HKB
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Often appears with: conquest, plunder, and captives · visigoths · vandals · treaties, truces, and peacemaking · tongres · strategy and the aims of war · sisebut · siege and fortification · roman gaul · rhine frontier · religious persecution and toleration · political legitimacy and consent
Usually: narrative (2) · detachment (2) · argument (1) · reflection (1) · sudden reversal of fortune (1) · indignation (1) · skepticism (1)
“This salutary revolution 126 was hastened by the example of a royal martyr, whom our calmer reason may style an ungrateful rebel.” Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire · insight
“But no sooner had they established their spiritual dominion, than they exhorted the Christian kings to extirpate, without mercy, the remains of Roman or Barbaric superstition.” Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire · insight
Gibbon links civil-discord decisions in Gaul to barbarian devastation, describing how Constantius’s actions invited Franks and Alemanni across the Rhine, leading to pillaging and fortified river settlements.
the merit and disgrace of Ursicinus with that faithful attention which a soldier owed to his general. Some partiality may be suspected, yet the whole account is consistent and probable.] 63 (return) [ Ammian. xx. 11. Omisso vano incepto, hiematurus Antiochiæ redit in Syriam ærumnosam, perpessus et ulcerum sed et atrocia, diuque deflenda. It is *thus* that James Gronovius has restored an obscure pas…
Julian turns from the Alemanni to fighting Franks, besieges a Meuse-held fort for fifty-four days, sends captives to Constantius, then raids by rapid campaigning from near Tongres to the coast.
of the emperor this splendid trophy of his victory. Chnodomar experienced an honorable treatment: but the impatient Barbarian could not long survive his defeat, his confinement, and his exile. 78 74 (return) [ Ammianus (xvi. 12) describes with his inflated eloquence the figure and character of Chnodomar. Audax et fidens ingenti robore lacertorum, ubi ardor prœlii sperabatur immanis, equo spumante s…
Gibbon claims that Arianism persisted among the Vandals and Ostrogoths until their kingdoms’ collapse, while Gaul submitted to Frankish rule and Spain returned to Catholicism through the Visigoths’ voluntary conversion.
Africa and Italy. The Barbarians of Gaul submitted to the orthodox dominion of the Franks; and Spain was restored to the Catholic church by the voluntary conversion of the Visigoths. This salutary revolution 126 was hastened by the example of a royal martyr, whom our calmer reason may style an ungrateful rebel. Leovigild, the Gothic monarch of Spain, deserved the respect of his enemies, and the lov…
Gibbon describes how early Christian missionaries used reason and toleration but then urged Christian kings to extirpate superstition, culminating in harsh persecution of Jews and rising instability that aided Arabian conquest.
of Rotharis, (A.D. 636-652.) The pious deacon does not attempt to mark the precise era of the national conversion, which was accomplished, however, before the end of the seventh century.] The first missionaries who preached the gospel to the Barbarians, appealed to the evidence of reason, and claimed the benefit of toleration. 136 But no sooner had they established their spiritual dominion, than th…