Law and Society in the Age of Theoderic the Great

Law and Society in the Age of Theoderic the Great PDF Author: Sean D. W. Lafferty
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107067561
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
This book explores the evolution of Roman law and society in Italy from 493, with the proclamation of the Ostrogoth Theoderic the Great as king, until about 554, when the eastern Emperor Justinian was able to re-establish imperial authority in the region. Drawing upon evidence from a variety of legal and historical sources, it investigates how Theoderic and his successors attempted to govern the peninsula in the wake of foreign invasions, the collapse of civic administration, the break-up of the Mediterranean economy, and the emergence of new forms of religious and secular authority. It challenges long-held assumptions as to just how peaceful, prosperous and Roman-like Theoderic's Italy really was. Its primary focus is the Edictum Theoderici, a significant but largely overlooked document that offers valuable historical insights into the complex and sometimes contested social, political and religious changes that marked Italy's passage from Antiquity into the Middle Ages.

Law and Society in the Age of Theoderic the Great

Law and Society in the Age of Theoderic the Great PDF Author: Sean D. W. Lafferty
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107067561
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 343

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book explores the evolution of Roman law and society in Italy from 493, with the proclamation of the Ostrogoth Theoderic the Great as king, until about 554, when the eastern Emperor Justinian was able to re-establish imperial authority in the region. Drawing upon evidence from a variety of legal and historical sources, it investigates how Theoderic and his successors attempted to govern the peninsula in the wake of foreign invasions, the collapse of civic administration, the break-up of the Mediterranean economy, and the emergence of new forms of religious and secular authority. It challenges long-held assumptions as to just how peaceful, prosperous and Roman-like Theoderic's Italy really was. Its primary focus is the Edictum Theoderici, a significant but largely overlooked document that offers valuable historical insights into the complex and sometimes contested social, political and religious changes that marked Italy's passage from Antiquity into the Middle Ages.

Theoderic the Great

Theoderic the Great PDF Author: Hans-Ulrich Wiemer
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300254431
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 660

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Book Description
The first full-scale history of Theoderic and the Goths in more than seventy-five years, tracing the transformation of a divided kingdom into a great power In the year 493, the leader of a vast confederation of Gothic warriors, their wives, and children personally cut down Odoacer, the man famous for deposing the last Roman emperor in 476. That leader became Theoderic the Great (454-526). This engaging history of his life and reign immerses readers in the world of the warrior-king who ushered in decades of peace and stability in Italy as king of Goths and Romans. Theoderic transformed his roving "warrior nation" from the periphery of the Roman world into a standing army that protected his taxpaying Roman subjects with the support of the Roman elite. With a ruling strategy of "integration through separation," Theoderic not only stabilized Italy but also extended his kingdom to the western Balkans, southern France, and the Iberian Peninsula. Using sources as diverse as letters, poetry, coins, and mosaics, Hans-Ulrich Wiemer brings readers into the world of Theoderic's court, from Gothic warriors and their families to the notables, artisans, and shopkeepers of Rome and Ravenna to the peasants and enslaved people who tilled the soil on grand rural estates. This book offers a fascinating history of the leader who brought peace to Italy after the disintegration of the Roman Empire.

The Selected Letters of Cassiodorus

The Selected Letters of Cassiodorus PDF Author: Cassiodorus
Publisher: University of California Press
ISBN: 0520297350
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
One of the great Christian scholars of antiquity and a high-ranking public official under Theoderic, King of the Ostrogoths, Cassiodorus compiled edicts, diplomatic letters, and legal documents while in office. The collection of his writings, the Variae, remains among the most important sources for the sixth century, the period during which late antiquity transitioned to the early middle ages. Translated and selected by scholar M. Shane Bjornlie, The Selected Letters gathers the most interesting evidence from the Veriae for understanding the political culture, legal structure, intellectual and religious worldviews, and social evolution during the twilight of the late-Roman state. Bjornlie’s invaluable introduction discusses Cassiodorus’s work in civil, legal, and financial administration, revealing his interactions with emperors, kings, bishops, military commanders, private citizens, and even criminals. Section notes introduce each letter to contextualize its themes and connection with other letters, opening a window to Cassiodorus’s world.

City, Citizen, Citizenship, 400–1500

City, Citizen, Citizenship, 400–1500 PDF Author: Els Rose
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031485610
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 500

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Book Description


The Variae

The Variae PDF Author: Cassiodorus
Publisher: University of California Press
ISBN: 0520297369
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 529

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Book Description
Cassiodorus—famed throughout history as one of the great Christian exegetes of antiquity—spent most of his life as a high-ranking public official under the Ostrogothic King Theoderic and his heirs. He produced the Variae, a unique letter collection that gave witness to the sixth-century Mediterranean, as late antiquity gave way to the early middle ages. The Variae represents thirty years of Cassiodorus’s work in civil, legal, and financial administration, revealing his interactions with emperors and kings, bishops and military commanders, private citizens, and even criminals. Thus, the Variae remains among the most important sources for the history of this pivotal period and is an indispensable resource for understanding political and diplomatic culture, economic and legal structure, intellectual heritage, urban landscapes, religious worldview, and the evolution of social relations at all levels of society during the twilight of the late-Roman state. This is the first full translation of this masterwork into English.

The Merovingians

The Merovingians PDF Author: Alexander Callander Murray
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000530698
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
The studies collected here cover a period of about 33 years, from 1986 to 2019, and represent a sustained effort to understand the institutions of the Merovingian kingdom and its history. There has long been a predisposition to cast the Merovingian period in the dark colours of barbarism or to treat it with reference to personal relationships and archaic institutions. The present volume, instead, recognizes the Merovingian world not as an archaic, primitive intrusion on the Mediterranean civilization of the Roman Empire but simply as a participant in the wider commonwealth that existed before and remained after the dissolution of the western imperial system; in so doing, it serves to refute the scholarly tendency to primitivize Merovingian governance, its underlying institutions, and the broader culture upon which these rested. The collection is divided into four parts. Part I considers the question of whether Merovingian kingship should be viewed as a species of archaic, ‘sacral’ kingship. Part II, on institutions, has chapters that deal with various offices (the grafio and centenarius), public institutions (especially immunity and public security), and the broader makeup of the Merovingian state system. Part III, on charters, procedure, and law, has chapters on the profile of the charter evidence as now presented in the new MGH edition of the Merovingian diplomas and one on particular procedures before the royal tribunal, mistakenly referred to in scholarship as ‘fictitious’ trials; a final chapter provides a reflection on, and basic guide to, the law in general of the successor kingdoms, with an eye to the evidence of Merovingian Gaul. Part IV, a slight change of pace, deals with historiography, both the modern variety (Reinhard Wenskus) and the Merovingian (Gregory of Tours). All chapters deal extensively with the historiography of their subjects. This book will appeal to students and scholars alike interested in Early Medieval European history, Merovingian history, Early Medieval law and society, Early Medieval historiography, and the influence of Merovingian law and governance on later centuries. (CS 1104).

Isidore of Seville and the Liber Iudiciorum

Isidore of Seville and the Liber Iudiciorum PDF Author: Michael J. Kelly
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004450017
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Isidore of Seville and the “Liber Iudiciorum” establishes a novel framework for re-interpreting the Liber Iudiciorum (LI), the law-code issued in Toledo by the Visigothic king Recceswinth (649/653-672) in 654. The LI was a manifestation of a vibrant dialectical situation, particularly between two networks of authority, Isidore-Seville and Toledo-Agali, a defining characteristic of the discourse coloring the fabric of writing in Hispania, c. 600-660. To more fully imagine the meaning, significance and purposes of the LI, this book elicits this cooperative competition through a series of four case-studies on writing in the period. In addition to offering an alternative historiography for the LI, this book expands the corpus of “Visigothic Literature” and introduces what the author refers to as “Gothstalgie.” See inside the book.

Legions of Pigs in the Early Medieval West

Legions of Pigs in the Early Medieval West PDF Author: Jamie Kreiner
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300246293
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 397

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Book Description
An exploration of life in the early medieval West, using pigs as a lens to investigate agriculture, ecology, economy, and philosophy In the early medieval West, from North Africa to the British Isles, pigs were a crucial part of agriculture and culture. In this fascinating book, Jamie Kreiner examines how this ubiquitous species was integrated into early medieval ecologies and transformed the way that people thought about the world around them. In this world, even the smallest things could have far-reaching consequences. Kreiner tracks the interlocking relationships between pigs and humans by drawing on textual and visual evidence, bioarchaeology and settlement archaeology, and mammal biology. She shows how early medieval communities bent their own lives in order to accommodate these tricky animals--and how in the process they reconfigured their agrarian regimes, their fiscal policies, and their very identities. In the end, even the pig's own identity was transformed: at the close of the early Middle Ages, it had become a riveting metaphor for Christianity itself.

Roman Emperor Zeno

Roman Emperor Zeno PDF Author: Peter Crawford
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
ISBN: 1473859271
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
Peter Crawford examines the life and career of the fifth-century Roman emperor Zeno and the various problems he faced before and during his seventeen-year rule. Despite its length, his reign has hitherto been somewhat overlooked as being just a part of that gap between the Theodosian and Justinianic dynasties of the Eastern Roman Empire which is comparatively poorly furnished with historical sources. Reputedly brought in as a counter-balance to the generals who had dominated Constantinopolitan politics at the end of the Theodosian dynasty, the Isaurian Zeno quickly had to prove himself adept at dealing with the harsh realities of imperial power. Zeno's life and reign is littered with conflict and politicking with various groups - the enmity of both sides of his family; dealing with the fallout of the collapse of the Empire of Attila in Europe, especially the increasingly independent tribal groups established on the frontiers of, and even within, imperial territory; the end of the Western Empire; and the continuing religious strife within the Roman world. As a result, his reign was an eventful and significant one that deserves this long-overdue spotlight.

Negotiation, Collaboration and Conflict in Ancient and Medieval Communities

Negotiation, Collaboration and Conflict in Ancient and Medieval Communities PDF Author: Christian Krötzl
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000567842
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
Focusing on forms of interaction and methods of negotiation in multicultural, multi-ethnic and multilingual contexts during Antiquity and the Middle Ages, this volume examines questions of social and cultural interaction within and between diverse ethnic communities. Toleration and coexistence were essential in all late antique and medieval societies and their communities. However, power struggles and prejudices could give rise to suspicion, conflict and violence. All of these had a central influence on social dynamics, negotiations of collective or individual identity, definitions of ethnicity and the shaping of legal rules. What was the function of multicultural and multilingual interaction: did it create and increase conflicts, or was it rather a prerequisite for survival and prosperity? The focus of this book is society and the history of everyday life, examining gender, status and ethnicity and the various forms of interaction and negotiation.