History and Geography in Late Antiquity PDF
Preview History and Geography in Late Antiquity
This page intentionally left blank HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY IN LATE ANTIQUITY Theperiodfromthefifthcenturytotheeighthcenturywitnessedmassive political,socialandreligiouschange.Geographicalandhistoricalthought, long rooted to Roman ideologies, had to adopt the new perspectives of lateantiquity.InthelightofexpandingChristianityandtheevolutionof successorkingdomsintheWest,newhistoricaldiscoursesemergedwhich wereseminalinthedevelopmentofmedievalhistoriography.Takingtheir lead from Orosius in the early fifth century, Latin historians turned increasinglytogeographicaldescription,aswellashistoricalnarrative,to examinetheworldaroundthem.Thisbookexplorestheinterdependence of geographical and historical modes of expression in four of the most importantwritersoftheperiod: Orosius,Jordanes,IsidoreofSevilleand theVenerableBede.Itoffersimportantnewreadingsofeachbyarguing thatthelonggeographicalpassageswithwhichtheworkswereintroduced werecentraltotheirauthors’historicalassumptionsandarguments. A.H.MERRILLS is a Solmsen Research Fellow, at the Institute for Research in the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has undertakenextensivearchaeologicalworkinFranceandcentralSpainandis theeditorof Vandals,Romans andBerbers: New Perspectives on LateAntique NorthAfrica(2004). CambridgeStudiesinMedievalLifeandThoughtFourthSeries GeneralEditor: ROSAMOND MCKITTERICK ProfessorofMedievalHistory,UniversityofCambridge,andFellowofNewnhamCollege AdvisoryEditors: CHRISTINE CARPENTER ReaderinMedievalEnglishHistory,UniversityofCambridge,andFellowofNewHall JONATHAN SHEPARD TheseriesCambridgeStudiesinMedievalLifeandThoughtwasinauguratedby G.G.Coultonin1921;ProfessorRosamondMcKitterick nowactsasGeneral Editor of the Fourth Series, with Dr Christine Carpenter and Dr Jonathan Shepard as Advisory Editors. The series brings together outstanding work by medieval scholars over a wide range of human endeavour extending from politicaleconomytothehistoryofideas. Foralistoftitlesintheseries,seeendofbook. HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY IN LATE ANTIQUITY A. H. MERRILLS cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press TheEdinburghBuilding,Cambridgecb22ru,UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521846011 ©A.H.Merrills2005 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexceptionandtotheprovisionof relevantcollectivelicensingagreements,noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplace withoutthewrittenpermissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublishedinprintformat 2005 isbn-13 978-0-511-12746-5 eBook(EBL) isbn-10 0-511-12746-4 eBook(EBL) isbn-13 978-0-521-84601-1 hardback isbn-10 0-521-84601-3 hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyofurls forexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication,anddoesnot guaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain,accurateorappropriate. For D. H. CONTENTS Preface ix A note on translations xii List of abbreviations xiii Introduction: history’s other eye 1 History and geography 6 Challenges to the classical Weltbild 20 1 Orosius 35 OverviewofOrosius’Historia 39 Thegeographicalintroduction 64 Conclusions 97 2 Jordanes 100 CassiodorusandJordanes 101 Thegeographicalintroduction 115 Analysis of individual sections 132 JustinianandtheGoths 162 Conclusions 168 3 Isidore of Seville 170 ThehistoricalwritingofIsidoreofSeville 171 ThecompositionoftheGothichistories 179 TheLausSpaniae 185 TheLausGothorum 197 TheGeographyofSpain 199 Epithalamialthemes 205 Conclusions 226 4 Bede 229 TheHistoriaEcclesiastica 234 Thegeographicalintroduction 249 Ethnography 274 vii Contents Theoriginmyths 282 TheHistoriaEcclesiasticaandtheAngli 290 Conclusions 307 5 Conclusions 310 Appendices A ThegeographicalintroductiontotheHistoriarumadversus paganoslibriseptemofOrosius.Orosius,Hist.I.1–106 313 B ThegeographicalintroductiontotheDeorigineactibusque GetarumofJordanes.GeticaI.4–V.38. 321 C TheLausSpaniaeofIsidoreofSeville 327 D ThedescriptionofBritaininBede,HistoriaEcclesiasticaI.1 329 References 332 PrimarySources 332 SecondaryWorks 345 Index 373 viii
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