Yeah, Rome is a perfect example of this dynamic. I thought the first couple seasons of Vikings were excellent in that regard, too.

Not exactly. Being a barbarian wasn’t an ethnic or racial thing - it was defined by behavior. So if you were born a Goth but got the right haircut, a literary education, clothing, and lived in the right house, you were for all intents and purposes Roman. The Greeks were more exclusionary.

Commercially, Roman merchants were deeply involved in Ireland, but there was never a push for invasion - too far away, not enough reward to justify it. The enterprising emperor looking for a win to bolster his barbarian-fighting credentials was better off taking an expedition across the Rhine or Danube or into…

Haven’t listened to it.

Haven’t read much fiction on this period, but my guiding principle for historical novels, movies, TV, etc. is that they get the feel of the period in question right rather than the events per se. The past is a foreign country, and if you don’t feel the extent to which people’s basic assumptions about how the world…

Helpful. He had an unmatched command of the written sources from the period and Decline and Fall is an incredible work of literature. You have to bear in mind that his frame of reference was a moral one, though.

“Sarmatian” is a broad label for the Iranian-speaking groups that lived in the Pannonian Basin, and it included a bunch of different tribal groups - the Iazyges were the most prominent, but there were others as well. They had trade relationships with the Romans as well, though most of the archaeological work that…

Nice.

Thank you!

If anybody has any questions, let them fly and I’ll do my best to answer.

Thank you for listening!

USC.

Probably 10-12 in this series and then I’ll do another topic - the Crusades, maybe - after this if there’s enough interest.

Fully funded, homie.

I LOVE Chris Wickham. His “Framing the Early Middle Ages” is a huge influence on how I look at this period - the regionalization thing I harp on in this episode is tightly connected to his analytical framework for that book. “Inheritance” is great, readable, and Wickham is obviously wicked smart.

Yep, that’s my jam.

Gibbon had the best command of the sources of anybody I’ve ever read, but he was a product of his time in so many of the worst possible ways.

History. 400-650 is my wheelhouse.

Done. It’s under review.

Done.