Examines the barbarians from Europe and beyond who harassed, eroded and eventually caused the disintegration of the Roman Empire, including the Huns, Mongolian horsemen who swept into Europe to form a short-lived empire from the Urals to the Rhine; the Visigoths, or western Goths, who sacked Rome in 410 and ruled Spain from Toledo until the Moorish conquest in 711; the Ostrogoths, or eastern Goths, who ruled Italy from 493 until the Emperor Justinian drove them out in 534; the Franks, a group of Germanic tribes who came to rule France under the Merovingians; and the Vandals, fierce Arian Christians who invaded Gaul and Spain around 400 and sacked Rome in 455. As the authors show, some, such as the Vandals in North Africa, had shortlived periods of supremacy and relatively insignificant effect on the areas they settled; others, such as the Franks, adapted to Roman ways to create the strong foundations of medieval and later nations. Throughout the text, the authors reconstruct the volatile world of pitched battle and invasion.
AUTHOR: Jennifer Laing has written many books on the past, often in conjunction with Lloyd Laing. Her overriding interest has always been the way the past has moulded the present. She is the author of Art and Society in Roman Britain and, with Lloyd Laing, The Picts and the Scots, Art of the Celts, Medieval Britain: The Age of Chivalry and Celtic Britain and Ireland: Art and Society.
18 colour, 36 b/w illustrations
By:
Jennifer Laing
Imprint: HISTORY PRESS
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: New edition
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781837051076
ISBN 10: 1837051070
Publication Date: 01 March 2026
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Unspecified
Cover Title Copyright Contents Introduction 1 The Visigoths 2 The Huns 3 The Ostrogoths 4 The Vandals 5 The Franks 6 The Saxons, Danes, Frisians and Angles 7 The Panoply of War and Ostentatious Display 8 Warfare and Society 9 Ways of Looking at the Period 10 Primary and Secondary Sources Notes Bibliography
JENNIFER LAING has written many books on the past, often in conjunction with Lloyd Laing. Her overriding interest has always been the way the past has moulded the present. She is the author of Art and Society in Roman Britain and, with Lloyd Laing, The Picts and the Scots, Art of the Celts, Medieval Britain: The Age of Chivalry and Celtic Britain and Ireland: Art and Society.
