essential at this point. Apart from fiscal continuity, in his Barbarians and Romans, he was also arguing about against the existence of definite ethnic identities among the barbarians. Another centuries-old historiographic tradition before him interpreted the movements of the Germanic tribes according to contemporary political ideas.45For example, before the Second World War, Kossina had argued that there was a separate, identifiable culture to be associated with every Germanic tribe we come across in the sources and in 1961 Wenskus had maintained that there was a core of tradition carried by the elite of each barbarian group, according to which the whole mass of the tribe was defined.46But, according to Goffart migrations have served as the factual underpinnings of early Germanic unity.47Thus, if he could prove that no such unity actually existed, the migration and invasion theories would lose all sense.Indeed, he argues for a short history of these peoples oblivion was a result of translocation. The common past of these peoples at any point stressed as back as the time before their last migration.48He refuses to use sources of the sixth century such as Jordanes because, in his opinion, they only reflect the ideas of their own times and cannot be trusted for their evidence of the distant past.49Finally, after taking under consideration also the deductions of archaeological research, he thinks that, if one wanted to look at the discontinuity provoked by the advent of the barbarians, he should definitely put the emphasis on Rome and its security. It was the appeal that the Empire had on the barbarians and not their own expansionist agendas that brought about the fall, in an imaginative experiment that got a little out of hand.50It is therefore clear that Late Antiquity has given historiography of ethnic identities new areas of research to explore. This process gets even more complicated with the interference of modern international politics and historians of the Early Middle Ages recently find themselves and their research at the center of contemporary political debates51. One can discern a pseudo-history in the making, which serv es political and nationalistic purposes in the sense that it tries to define distinct nations that were created centuries ago once and for all. Another assumption is that by right these nations should form separate political entities, according to their defined ethnicity and territory.52To sum up, the search for continuity of the Late Antique scholars might not have been successful in the field of fiscal policies and accommodation but it ascertained the fact that we cannot presume long histories and ethnic identities of the Germanic peoples. This certainly confirmed transformation instead of catastrophe and crisis for some aspects of the fourth and fifth centuries but it surely proved that there was much discontinuity and heterogeneity concerning the notion of identity.53And since the Early Middle Ages are of such a great importance in the international political stage, scholars of the period should benefit from the results of research in this field in order to prevent their academi c field from becoming a plaything in the hands of international politics.(Projecting their own experiences on another period of time (as historians often do)