Books

History of the Goths
Blood in the Sea: HMS "Dunedin" and the Enigma Code
The Birth of Vietnam
The Cine Goes to Town: French Cinema, 1896-1914
The Struggle for the Breeches: Gender and the Making of the British Working Class (Studies on the History of Society & Culture)
Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion and the Afghan Response, 1979-1982
Stalin's Forgotton Zion: Birobidzhan and the Making of a Soviet Jewish Homeland - An Illustrated History, 1929-96
Office Ladies and Salaried Men: Power, Gender and Work in Japanese Companies
An Obsession with Anne Frank: Meyer Levin and the Diary
Strangers at the Gate: Social Disorder in South China, 1839-61
Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece
Apartment Stories: City and Home in Nineteenth-century Paris and London
L.A. City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present (George Gund Foundation Book in African American Studies)
Steel from the Sky: The Jedburgh Raiders, France 1944
The Homeric Hymns: A Translation, with Introduction and Notes
Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture
The Abbe Gregoire and the French Revolution: The Making of Modern Universalism
Smallpox: The Fight to Eradicate a Global Scourge
The Greeks and the Irrational
Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the 1991 Gulf War
Richard the Lionheart: The Mighty Crusader (Great Commanders)
Changing India: Bourgeois Revolution on the Subcontinent
Green Flag: History of Irish Nationalism: The Bold Fenian Men v. 2 (Penguin History S.)
The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited (Cambridge Middle East Studies)
Until the Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Average customer rating:

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
Very Interesting
History as Science Fiction
Provocative, appealing and controversial
pharaohs lived in the 3rd century AD

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Chinese | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Irish | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Japanese | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Doctors & Medicine | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Lawyers & Criminals | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Love, Sex & Marriage | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Assyria, Babylonia & Sumer | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

Early Civilization | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

General | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

Historiography | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

French | Erotica | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Victorian | Erotica | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Epic | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

German | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Russian | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Chinese | Classics | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Conspiracy Theories | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

War on Drugs | Crime & Criminals | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

English (All) | Dictionaries & Thesauruses | Reference | Subjects | Books

Science | Dictionaries & Thesauruses | Reference | Subjects | Books

Online Research | Genealogy | Reference | Subjects | Books

Native American | Earth-Based Religions | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General | History & Philosophy | Science | Subjects | Books

History of Science | History & Philosophy | Science | Subjects | Books

Magic & Wizards | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

Sailor Moon | Popular Characters | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Pilates | Exercise & Fitness | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

History | Fashion | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Art Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Biographies | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Children's Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Health Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Reference Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Religion & Spirituality Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Romance Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Science Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
Discovering the Mysteries of Ancient America: Lost History And Legends, Unearthed And Explored
Before the Pharaohs: Egypt's Mysterious Prehistory
Forbidden History: Prehistoric Technologies, Extraterrestrial Intervention, and the Suppressed Origins of Civilization
They Cast No Shadows: A Collection of Essays on the Illuminati, Revisionist History, and Suppressed Technologies

ASIN: 2913621058

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Provocative, appealing and controversial.......2006-08-02

Fomenko has succeeded to convincingly demonstrate the misconception about what "history" factually is... It is fiction and -like we can read and judge for ourselves- no science. It indeed is "make belief" only. I "discovered" Fomenko while studying the "old" history of Al Andaluz, Spain. Having found too many contradictions in available data, having seen too many forgeries as to pretend the importance of christianity for its decline, I ventured out to find Fomenko, who convinced me that we know little if anything for sure of the epoch before the XI-century. However, the integration of the Arabic-Islamic cultural history into the heavily distorted Western fails... There are some attempts to fit "the budding new religion" (Islam) into Fomenko's scheme, but they are too weak to be taken seriously and too often focussing on Turkey as the region where things started to influence the West, which is untrue at all.
Islam certainly was no "new religion" in the X-century. That the highly cultivated Al Andaluz ruler Mohammed-I could have been "mirrored" down in time into some myth about the "illiterate" founder of Islam itself is highly speculative. Nevertheless, Fomenko convinces me about the processes that were involved in forging a christian history. Intriguing and controversial as his books are, I recommend them as to rethink our current position in time and space and simply verify what was claimed. It is a "good" book, but not for bedtime reading... Mundus vult decipi, the world wants to be cheated. Fomenko's readers will understand why.

pharaohs lived in the 3rd century AD.......2006-02-16

Traces of white wine were found in Tutankhamen's tomb however there were no record of white wine in Egypt until the 3rd century AD, 1600 years after the young pharaoh died according to the traditional chronology. http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg18925395.400
It can be interpreted as a contribution towards New Chronology theory that pharaohs lived in the 3rd century AD.

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)

Average customer rating:

Check and see
Suprise! Suprise!
Prescient St Augustine?
Something of a disappointment
Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy..

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
Anatoly T Fomenko
Manufacturer: Delamere Resources LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Assyria, Babylonia & Sumer | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

Historiography | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Medieval | World | History | Subjects | Books

German | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Russian | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Chinese | Classics | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Mythology & Folklore | Encyclopedias | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Controversial Knowledge | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

History | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Celtic | Earth-Based Religions | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Magic & Wizards | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

History | Fashion | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Art Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Children's Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Reference Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Religion & Spirituality Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Discovering the Mysteries of Ancient America: Lost History And Legends, Unearthed And Explored
They Cast No Shadows: A Collection of Essays on the Illuminati, Revisionist History, and Suppressed Technologies
The Medieval Empire of the Israelites
Before the Pharaohs: Egypt's Mysterious Prehistory

ASIN: 2913621066

Product Description

`History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2` is the second volume of the most explosive and astounding tractate on history ever written - however, every theory it contains, no matter how unorthodox, is backed by rock solid scientific data. The book is easy and pleasant to read; it is well-illustrated, contains hundreds of charts, graphs and illustrations, copies of ancient manuscripts, and countless facts attesting to the falsity of the chronology used nowadays. You will be amazed to discover: - That the chronology universally accepted today and taken for granted is simply wrong; - That ALL methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts known today are erroneous or non-exact; - That there is not a single document that could be reliably dated earlier than the XIth century; The Author refers to the Middle Ages as the Antiquity and proves mutual superimposition of the Second and the Third Roman Empire, both of which become identified as the respective kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Furthermore, he asserts that the famous reform of the Occidental Church in the XI century by Pope Gregory Hildebrand was the reflection of the XII century reforms of Byzantine emperor Andronicus who in his turn identifies with Jesus Christ. The Trojan war counted by Homer happened only as late as of the XIII century A.D. and the great poet actually lived in XIV century A.D. No stone in history of Antiquity is left unturned. Literally. This book is the beginning of a major correction to the chronology we live with.

Customer Reviews:

Check and see.......2007-06-21

I don't care what other people say of this book. Those affirmig it's fake, they hadn't ever read it. Or have some special reasons to do so. "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see..." This book won't make you feel comfortable. It'll make you feel free. It'll make you feel you're "not the only one" to feel you'd been lied to for centuries.

Suprise! Suprise!.......2007-03-22

Here is a serie of books which turns "the whole world" upside down. I learned a lot of it and I hope that a new book from A.T. Fomenko will follow very quick. A absolute must for everybody who is interested in history or even a little bit from it.

Prescient St Augustine?.......2006-02-05

We can so far divide the New Chronology into the following three parts:

a) The verifiable theory that proves consensual chronology wrong with the aid of astronomy, statistics and mathematics;

b) The new chronology hypothesis based on a new understanding of known historical facts and the most likely logical explanation of the most obvious inconsistencies inherent in the official version of history;

c) The history conjectures, that is experimental historical reconstructions based on assumptions that the authors believe to make sense in the light of their research and linguistic parallels - void of ironclad factual support to date.

Fomenko's theory complies with the most rigid scientific standards as a whole:

It gives a coherent explanation of what we already know.

- It is consistent: independent lines of inquiry all lead to the same conclusion.

- The predictions it makes are confirmed empirically.

Fomenko goes by the following axioms:

- Chronology is the basis of history;

- Human evolution has always been linear, gradual and irreversible;

- The "cyclic" nature of human civilization is a myth, likewise all the gaps, duplicates, "dark ages" and "renaissances" that we know from consensual history;

- The accumulation of geographical knowledge as reflected in cartography is a gradual and irreversible process;

- The chronological distance between a given manuscript and the events described therein is proportional to the amount of distortions it contains;

- There is no "useless" information in authentic ancient sources.

Why the mainstream historians do not shower mathematician Academician Dr.Prof Fomenko with thanks and laurels?

The Russians:

Because Fomenko asserts that there was no such thing as the Tartar and Mongol invasion followed by three centuries of slavery, providing a formidable body of documental evidence to prove his assertion. The so-called "Tartars and Mongols" were the actual ancestors of the modern Russians, living in a bilingual state with Arabic spoken as freely as Russian. The ancient Russian state was governed by a double structure of civil and military authorities. The hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (the recruitment being the so-called "blood tax"). Their "invasions" were punitive operations against the regions that attempted tax evasion. Fomenko proves that Russian history as we know it today is a blatant forgery concocted by a host of German scientists brought to Russia by the usurper dynasty of the Romanovs, whose ascension to the throne was the result of coup d'état, charged with the mission of making their reign look legitimate. Fomenko proves Ivan the Terrible to be a collation of four rulers, no less. They represented the two rival dynasties - the legitimate rulers and the ambitious upstarts. The winner took it all! Over some 30 years of controversy, Russian historians have made a most remarkable transition - they were initially accusing the young mathematician Fomenko of anticommunist dissident activity and attempts to deface the historical legacy of Soviet Russia; nowadays the middle-aged mathematician is accused of adhering to "pro-communist Russian nationalism" and defacing the proud historical legacy of Great Russia.

The Westerners:

Because Fomenko blows consensual Russian history to smithereens, successfully removing a crucial cornerstone from underneath the otherwise impeccable edifice of World History. Fomenko adds insult to injury, wiping out one by one the Ancient Rome (the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the XIV century A. D.), the Ancient Greece and its numerous poleis, which he identifies as the mediaeval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece, and the Ancient Egypt (the pyramids of Giza become dated to the XI-XV century A. D. and identified as the royal cemetery of the Global "Mongolian" Empire, no less). The civilization of the Ancient Egypt is irrefutably dated to the XII-XV century A. D. with the aid of the ancient Egyptian horoscopes cut in stone. He was the first one to decipher and date all such horoscopes, coming up with mediaeval dates in every case. English historians rage at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was de facto a Byzantine import transplanted to the English soil by the fugitive Byzantine nobility. To reward the English historians who consider themselves the true scribes of World History, the cover of the present book portrays Tintoretto's Jesus Christ crucified on the Big Ben.

The Chinese:

Because Fomenko wipes out the Ancient History of China outright. No such thing. Full point. The compilation of the so-called Ancient Chinese History is reliably datable to the XVII-XVIII century only. It is perfectly recognizable as the Ancient European history, reworked and transcribed in hieroglyphs as yet another historical transplantation, this time performed on the Chinese soil by the loving Jesuit hands. The Chinese are the next in line to go berserk. Chinese history is inevitably bound to get both more ancient and more eventful, proportionally to the growing involvement of China in the world affairs. Chinese historians will keep on finding valid proof of prehistoric Chinese spaceflights until the Politburo orders them to shut up.

The Arabs:

Too bad. Islam with all its key figures is datable to XV-XVI century A. D. Arabic historians may find consolation in the crucial historical role of the Ottoman Empire in the XVI-XVII century. The trouble is that this empire was initially a Christian state, with Hagia Sophia identifiable as Temple of Solomon, according to Fomenko! We can only guess if the acquisition of Alexander the Great (a Macedonian and a Christian) as the founder of the Muslim World Empire will make Fomenko's theories more acceptable to the Arabic mainstream. He certainly does not spare any holy cows at all, claiming The Stone of Qa'Aba in Mecca to contain the lost Arch of the Covenant.

The Divinity:

Despite of reiterated statement that his theory is all about chronology and not Religion, Fomenko stirs up a whole condominium of wasp nests. His collection of anathemas, fatwa, and other condemnations from all parties concerned is already considerable. Little wonder, considering that the history of religions à la Fomenko looks as follows: the pre-Christian period (before the XI century and JC), Bacchic Christianity (XI-XII century, before and after JC), JC Christianity (XII-XVI century) and its subsequent mutations into Orthodox Christianity, the Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, and so on.

According to Fomenko we know strictly NOTHING about the events that predate the X century A. D.

St Augustin was prescient when he spoke unto us: "be wary of mathematicians, particularly when they speak the truth."

Something of a disappointment.......2005-09-09

After having read the first volume of this expected series of 7 volumes I was triggered by the thesis of these authors that ancient Greek and Roman history did in fact take place in the Middle Ages. So I started studying medieval history of the Middle East - also known as Islamic history - to find out if the opponents of the ancient Greeks and Romans - the Acheamenid Persians, Sassanids, Scythians, Egyptians, etc. - also have their duplicates in medieval history. My search was disappointing: none of the many medieval Islamic dynasties seemed to correspond to the ancient middle eastern rulers.

However, I did find a close correspondence between Herodotus' Persian kings and medieval events:

- the defeat and capture of an Anatolian king - the Lydian Croesus - by the Persian conqueror Cyrus is identical to the defeat and capture of another Anatolian king - sultan Bayezid - by the Asian/Mongol conqueror Tamerlane;
- the Persian conquest of Egypt by the cruel tyrant Cambyses reds almost exactly as the Ottoman conquest of Egypt by Selim the Grim (note the nickname!);
- Darius the Lawgiver of the Persian Empire looks very much alike to Sulayman the Magnificent, the Lawgiver in Islamic history;
- Xerxes, whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by the Greeks at the naval battle of Salamis, looks like Selim II (the Sot) whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by a Spanish-Italian alliance at the naval battle of Lepanto.

I should have expected Fomenko et al. to arrive at similar conclusions, however, they claim that the Persian kings are the alter egos of the Angevin kings of Sicily whose biographies do not contain the exploits of the Persian kings.

The similiarities I indicate lead to the conclusion that Herodotus must have written his Histories at the close of the 16th century. But this is extremely late, given that Herodotus is "the Father of History", so therefore all other "ancient" histories must have been fabricated even later. Yet, the founders of modern chronology - Scaliger and Petavius - laid their foundations also at the close of the 16th century and had the full corpus of ancient histories already at their disposal.

It seems to me that Fomenko has to address these inconsistencies, maybe in the forthcoming 5 volumes?

Another critique of their book is that the correspondencies between different rulers are often based on a superficial comparison of the biographies; upon a more thorough comparison many details appear that do not correspond at all.

Finally, the authors rely heavily on the works of Gregorovius (1821-1891!!) - his medieval histories of Rome and Athens - as the source of medieval history; these works are - at least in the West - hoplessly outdated and have been superceded by more up-to-date works (for instance, Julius Norwich's trilogy on Byzantine history is not even cited).

Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy.........2005-07-30

If you agree with Fomenko that Roman chronology is basically the foundation of the entire edifice of global chronology; you would also certainly agree that despite its numerous gaps and inconsistencies, Roman history is the best-documented field of ancient history, and thus a reference scale. But how well is the actual date of the Eternal City's foundation known?

Firstly, Rome is supposed to have been founded by the Trojans who had to flee after the fall of Troy. Some claim Rome to have been founded by Aeneas and Ulysses shortly after Troy had fallen; others are of the opinion that there was an entire dynasty that ruled for 500 years between the fall of Troy and the foundation of Rome.

Well, that's just an innocent 500 years long misunderstanding compared with what heretic Fomenko says, asserts, proves in his second volume: Second Roman Empire, Third Roman Empire, Biblical Kingdom of Israel, Biblical Kingdom of Judah, Holy Roman Empire are stories about basically same events, written from different points of view at different times. The underlying events have actually taken place during xii-xv cy. These histories have been written and perfected by multitude of highly talented humanist and clerical writers of xiii-xvi cy disguised as "ancients" with glorious names like Homer, Pluto, Thucydides etc..Chronology 2.0 beta..

Historians are kindly invited to report the bugs.

Rome's Gothic Wars: From the Third Century to Alaric (Key Conflicts of Classical Antiquity)

Average customer rating:

Evalualtion of Sources
Provocative, but Unconvincing
"Deeds of the Goths"

Rome's Gothic Wars: From the Third Century to Alaric (Key Conflicts of Classical Antiquity)
Michael Kulikowski
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

Rome | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

A History of the Later Roman Empire, AD 284-641: The Transformation of the Ancient World (Blackwell History of the Ancient World)
Barbarian Tides: The Migration Age And the Later Roman Empire (Middle Ages Series)
The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians
The Day of the Barbarians: The Battle That Led to the Fall of the Roman Empire
God's War: A New History of the Crusades

ASIN: 0521846331

Amazon.com

From the Prologue:

Before the Gates of Rome

Late in august 410, a large troop of soldiers bore down on the city of Rome. At their head rode the general Alaric, in the full insignia of a magister militum. It was the highest command in the Roman army, won after years of politicking and military success. But Alaric was more than a Roman general. He was also a Gothic chieftain, some might have said a king. As far as contemporaries were concerned, the soldiers who followed him were Goths. Sometimes, to be sure, Alaric had put his followers at the service of the Roman emperor. When he did so, they became a unit in the Roman army. But their loyalty was to Alaric, not to the emperor or the empire, and everyone knew it. Alaric might be a Roman general, but no one ever mistook his followers for Roman soldiers. They were the Goths, and Alaric had led them against regular imperial armies more than once. In the early fifth century, the line between Roman regiment and barbarian horde was a fine one, and Alaric straddled it as best he could. But no one was quite taken in by appearances, and Alaric never succeeded in turning himself into the legitimate Roman commander he so desperately wanted to be.

Want more? Read the prologue in its entirety.

Book Description

Late in August 410, Rome was starving, its residents were turning on one another, and, to make matters worse, the Gothic army camped at Rome's gates was restless. The Gothic commander was Alaric, a Roman general and barbarian chieftain. Leading an army that was short of food and potentially mutinous, sacking Rome was his only way forward. The old heart of Rome's empire fell to a conqueror's sword for the first time in eight hundred years. For three days, Alaric's Goths sacked the eternal city. In the words of a contemporary, the mother of the world had been murdered. Alaric's story is the culmination of a long historical journey by which the Goths came to be a part of the Roman world. Whether as friends or foes of the Roman empire, the Goths and their history are entwined with the larger history of Rome in the third and fourth centuries. Rome's Gothic Wars explains how the Goths came into existence on the margins of the Roman world, how different Gothic groups dealt with the enormous power of Rome just beyond their lands, and how, in two traumatic years, thousands of Goths entered the imperial provinces and destroyed the army that was sent to suppress them, leaving the emperor of the eternal city dead on the field of battle. Unlike other histories of the barbarians, Rome's Gothic Wars shows exactly how and why modern historians understand the Goths the way they do - and why our understanding is so controversial. Michael Kulikowski is associate professor of history at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. A recipient of the Solmsen Fellowship at the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, he is the author of Late Roman Spain and Its Cities, which was awarded an Honorable Mention in Classics and Archaeology from the Association of American University Presses. His scholarly articles have appeared in Early Medieval Europe, Britannia, Phoenix, and Byzantium, and he has appeared on the History Channel's Barbarians series.

Customer Reviews:

Evalualtion of Sources.......2007-05-09

This the first book I have read that evaluates the ancient sources and puts comtemporary research in perspective. I was particularly interested in the uses to which the NAZIS used ideas on germanic migrations to further their racial ideas.

Provocative, but Unconvincing.......2006-12-24

After acknowledging "the historian has a duty to make history intelligible" (p. xi), Professor Kulikowski proceeds to further obscure the already obscure subject of Romano-Gothic relations. Rather than "help those who are just beginning the advanced study of late antiquity," he abandons serious scholarship and builds a house of cards which admits little scrutiny.

Professor Kulikowski starts with the humble-sounding premise that "even the most basic facts are either unknown or else uncertain because of contradictory evidence" (p. 12), then proceeds to savage his our sources.

Even more startling is his thesis that "the Roman empire create[d] the Goths as we know them." (p. 13) Time and again throughout the first half of Wars, Kulikowski tells us "as we will see", then spends the second half saying "as we have seen" never having supported his intriguing thesis. In the end the reader is left with an assertion--a plausible scenario, but not the only plausible scenario.

The key chapter is "The Search for Gothic Origins" in which Kulikowski deconstructs ancient and modern theories that the Goths or their prehistoric antecedents came from the region of modern Scandinavia and/or Poland. Then he examines archeological evidence in the region from which the Goths first came to the attention of classical cultures. While he acknowledges that the Alans and Sarmatians lived as a horse culture on top of an agricultural substrata, he avows that the remains uncovered in the Sântana-de-Mureº/Èernjachov cultural zone support his assertion "that there was no Gothic history before the third century. The Goths are a product of the Roman frontier, just like the Franks and the Alamanni who appear at the same time." (p. 67)

In addition to needing a refresher in logic, the good professor should have sought grammar assistance from his school's English department. The text is replete with participles and passive constructions, which will not help those beginning students he proclaimed as his target audience. While Professor Kulikowski tends to cite (and analyze the reliability of) ancient sources, he rarely quotes those sources, leaving the reader to accept his analysis of what the source did nor did not report.

Maps in Wars are woefully inadequate, both in number and detail. Kulikowski's statement on page xii that the Department of History "produced [them] at short notice" implies that all the maps were an afterthought.

Make no mistake, Professor Kulikowski's theory is a provocative and insightful one. But the norm for historical writing these days is provocative new theories. Modern historians are not content to stand on the shoulders of their predecessors for a slightly better view. Modern historians feel compelled to tear down everything before them and start anew--even if it means they are writing fiction. Kulikowski explains his new theory well enough; he just never proves it.

Despite its shortfalls, Rome's Gothic Wars offers a good review of the current state of knowledge about Romano-Gothic relations between A. D. 376 and 410. Professor Kulikowski offers insights to Rome's degeneration from an externally invincible empire to a shadow of its former self--the "eternal city" sacked and independent barbarian kingdoms established within its borders.

Guardedly recommended.

"Deeds of the Goths".......2006-11-17

This is a short book and easy to read but is packed with eye openers, it is valuable both for a hobbiest like myself and the professional. I recently read Peter Heather's "The Fall of the Roman Empire" (2005), as well as other survey accounts of the Goths including Gibbon and Bury (and of course the History Channel "Barbarians") - Kulikowski's writing style is great, it's difficult to tire of such an incredible story, everyone tells it a little differently adding new ideas and perspectives.

More than a survey, Kulikowski makes a bold (and convincing) case about the origins of the Goths and what motivated them (or not) to cross the Danube in 376. In addition we learn about the latest approach to barbarian ethnicity (called "ethnogenesis") which is applicable to all the ancient peoples and important to understand in the face of so much racist and nationalistic scholarship out there; an excellent historiography of Gothic studies which reveals some interesting connections to modern educational institutions; a general overview of the barbarians and the Roman Empire; a "Further Reading" where we get the authors recommendations on the best books available for specific topics; a list of key names with short descriptions (about 150 names).

This is the first in a series which is described in the opening matter: "This series is composed of introductory-level texts that provide an essential foundation for the study of important wars and conflicts of classical antiquity. Each volume provides a synopsis of the main events and key characters, the consequences of the conflict, and its reception over time. An important feature is the critical overview of the textual and archaeological sources for the conflict, which is designed to teach both historiography and the methods that historians use to reconstruct events of the past."

A History of the Ostrogoths (Midland Book)

Average customer rating:

A History of the Ostrogoths
Well-Researched but Leaden Story of the Ostrogoths
"A Superb Overview of the Ostrogoths"

A History of the Ostrogoths (Midland Book)
Thomas S. Burns
Manufacturer: Indiana University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Medieval | World | History | Subjects | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

History of the Goths
The Goths (The Peoples of Europe)
History of the Later Roman Empire: From the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian (Volume 1)
Invasion of Europe by the Barbarians
History of the Later Roman Empire: From the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian (Volume 2)

ASIN: 0253206006

Customer Reviews:

A History of the Ostrogoths.......2006-07-12

`A History of the Ostrogoths' by Thomas Burns attempts to survey the Ostrogoths, rather broadly at times, through their short but eventful history. What I mean by rather broadly is that we are forced to use approximations from literary and archaeological sources because Ostrogothic history is not well documented, as the author himself states... "Combining archaeological data and the Greco-Roman literary sources can never produce a truly uniform and consistent historical vision." (Introduction XV) A goal of this book is to look at the Ostrogoths as a group rather than individuals and their long-term interaction with Rome. According to the author "... This study is a history of the Ostrogoths, not of the late Roman Empire. Nor is it an archaeological survey; rather it is a history based on a synthesis of traditional sources and relevant archaeological materials. The emphasis on the Ostrogoths is clear and deliberate. Roman developments set the stage for much of Ostrogothic history, but only in that respect do purely roman events and personalities enter the narrative. The Ostrogoths merit their own history." (Introduction XVI) That being said I found that most of the book had more references to Visigoths, Romans, and non-Germanic groups like the Huns, and Alans, than the Ostrogoths. For an example the first reference to the Ostrogoths does not come until the eleventh page of the first chapter, when they are mentioned in passing... "Another source of influence was the cultural ganglion of central Asian groups in the area of south-central Russia. The artistic influence of the Steppes was most prominent among groups in direct contact with this area, for example, the Ostrogoths in their early period." (Page 11) I did find this book to be really informative and I cannot begin to list all I garnered from this book in such a short paper, so I will give a condensed version. By 375 A.D. the Huns had conquered the Gruethingi/Ostrogoths ruled by Ermanaric, who committed suicide rather than lead his people into Hunnic slavery. The Ostrogoths were subject to the Huns until the death of Attila in 453 A.D. "The memories of their subjection were bitter long after they had escaped from the Huns following the decisive battle of Nedao in 454." (Page 45), But Burns also says that "The Ostrogoths had been fortunate, for Attila had favored the Amali Valamir and his brothers Thuidmir and Vidmir. In fact, it seems that despite occasional hunger and growing animosity, at least the Ostrogothic nobility, and presumably their personal followers, did reasonably well under the Huns." (Page 45) The Ostrogoths spent the next 34 years after the battle of Nedao engaged in securing the Balkans for Rome and finding a permanent land to settle. By 489 A.D. the Emperor Zeno and Theodoric the Great were severely at odds with each other and the Ostrogoths began the final phase of their history as they began a trek to Italy. They entered in 489-490, and by 493 Theodoric had killed his rival Odacer and set up the Ostrogothic kingdom, with Ravenna as his capitol. After Theodoric's death in 526 A.D. his daughter Amalasuntha became regent for her son Athalric after his death in 534 A.D., she mistakenly placed herself under the protection of her cousin Theodahad. Her death in 535 A.D. gave the Emperor Justinian a pretext for sending Belisarius to reconquer Italy. "When Justinian launched his armies against the Ostrogoths, he may have envisioned a quick victory of Belisarius, like that he had achieved over the Vandals. If so, the Emperor was gravely mistaken but not foolishly naïve." (Page 204) In 552 A.D. the Byzantine general Narses defeated Totila, who died in battle. The survivors of the Ostrogoths chose Teja (or Teias) as their king, but were practically wiped out in the battle at Mons Lactarius in which Teja was also killed. "By 554 the Ostrogothic Kingdom was gone." (Page 215) The few survivors mingled with other peoples and nations; some were romanized in Italy, and others wandered north where they disappeared among the various Germanic tribes. In conclusion, again I cannot state everything I have taken away from this book but I think the author Thomas Burns says it best in his introduction, "The Ostrogoths developed as a people over the course of at least three centuries of direct and indirect contact with the Roman Empire. In essence, Rome nourished Gothic civilization throughout a long life and ultimately destroyed and buried her mature creation." (Introduction Xiii)

Well-Researched but Leaden Story of the Ostrogoths.......2004-09-02

The story of the Ostrogoths and their spread throughout Europe, particularly their brief is a fascinating one, particularly the age of Theodoric, and this book is doubtless one of the leading academic texts on the topic. Unfortunately it suffers the usual problem with academic texts; namely it assumes the reader knows the underlying narrative, chronology and characters, and thus dispenses with those boring, unnecessary details in order to meditate on themese and historiography. For readers new to this area I would recommend Bury's Barbarian Invasions of Europe instead of this work.

"A Superb Overview of the Ostrogoths".......2002-02-05

Thomas Burns' work on the Ostrogothic peoples is interesting, comprehensive, and full of abundant research material for individuals particularly inclined to the study of Germanic tribes and the Later Roman Empire. From the Goths early migrations, incursions, and relations with Rome, all the way to transient dominance under Theodoric the Great and his lesser successors, Burns, the accomplished scholar, artfully blends his deep knowledge of the original sources with contemporary archaeological lore. In doing so, he pieces together fragments of a civilization often clouded by obscurity and presents a work that grasps with clarity all aspects of Ostrogothic society: religion, warfare, art, administration, and the Goths social adaptations within the confines of the Imperial borders to name a few. This work is likely to be the best study of its kind; Thomas Burns has much to offer.

Titus Andronicus (The Pelican Shakespeare)

Average customer rating:

The First Wizard of Gore
!!! LOVE IT !!!
One of Shakespeare's Best Tragedies...
One of Shakespeare's best but always misunderstood plays
Excellent

Titus Andronicus (The Pelican Shakespeare)
William Shakespeare
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Coriolanus (The Pelican Shakespeare)
The Tempest (Cambridge School Shakespeare)
Cymbeline (Folger Shakespeare Library)
Troilus and Cressida (Arden Shakespeare: Third Series)
The Tragedy of Anthony and Cleopatra (Oxford World's Classics)

ASIN: 014071491X

Book Description

A volume in The New Cambridge Shakespeare, newly edited to the meticulous standard for which this series has become known, this edition of Titus Andronicus includes an extensive introduction that leads the reader through the full spectrum of contemporary criticism of the play, major modern productions, and its performance history. Appendices explore how the play might have been performed at the Rose playhouse, which has been recently excavated, and how it could have been adapted for a touring company of fourteen men and boys.

Customer Reviews:

The First Wizard of Gore.......2004-09-26

This is perhaps The Bard's least well known work, but a classic nonetheless. If H. G. Lewis had been a playwrite living in Old England, this is no doubt the kind of drama he might have produced. It has more blood & violence than the most exploitive exploitation film. Heads severed off, murdered children baked into a stew & served to their father, rape, vengeance, mayhem, insanity... all served up in the guise of classic literature. PERFECT!

!!! LOVE IT !!!.......2004-06-07

OH MY GOSH!!! "Titus Andronicus" is one of the best plays ever written, especially when played for the comedy. DEFFINATELY READ THIS BOOK!!!

The whole play basically revolves around the action of the evil Tamora marrying another evil guy. Tamora gets really angry, and lets her two sons, Chiron and Demitrius, rape Titus's daughter, Lavinia. Ever hear that old Greek legend about how two guys raped a girl, and cut off her tounge so she could never tell the tale? In that version, the girl is, fortunately, able to miraculously weave her story into a coat and send it off for help. But Lavinia in "Titus Andronicus" is not quite so lucky. Chiron and Demitrius cut off her tounge AND her hands (I can tell THEY read there nighttime fairytales).

After this everyone runs around like madmen and there are a few casualties. Finally Lavinia is able to communicate to her father and remaining brothers using a book, etc. Eventually Tamora pretends to be a spirt-type-thing called 'Revenge' and her sons pretend to be 'Murder' and 'Rape'. But Titus Andronicus is even smarter. He pretends that he beleives there stupid bluff, and eventually captures Chrion and Demitrius after their mother leaves. Then, to make a long story short, Titus 'plays the cook' and cuts off the guys' heads and has his daughter use her stubs to gather their blood. Then he goes and cooks their guts into a pie.

That night at dinner, he serves the pastry to Tamora, who thinks she has won. After the people have eaten about half of the meal, Titus gets up and basically says, 'Look, Lady, you just ate your own sons, you idiot.' Then there is a huge blood bath and few are spared. The guy who IS spared becomes king, etc. Hehehe. Great, huh?

Seriously, though, I would deffinately recommend this edition of the book because it has REALLLLLLLLLYYYYYYY good footnotes. No joke. Hope you will take some time to read this cool book!!! :-D

One of Shakespeare's Best Tragedies..........2004-05-10

Titus has been maligned by many who have read the better known works of Shakespeare as a violent and gruesome play. That it is, but it is precisely that and other elements that make it remarkable. To truly appreciate Titus one must have read some Roman plays (specifically Seneca's early tragedies) and be relatively well versed in Greek mythology and Roman history. In Titus, Shakespeare gives the audience a great deal of Greek mythology via Ovid's Metamorphoses (compare Lavinia with Philomela and the final "feast" with the infamous dinner that Thyestes had with his brother Atreus). But the play is not only a classic in this sense. It addresses the timeless theme of revenge and the endless cycle of violence begetting violence that ensues as the charachers seek "wreakful vengance" for each horrific deed and pain that one causes the other. There are no heroes in Titus and no "good guys" just raw emotion and passion laid bare. It is at once the worst of humanity recounted with some of the most beautiful poetry that has ever been written.

One of Shakespeare's best but always misunderstood plays.......2004-04-26

Titus Andronicus is one of Shakespeare's finest plays. However, most people don't understand what it's really about. It is about love and how hate is born of love and how one cannot hate without the depth of love. But it is also a comedy, in a way. The things that happen are so horrible that the only thing you can do is laugh. But this is not the case dearing the scene were one of the characters, Lavinia Andronicus, is raped by Demetrius and Chiron the youngest sons of the Queen of the Goths. In that scene the last thing you can do is laugh. It is so powerful that you just have to cry and shrink into a ball. This is Shakespeare's most powerful play but people over look it because they don't understand it. But none the less this play is a masterpeice and my favorite play ever.

Excellent.......2004-01-12

Since this was Shakespeare's first tragedy - it's understandable how he could write something so utterly out of character for him. Everyone must find their own feet to stand on. I find that the college students I teach respond well to this particular piece. The violence, gore and blood keep our up-to-date students involved. They also seem to respond well to Aaron. They are amazed at the evilness and the twisted plot. I will continue to teach this in my classroom and think this version is just fine for the beginning Shakespeare student.

Theoderic In Italy (Oxford University Press Academic Monograph Reprints)

Average customer rating:

A Gothic king of the Romans!

Theoderic In Italy (Oxford University Press Academic Monograph Reprints)
John Moorhead
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Medieval | World | History | Subjects | Books

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 0198147813

Customer Reviews:

A Gothic king of the Romans!.......1998-10-26

King Theodoric the Great is a figure of transition. His displaced Goths occupied the Roman Western Empire in 493, meshing with Romans and recently-arrived barbarians to create a state not quite Roman and not quite medieval--a land of Roman law with a rapidly devolving civil society dominated by illiterate barbarians and heretical faith. John Moorhead revives the study of Theodoric with this readable and informative account. It goes far to update the foundational study of Theodoric by the 19th-century historian Thomas Hodgkin.

Average customer rating:

...
An incredible achievement
History of the Goths
Understanding the Gothic history
Tough reading, but good scholarship

History of the Goths
Herwig Wolfram , and Thomas J. Dunlap
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Medieval | World | History | Subjects | Books

Qualifying Textbooks - Spring 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

A History of the Ostrogoths (Midland Book)
The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples
Invasion of Europe by the Barbarians
The Goths (The Peoples of Europe)
Before France and Germany: The Creation and Transformation of the Merovingian World

ASIN: 0520069838

Book Description

Incorporating exciting new material that has come to light since the last German edition of 1980, Herwig Wolfram places Gothic history within its proper context of late Roman society and institutions. He demonstrates that the barbarian world of the Goths was both a creation of and an essential element of the late Roman Empire.

Customer Reviews:

..........2007-04-27

I have to agree with Minde's old review: Wolfram is a chaotic writer. He packs so many minutiae onto a page, even one used to the usual scholarly minutiae must at last despair and ask what the point of it all is. I can't recall ever reading a book as poorly organized as this, or at least, not one for which I had such high hopes. Without question though it is packed with details, details, details. If you feel like wading in up to yours eyeballs in fact after fact, almost in stream of consciousness style....nur zu!

An incredible achievement.......2006-10-03

I really have to wonder if previous reviewers have actually read this.

Wolfram does not base his argument on linguistics (though his are fine - I checked) or on archaeology (which he clearly states is an unreliable guide). What he does do is make an incredibly exhaustive, cross-referenced study of all of the available sources and use that to write an ethnographic history of the ever-shifting and recombining peoples, Germanic and non-Germanic, who were called the "Goths." That history he then uses to illuminate and make sense of the historical record. As he does this, Wolfram also effectively silences the old "racialist" histories that have made this subject so hard to deal with for so long.

This is very tough going because of the dense writing (translated academic German can be a horror to wade though) and the extreme detail. And, yes, the reproduction of the maps is pretty terrible. It is still, however, one of the best histories I have read, period, and will likely be a source for study and a springboard for my own research for years to come. I'd recommend not dismissing it, especially when that dismissal is itself neither thoughtful nor accurate.

History of the Goths.......2006-07-12

In the first chapter Wolfram/Dunlap concentrate on the Gothic name which was first mentioned between 16 &18 A.D. by Latin and Greek authors who speak of `Gutones' which is a weak derivative of Goths. The Gutones are mentioned until about 150 A.D. and then not again until 262 A.D., when Shapur I had a tri-lingual inscription made that mentioned Germanic, Gothic, & Roman troops he had defeated in 245 A.D. Several years later Claudius II assumed the name Gothicus, also the Greeks & Persians mention the Goths in text as well. In 300 A.D. the spelling Goth replaced the weak derivative Gutones almost altogether. The name Goths included a diverse Germanic & Non-Germanic peoples; in Italy- the Vandals, in Spain- the Gepids, Rugians, Sciri, Alans, & Burgundians. They were lumped together because of common faiths, laws, & languages. For the purpose of classification modern scholars created the term `Eastern Germanic Peoples' that is commonly used today. The term Visigoth was also created, not by modern scholars but by Cassiodorus. As he understood them the Ostrogoths were the eastern Goths or Goths of the rising sun. So to make a geographical distinction Cassiodorus called the second group of Goths, also called the Tervingi-Vesi, the Visigoths for western Goths. The formation of the Gothic tribes before the invasion of the Huns is the topic of the second chapter. "As late as the sixth century Theodoric the Great insisted that his family had originated in Scandinavia and had made the long trek from there by way of Eastern Pomerania and the Vistula to the Black Sea, thence to Pannonia and Moesia, and finally to Italy." (P.36) Wolfram/Dunlap goes on to say that instead of trying to prove/disprove this origin perhaps we should accept it, not as fact but as a motif in a saga. Based on old songs the tribe was overpopulated, so on the orders of King Filimer an army of Goths with their women & children left their homeland. While crossing a river the bridge collapsed forever separating them. Some stayed behind and others that had crossed moved on. The emigration of an entire tribe as well as the idea of overpopulation is a common traditional theme. The strength of the Goths was in there kingship, whose authority surpassed that usually found among Germanic tribes. The king, as the central authority figure of a wandering tribe, could employ the resources of his smaller tribe faster & more effectively than that of a larger kingless tribe. "From the early summer of 291 the ancient world had been aware of the existence of two Gothic tribes. At the same time the main tribal element was still made up of `Eastern Goths'. (P.85) But by the 4th century the eastern Goths disappeared from the Roman view, replaced by the western Goths. In chapter three, Wolfram/Dunlap discuss the 40 year migration and the formation of the Visigoths. In 376 A.D. the Tervingi, Goths, were admitted to the empire to settle parts of Thrace. The Goths led by Alaviv and Fritigern were seen as supplicants to the mercy of the Emperor. They would be supervised by Roman authorities and were to survive by farming the land with no other subsidies from the empire, & in exchange the large numbers of Goths would be expected to serve in the Roman army. The Goths were not especially serious about their promise and had already set their sights on Thrace before even negotiating with the Emperor. Also the Emperor's order probably included disarmament as a pre-condition for admission but Roman officials failed to enforce it. The admission of an entire people caused problems. There was not enough transportation to ferry them across the Danube, and the way the Romans went about it threatened the family & clan structures. Also a shortage of food did not calm a hungry tribe. And as always there was exploitation by dishonest officials & generals. Initially they followed orders and they marched slowly to the Thracian troops headquarters. Lupicinus invited Alaviv & Fritigern to a reconciliatory feast, a quarrel broke out & Lupicinus ordered the Gothic leaders killed, Fritigern escaped but Alaviv did not, this is in early 377 A.D.. Fritigern assumes full control of the Goths & began to sweep across the land pillaging & burning everything in his path. On August 9th 378 A.D. at the battle of Adrianople the Romans were soundly defeated and the Emperor Vallens was killed. This battle has been considered the turning point in the history of western warfare, and in its wake the Visigoths, as horsemen, emerged from out of the Danubian Tervingi. Skipping ahead to around the middle of September 415 A.D., Valia is chosen as King of the Goths. He was supposed to continue the war with Rome, but to do that he had to solve the hunger of his people. He marched the Goths through the Iberian Peninsula towards Africa, but they were not seafarers & their 1st attempt across the Straits of Gibraltar was fatal. So in the spring of 416 A.D. Valia surrendered to Constantius, commander-in-chief of the west, in exchange they were given food & the task of clearing Spain of enemies. This was known as the foedus of 416 & was followed by a settlement of the Goths that was contractually guaranteed & carried out according to Roman law in 418, although Valia did not live long enough to see it implemented. In chapter four Wolfram/Dunlap write about the kingdom of Toulouse 418-507. The kingdom of Toulouse was settled in 418 A.D. & became the center of the Goth dominion. After Valia's death Thoederid becomes the next king, not much is known about his early life because the Roman observer wanted to know if he would honor the foedus of 416 & 418. In the year 523 the Emperor Honorius died & two years later the Goths begin a regular march to the gates of the Gallo-roman capital of Arles. The city is never taken & the clashes are not considered to breaking the foedus, they are simply to gain the Goths some attention. 451 A.D. Attila attacks and the Goths are pressed into service. Theoderid & his two eldest sons, Thorismund & Theodoric II, marched to the fields between Troyes & Chalon-Sur-Marne. The battle is seen as both a loss for the Huns & a draw for Aëtius, Theoderid is killed and Thorismund is king 451-453. Theodoric II then becomes king 454-466 & is killed by his brother Euric; this ended the foedus of 50 years & also ended the marches to Arles. By 475 Euric had made all land between the Atlantic, the Loire, & the Rhone Gothic territory. Euric died in 484 of natural causes, & on Dec. 28 484 Alaric II becomes king and is then killed in 507 at the battle of Vouille. Alaric II was regarded as an ineffectual leader, with his death & the destruction of the army the end of the kingdom of Toulouse was brought about. Chapter five discusses the "new" Ostrogoths. Amazingly the Ostrogoth people only lasted five generations. Precisely 451 to 552 A.D., the Ostrogoth century is marked by two major defeats and the kings associated with them. King Valamir, who commanded the tribal contingent in Attila's army which was defeated on the Catalonian fields in 451, And King Teja who was killed at the Mons Lactarius in 552.The history and origin of these people is poorly recorded, prior to 451 there is no certain date where & when they appeared. As well there is no Kingship or administration after 552. The lineage of the kings of the Ostrogoths is rather short so I can list them here. Valamir is king until his death in 469, who is then succeeded by his brother Thiudimir who rules until his death in 474. His son Theodoric "the Great" is next & by 493 had become the unchallenged master of Italy and lived to 526 A.D., next his grandson Amalaric, who held no real power, was king until 531. Theudis, a former governor of Theodoric, becomes King until 548, when his nephew Totila who was already a gothic king takes over until his death in battle in 552. Lastly there is King Teja who ruled for not even three months before his death. After Teja's death, the Goths held out kingless until 555 A.D. when they surrendered in exchange for becoming faithful servants of the Emperor, thus ending 500 years of Gothic history.

Understanding the Gothic history.......2005-03-04

When I first started to read this book I was sure I would not get beyond a few pages as it was extremely difficult reading. But because the Goths held an important position in European history I stuck with it even though it was difficult. The biggest help I got in understanding Wolfram's approach though was through other reviews on the Amazon website as I, like many other people who read history for fun rather than for more serious endeavors, thought of the Goths as just one group of people or at best two (Ostrogoth and Visigoth). Wolfram's portrayal of them as being of many (and possibly unknown) origins while difficult to comprehend makes sense once the reader understands his approach. I am now re-reading the book with my eye on dissecting each point rather than trying to read the book as a whole. It is making it much easier reading.

Tough reading, but good scholarship.......2004-12-11

What makes this book such tough sledding for the amateur historian? Is it because the book was translated from German to English? Whatever the cause, reading the book is as captivating as reading a similar account from an encyclopedia. It is more like reading a technical report than a book. Now the good news; the book is logically constructed, flows well, and has a dauntingly thorough bibliography. If you muster the self discipline to stay with the author, you will be rewarded with a deep knowledge of the Goths. It is a book by a historian for other academics. Frankly, there are more readable books on the subject available from other authors.

Average customer rating:

peoples of europe series rules!
The Transition Period
Gothic!
Ian Myles Slater on: A Modern Look at "The Barbarians"
Good except for one omission

The Goths (The Peoples of Europe)
Peter Heather
Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishing Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

The Franks (The Peoples of Europe Series)
The Huns (Peoples of Europe)
Early Germans (Peoples of Europe)
The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians
Invasion of Europe by the Barbarians

ASIN: 0631209328

Amazon.com

Although they exerted a profound, far-reaching influence on Continental geopolitics, the historical Goths (as opposed to contemporary fans of the Cure and Bauhaus) are little known. Peter Heather provides a readable precis of the Goths' role in ancient and medieval European history, examining the murky origins of various Gothic-speaking groups in the Vistula River region of northern Poland, from which they spread out eastward and southward. Pressured by the expanding Roman empire on one side and migrating Hunnish peoples from Central Asia on the other, the Goths aggressively defended their territory and eventually attacked westward, contributing to the collapse of Rome and establishing Gothic empires in Italy, Spain, and North Africa. Heather's useful book ends with the fall of these governments in the 7th century. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

Between the first and seventh centuries AD, Gothic groups moved thousands of miles across the map of Europe, from the fringes of the Baltic to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. In the process, they transformed themselves from an insignificant people on the outskirts of the known world into highly militarized forces, capable of carving out successor states for themselves from the body politic of the Roman Empire.

This book draws on all the available literary and archaeological evidence, much of the latter never before discussed in English, to reconstruct the Goths' dramatic history, and to explore the meaning of Gothic identity at different moments and in different contexts.

The volume is divided into three parts, corresponding to the three main phases in Gothic history: their early history down to the fourth century, the revolution in Gothic society set in motion by the arrival of the Huns, and the history of the Gothic successor states to the western Roman Empire.

Customer Reviews:

peoples of europe series rules!.......2007-06-09

the Goths before the roman empire became the major european power were a really loose small group of families and tribes.The early archaeological evidence from this book shows that they were already metallurgists of some standing in the BC era and had already gone well down the path from subsistence farming to settled towns and farming.The area of present north Poland seems to be where they were when they were recognized as a group but where they originated the author never says because it can't be said for sure although there may have been a number of prehistoric european cultures that were Gothic ancestors.The real "Gothic people" really come about out of necessity because of the steamroller force of the Roman Empire.The Goths became a competitor of Rome and were able to form alliances with other Celtic? or germanic tribes.The image I'd always had of the Goths is a savage fur skinned muscular gothic war chief being met at the gates of rome by a humble bishop who pleads with the pagan not to sack Rome.Then somehow God works a miracle and the Goths pack up and leave.If this was your image of the Goths then you need to read this book,because you will see it is completely inaccurate.the goths in fact were no more warlike than the Romans and would not want to sack rome anymore than some of rome's own Generals and politicians (who probably sacked Rome more times than the Goths anyway)!!Being farmers and artisans the Goths movement into Italy was more a political move out of necessity since the Roman Empire controlled most of the the economic resources of Europe at the time.While the romans disliked the Goths eventually they formed alliances with them according to Heather seeing the goths as "the lesser of the evils" in regard to the numerous european ethnic group vying for power and influence.The ostrogtoths and visigoths are considered "supertribes" that absorbed alot of smaller groups,both Germanic and non Germanic.the Goths played the Roman game of "divide and conquer" well and at times formed alliances with Rome as well as with Rome's enemies,showing themselves as asute as the Romans themselves.there is a good explanation of the rule over Italy of the gothic king Theodoric,who was prominent after the breakup of the Roman empire into east-west around 500AD.Since Theoderic was an Arian christian(non-trinitarian) his role in history was downplayed since most of the histories from this period were written by trinitarian Catholic writers sanctioned by the Roman Catholic church.Eventually the Goths try to outRoman the Romans thenselves in taste,architecture,manners,law and learning.Theoderics famous quote in regard to this phenomena one for the ages,"The poor Roman imitates the Goth,the Rich Goth imitates the Romans."

The Transition Period.......2007-03-10

The seeds of what was later to be "Western Civilization" were sown in the tumultous period spanning the decline and dissapearance of the Western portion of the Roman Empire and emergence of the Merovingian kingdom. The Goths, a Germanic people thought to originate from Scandinavia/Poland played a central role in European history, both as generals and troops in the imperial army, and as important players leading to eventual formation of two independent kingdoms, that of the Ostrogoths in Italy and Visigoths in southern France and Spain.

Heather, a lecturer in medieval history at the University College of London, traces the political history of Gothic migrations with an emphasis on Roman-Gothic interactions for which there is a lot of written evidence from Roman historians Procopius, Boethius and Cassiodorus. Rome was a great attraction for the Goths, as a trading partner, military employer - and prey. H. is at his best describing intrigues between different ethnic factions and the rationale guiding military campaigns. I especially liked his descriptions of how Goths incorporated the ius civilum and ius gentium (Roman rule of law) and taxation and how Theodoric managed to coopt the Gallo-Roman landowner elites into the Gothic military. This essentially providing a natural continuation of the Western Roman Empire; in Spain, there was eventually a complete merger between Visigothic and Hispano-Roman populations. As mentioned in other reviews, the book is focused on political events - strategic alliances, dynastic succession wars, relationship to Rome, discords between gothic factions at the expense of in depth analysis of gothic religion, beliefs, lifestyle or even military strategy. Heather successfully highlights the acumen Goths needed to balance the expansionist tendencies of neighboring Franks, Burgundians, Heruli, Gepids, Huns etc, not to mention the constant tension generated by Byzantine meddling and scheming. A separate couple of chapters are rightfully devoted to Theodoric, probably one of the greatest strategic geniuses of the early Middle Ages. Although he tried hard, Theodoric had no heirs and, eventually, intergothic rivalries coupled with Byzantine machinations (notably, the campaign by Belisarius, one the best generals in B. history. Eventually, the Ostrogothic kingdom fragmented and fell, unable to match heavy calvary of Clovis' Franks. Although Goths dissapeared as an organized force by the mid-7th century, their presence can be seen in the blond beauties depicted in rennaissance portraits, and in the looks of many Northern Italians and Spaniards today.

This is a well-written and readable expose, one of the best sources on Goths available to the lay reader.

Gothic!.......2006-12-08

Look, I dig all the stuff about sacking and pillaging, but if you're gonna' write a book about Goths, it's incumbent upon you to throw in a few nudie shots of the Suicide Girls. Grrrrrrrrrr...

Ian Myles Slater on: A Modern Look at "The Barbarians".......2003-10-11

This entire book is not all that much longer than the notes, bibliography, and index of the roughly contemporary translation of Herwig Wolfram's "History of the Goths," which should tell you immediately that the approach is rather different. Both are worth the serious student's time, but as part of the Peoples of Europe series "The Goths" is clearly intended to serve as an introduction to the main events, persons, and problems.

Peter Heather's view of the emergence, actions, divisions, and fates of the people (or groups) identified in Greek and Latin texts as Goths, Ostrogoths, and Visigoths is modern and sophisticated, but a lot less ponderous and a lot more conclusive than Wolfram's sifting of the evidence. He frequently disagrees with Wolfram (for reasons which can sometimes be traced in Wolfram's extended discussions and notes), but Heather reaches reasonable conclusions at each stage. He proceeds to build on them, to a limited extent, while trying to keep speculation firmly under control.

This attempt to stay true to available data tends to limit what is covered. At the turn of the century, a limited amount of archeology and a lot of data gathered from later Germanic peoples were thrown together to produce detailed descriptions of the supposed daily lives and customs of the Goths. Instead of these interesting descriptions, we find only the most careful use of archeological and comparative data to flesh out the meager record. This is not as satisfying, but a lot more trustworthy.

What once were accepted conclusions about how the Goths behaved and governed in Gaul, Spain, and Italy also have been called into question. Instead, we are left with questions of how they exploited the territories they occupied, and who was doing the administering. Heather makes some reasonable suggestions, but avoids getting more specific than the evidence will warrant. The result is heavily weighted to military and political events, which were what contemporary reports mainly described.

Good except for one omission.......2002-09-27

I just had a very brief comment to make.

Overall, I found this book contained a lot of good information about the Goths. I would have liked more information on the Visigoths, as he doesn't really discuss where they came from, how they were organized and so on, very much. Except for this one main omission, a good history, overall.

Aside from the history contained here, I found this book valuable for the brief discussion in the introduction about the practical and theoretical difficulties of connecting cultural traits with a people's identity, and vice-versa. I hadn't thought about this before, except in vague terms. Heather shows the problems with this approach to history and civilization.

People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489554 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series)

Average customer rating:

Excellent treatment of the subject

People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489554 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series)
Patrick Amory
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Qualifying Textbooks - Spring 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Decline and Fall of the Roman City
Rome's Gothic Wars: From the Third Century to Alaric (Key Conflicts of Classical Antiquity)
Ruling the Later Roman Empire (Revealing Antiquity)
History of the Goths
Barbarian Tides: The Migration Age And the Later Roman Empire (Middle Ages Series)

ASIN: 0521526353

Book Description

The barbarians of the fifth and sixth centuries were long thought to be races, tribes or ethnic groups who toppled the Roman Empire. This book proposes a new view, through a case study of the Goths of Italy between 489 and 554. The author suggests wholly new ways of understanding barbarian groups and the end of the Western Roman Empire. The book also proposes a complete reinterpretation of the evolution of Christian conceptions of community, and of so-called "Germanic" Arianism.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent treatment of the subject.......2007-01-26

Patrick Amory's book provides a fresh and truely revealing insight into the questions of ethnicity, identity and perception in Ostrogothic Italy. Amory's books stands in stark contrast to the 'tribal history' of the Goths written by Herwig Wolfram. Amory demonstrates the complexity of identities and paints a picture of this period that is appealing and intuitively plausible.

Fashions of the Gilded Age, Volume 1: Undergarments, Bodices, Skirts, Overskirts, Polonaises, and Day Dresses 1877-1882

Average customer rating:

Excellent book!!!
Fashions of the Gilded Age, Volume 1: Undergarments, Bodices, Skirts, Overskirts, Polonaises, and Day Dresses 1877-1882
as good as all the other Frances Grimble books
What An Excellent Book!!
Wow!

Fashions of the Gilded Age, Volume 1: Undergarments, Bodices, Skirts, Overskirts, Polonaises, and Day Dresses 1877-1882

Manufacturer: Lavolta Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Textiles & Costume | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Fashion | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Needlework | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Sewing | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Textile Arts | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Gown | Weddings | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Fashion | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

History | Fashion | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Reference | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Home & Garden Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Fashions of the Gilded Age, Volume 2: Evening, Bridal, Sports, Outerwear, Accessories, and Dressmaking 1877-1882
The Voice of Fashion: 79 Turn-Of-The Century Patterns With Instructions and Fashion Plates
Reconstruction Era Fashions: 350 Sewing, Needlework, & Millinery Patterns 1867-1868
The Edwardian Modiste: 85 Authentic Patterns With Instructions, Fashion Plates, and Period Sewing Techniques
Nineteenth-Century Fashion in Detail

ASIN: 0963651757

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book!!!.......2007-05-14

This is a great book for seamstresses with some experience(I think it would be too hard for beginners.It would be good if you have some comprehenesion on sizing(drafting patterns yourself for example)but that isn't even necessary.I think it would be easier though:)

Frances Grimble gives clear instructions for changing patterns to size and even to different body shapes(large bust, short back etc.
You do need to take some time for this, but well, you'll have an authentic pattern in your hands, how great is that?;)And there are so many in this book! I was having a very hard time finding real historical patterns in The Netherlands(so far found one french journal from 1902)and I feel like a kid in a candystore now.:)I <3 this book already.

You can make a complete outfit, from undergarments to overgarments.

If you have some sewing experience and you love this period it is really a great book!

Amazon's service is excellent too. It didn't take very long for the item to arrive(from US to the Netherlands)(with one step faster shipping, expidited?)it was even a lot faster then the estimated arrival time.

Fashions of the Gilded Age, Volume 1: Undergarments, Bodices, Skirts, Overskirts, Polonaises, and Day Dresses 1877-1882.......2006-08-16

This book is wonderful. I believe I own every book Frances Grimble has written and anxiously await more. The variety of patterns is amazing and allows the experienced sewer to create their own designs from various components, like sleeves and collars. This sure beats trying to decipher the patterns in an original 1890's issue of Harpers!

as good as all the other Frances Grimble books.......2006-03-22

This book contains patterns for the following:
corsets, hoopskirts and bustles (some)
underclothing and negligee wear (quite a few)
day and evening skirts (only about four)
day bodices (quite a few)
evening bodices (some)
overskirts (some)
polonaises (some)
day dresses (quite a few)

some = around ten
quite a few = over 20

I would recommend this book for anyone who likes victorian costuming. It not only works as a pattern book, but as a source book, having lots of pictures you can use for reference. Even if you just look through it, it really can help you understand the styles of that era.

What An Excellent Book!!.......2005-01-13

The pictures and descriptions within the book are an excellent reference if you are researching and intending on recreating one of these beautiful designs. Advanced knowledge of sewing skills is a must for those who wish to recreate these (definantly not for the novice sewer). Frances Grimble, you've done it again. Please keep them coming. I will buy every book you put out.

Wow!.......2004-09-29

There's just so MUCH material in this book--so many pictures and patterns and so many pages of hard-to-find information. Women's styles of the period were intricate, with separate bodices, overskirts, and skirts, or with polonaises (a bodice with the overskirt attached) and skirts. This book separates patterns for bodices, skirts, overskirts, and polonaises to mix and match however you want. It also gives patterns for whole dresses, but you can mix their components too.

There are far more patterns for EVERYTHING than I've ever seen anywhere else. There were many, many ways of cutting and draping an overskirt or a polonaise. In this book it's amazing to see fashion plates of overskirts that look similar in the plates, but the cut and drape shown by the pattern pieces is quite different. There are even 19 patterns for chemises.

This book will keep me busy for a long time!

Books:

Books