Banditry or catastrophe?: History, archaeology, and barbarian raids on Roman Greece

Robertson Brown, Amelia (2011). Banditry or catastrophe?: History, archaeology, and barbarian raids on Roman Greece. In Ralph W. Mathisen and Danuta R. Shanzer (Ed.), Romans, barbarians, and the transformation of the Roman world : cultural interaction and the creation of identity in late antiquity (pp. 79-96) Farnham, England ; Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing.

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Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads
Author Robertson Brown, Amelia
Title of chapter Banditry or catastrophe?: History, archaeology, and barbarian raids on Roman Greece
Title of book Romans, barbarians, and the transformation of the Roman world : cultural interaction and the creation of identity in late antiquity
Place of Publication Farnham, England ; Burlington, VT
Publisher Ashgate Publishing
Publication year 2011
Sub-type Critical scholarly text
Editor Ralph W. Mathisen
Danuta R. Shanzer
ISBN 9781409412434; 1409412431
Chapter number 6
Start page 79
End page 96
Total pages 18
Total chapters 25
Collection year 2012
Language eng
Abstract/Summary At first glance, the barbarian raids2 on Roman Greece seem straightforward: Costobocs, Heruls, and Goths from the later second century periodically came south into the Roman province ofAchaea and subjected its ancient cities to arson, looting, and civic turmoil before retreating north again, often after a defeat in battle3 Although this reconstruction rested originally on a very small number of ancient literary sources, it also has long provided an explanation for archaeological destruction layers and thus the decline of civic life in Greece from the later second century on. Recent advances in awareness of ancient bias and archaeological documentation, however, have led some excavators to question the accuracy of this narrative, and in particular its applicability to every city and excavated site.4 But few archaeologists are yet aware how fragmentary, contradictory, and classicizing the literary sources are, and how the role of the "barbarians" in them were changing faster than the traditions of recording their activities, moving from o plunder to politics, and involving Greece in wider struggles between local and
Q-Index Code B1
Q-Index Status Confirmed Code
Institutional Status UQ
Additional Notes Papers originally delivered at the 6th Biennial Conference on Shifting Frontiers of Late Antiquity, held at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in Mar. 2005.

 
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Created: Fri, 21 Oct 2011, 10:43:26 EST by Dr Amelia Brown on behalf of School of History, Philosophy, Religion & Classics