Romans and Barbarians: Four Views From the Empire's Edge (36 page)

It is revealing to think back upon the bad press given to the outside tribes by Roman authors. Naturally this had worsened with the military situation. Barbarians were seen to be gripped by
Schadenfreude
and intent on destruction; as repeatedly stated or implied by Ammian (
c.
325–95), greatest of late Roman historians:

It is as if bugles were blowing all round the Roman world [ … ] the cruellest tribes awoke and burst the nearest frontiers [ … ] the barriers were down and savagery pouring like lava-streams from Etna [ … ] the caged beasts had broken their bars and were rampaging over Thrace [ … ] numberless peoples, long assembling to put a torch to the Roman world and encompass its destruction [ … ] this ravening age, as if the Furies had incited the world and madness was spreading into every corner.
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Similarly St Jerome (
c.
340–420), from a different standpoint:

How many mothers, Christian virgins and gentlewomen have become the sport of these wild beasts? Bishops held to ransom, clerics murdered, churches sacked, horses stabled at the altar, holy relics scattered?
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This was perhaps true of earlier attacks. The Huns were especially to be feared; and the fourteen-day sack of Rome by the Vandals, which gave birth to the term ‘vandalism', darkened the image further. By contrast, the evacuation of Noricum and the trek of its citizens across the eastern Alps shows a kinder barbarian face. The Italy to which they were retreating was already an Ostrogothic kingdom. With the exception of Britain, as successive parts of the empire fell into barbarian hands, the hands became gentler. It was not the conquerors' intention to destroy their new home. By the 5th century the invaders had adopted a ‘promised land' view of Rome, more comparable with a Mexican view of America today.

Most early 20th-century historical work on the so-called migrations period was French or German, giving us the equivalent but different expressions,
invasions barbares
and
Völkerwanderungzeit,
each reflecting its own national experience. The French emphasizes the onslaught and horror; the German implies readjustment, as Europe sought to resume the natural patterns of flow and resettlement which the imperial frontier had so long obstructed. With the passing years our century has presented us with a far wider choice of interpretations than was offered by these early labels. After all, we are still not far removed from the migrational storm which followed the New World discoveries; and well placed to understand that our own restless age is largely a product of its disturbances. The making of countries like the United States reminds us how stimulating demographic upheaval can be.

A further, almost comparable human commotion followed the Second World War, prompted by the collapse of colonialism, the fall and rise of ideologies and the burgeoning of aspirations; with the spread of communications tempting aspirants to move and of cheap transportation, bringing temptation within reach. Countries not affected by these 20th-century migrations are rare. To a degree they are fortunate. On the other hand, there are economic miracles related to movement into places like California, West Germany, Hong Kong and Taiwan which confirm yet again that migrations need not be destructive, for it is usually true that incomers work harder than incumbents.

With this complex human tide, released since 1945, has come a new vocabulary of flux: refugees, job-seekers, guest workers, foreign advisers, brain-drainers, expatriates, displaced persons, illegal aliens, unlawful immigrants, gate-crashers, tax exiles, Zionists, pursuers of the American dream and so on. In some cases there is no parallel with late antiquity, in others the resemblance is marginal. However, two of our late 20th-century categories of vagrancy do seem to fit 5th-century circumstances, namely ‘economic opportunists' and ‘asylum seekers': those seeking a better life and those fearing for life itself. Both imply civilian rather than military impulses and neither suggests destructive intent. A place to settle, land to till, safety from the great churning of tribes which attended the close of the Iron Age: we may guess that food and fear were uppermost in barbarian minds, as they are for the needy and desperate of our own day.

Was this the reality of the barbarian invasions? Is it closer to the truth than the essentially martial 19th-century image of sword-waving hordes, hurling themselves against the empire's defences? Were the Angles and Saxons, with a drowning coast in front and frightened tribes behind, a military conspiracy against Britain; or were they a sort of ‘boat people'? Did the Vandals plan their sensational march from the Rhine to Carthage; or were they refugees, set into motion by terror and hunger, who merely stumbled against doors which chanced to be unlocked? Of course, while today's migrants tend to respect the strength of their host countries, the barbarians came armed and ready to fight for their promised lands. And yet our own century is not without its homeland seekers (like the creators of the Boer Republics, Pakistan and Israel), prepared if necessary to go to war. One way and another, we are well placed to understand the migrations period.

Perhaps not surprisingly the view of Rome as a noble flame, quenched by barbarism, is no longer in fashion. The ‘Dark Ages' have been replaced by a creative merger in which Roman and barbarian combine with unexpected ease and (except for Britain) proceed with relative calm into the ‘post-Roman' or ‘sub-Roman' era. On the contrary, we now accept that the 5th century's most destructive event was the Byzantine reconquest of Ostrogothic Italy. Today, more aware of other cultures, accustomed to exotic faces and foreign languages on the street and at school, striving for solutions of togetherness, we are readier to allow the outside nations a hearing. So we should be; for the Romano-barbarian mergers of the 5th century made Europe; Europe made the New World; and all Western peoples are their children.

List of Abbreviations

Notes and References

PROLOGUE: Romans and Barbarians

EPISODE 1: The Poet