Review of Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe by Peter Heather
The post-roman migrations that made Europe
From the immediate aftermath of the fall of the western Roman Empire to about 1000 CE, movements of huge ethnic groups created the ethno-linguistic patchwork that evolved into the modern-day European languages. I have always been curious about the dynamics of this process. Why did one language take hold while another didn’t? What drove the groups to move? This book offers a largely sociological approach to these issues.
Heather begins with an extremely terse discussion of the sociology of migration. In the past, he argues, scholars (often backed by iffy primary sources) promoted a "billiard ball approach", according to which migrating groups knocked others out of the way, perhaps eliminating them by ethnic cleansing or forced absorption as slaves or serfs. Archaeological findings, however, belay this view, indicating instead that groups were far more amorphous, like coalitions with a charismatic leader at their center that grew like a snowball as it gained politico-military momentum. Language and ethnicity were far more fluid than assumed, Heather argues, adopting those of the military/economic elite or later perhaps that of the occupied territory. This paragraph cannot do justice to the subtlety and cogency of Heather's arguments, which are assessed against primary sources, archeological evidence, and socio-historic examples such as the experience of the Boers as they migrated North to avoid British colonial rule. (From a motley crew, the Boers united into highly organized military force and quickly beat the Zulus into submission.)
At the fall of the western Roman empire to Germanic tribes (i.e. Goths) in the 5th century CE, migration patterns were changing. From small disorganized bands that were seeking to exploit Roman wealth – via border raids, trade, mercenary wages, and diplomatic subsidies as part of Roman foreign policy – they had become very large political entities that included women and children (increasing their numbers vis-a-vis warriors by 4 times). The earlier groups had been living at subsistence levels as itinerant farmers perpetually in search of fertile ground, beginning their movements with a trickle of early explorers (in the 2nd century) that became a torrent by the 5th century. But they were also fleeing the Huns, and later the Turkic Avars, who established military empires in central Europe that were based on pillage and charismatic leaders, such as Attila. The new entities were far more organized in their command structures, were learning superior agricultural techniques (to replenish soil nitrogen via turning over rotten plants and crop rotation), and adopting cutting-edge military technologies and tactics, most of which were Roman in origin.
Similar tribes (i.e., Angles and Saxons) invaded Britain in large enough groups that they displaced the local elites and destroyed their economic systems; eventually, they instilled their language into the local populace, as women could teach the children their original languages, they replaced local languages, including Latin and Celtic. This was a pattern that was often repeated in Europe until 1000 CE, when the principal language patterns that survive with few exceptions (Turkish in Anatolia being a rather big one) to this day.
As western Roman economic structures declined, new power centers arose in northern Europe for the first time, in the 7th century. Though the level of socio-economic and political sophistication were far behind those of the Romans, the new entities represented proto-states nonetheless. They learned to create military organizational structures, monopolizing the means of force in order to maintain the elites that eventually became entrenched in land ownership, and hence became the grand royal and aristocratic families that ruled for the next 1500 years. Heather also covers the Vikings and Slavs; the origins of the latter remain murky and unknowable from the archaeological record.
The Slavs, interestingly, conquered much of central Europe because the Germanic elite seems to have migrated West, leaving poorly armed and disorganized peasants, who were then absorbed into the newly dominant Slavic tribes and tended to adopt their languages. Due to their lack of ability to tax and build viable cities, these semi-nomadic groups faced inherent limits: once they expanded to large size based on pillage and forced tribute, they could no longer pay their forces enough to keep them together and so these mini-empires disintegrated almost as quickly as they appeared; so the Carolingians, Merovingians, Ottonians, and scores of others succeeded each other only a few generations after the charismatic founder disappeared.
It was only later, around 1000 CE, that empires were able to grow more stable, when they became more sedentary, had larger surpluses of wealth (due to their adoption of more productive agricultural techniques), which paid for the construction of the massive fortified-stone castles that still dot the European landscape; could maintain standing armies that could better protect subjects; and developed more diversified economies.
It was also at that time that the various linguistic groups had come to occupy the places that they occupy today – thus, the basis of what became European nation states was more or less set. Invaders later only rarely dislodged these language groups, but rather were absorbed in their turn. There were also extremely sophisticated trading networks that sprung up, bringing northern goods such as furs and slaves to the most developed civilizations of the time, the Islamic states, whose silver financed a great deal of the economic expansions in the North.
If this sounds rather abstract, so is the book. It is one of those scholarly books that can reframe your perception of a crucial period in history, but it is often not fun to read. Fascinating and essential, it is so rigorously argued that it is chock full of deadly dull scholarly proofs and arguments. Most importantly, rather than a narrative, it is strictly analytic, far closer to multi-disciplinary social science than history. I would estimate that half of the book is a great joy to read and the other half a dry slog for the determined. The prose is, to put it mildly, dense. That being said, there is absolutely no question that this is a masterpiece of scholarship that will define the field for a generation. Heather is brilliant, writes beautifully, and often with wonderfully playful humor. (He refers with frustration, for example, to the fact that his students no longer know what he means when referring to black and white television. It got me to laugh.)
I recommend this book for those with the personal interest to persevere through very difficult scholarly arguments. It is the natural follow-on to Heather's equally brilliant (and far more fun) Fall of the Roman Empire. If you wish to understand what made up the extraordinarily diverse languages in all of their modalities from 400 to 1000 CE, this is a book for you. I am glad I read it, but it was, well, very challenging and often failed to keep my attention.
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