History and Geography in Late Antiquity

Abstract

The unwary reader should be warned against misinterpreting the title of this book. It is a study of historiography, not of geography, in Late Antiquity, albeit on an aspect of historiography which is rarely given the attention it deserves. It investigates the uses to which geography was put by the four most influential historians of Late Antiquity: Orosius, Jordanes, Isidore of Seville and Bede—whom medievalists are getting used to have purloined for Late Antiquity. All four writers provide geographical-cum-ethnographical prologues—which are printed in English translation as Appendixes—to their histories, as well as a varying amount of geographical information elsewhere in their work. Although, as Merrills remarks, some expressly geographical treatises have survived from the period between the fifth and the eighth centuries, these prefaces were the most widely known descriptions of the physical world at this time. He is surely right to insist that the provision of such information was not their primary purpose. Being concerned with human activity in time and space, history necessarily involves a geographical dimension; but, in addition, in the work of these writers the geographical prologues formed an integral part, as Merrills argues, of their histories. The prologues were shaped by the writers’ historical ideology and contributed to its expression. In each case Merrills starts with an overview of the historian and his work. This is followed by a detailed analysis of the geographical prologue and other related passages, including their sources in classical literature. His accounts are very thorough and judicious, and very well informed, though, surprisingly, he seems unaware of the somewhat differently orientated but richly informative work by Hervé Inglebert, Interpretatio Christiana: Les Mutations des Savoirs (Cosmographie, Géographie, Ethnographie, Histoire) dans l’Antiquité Chrétienne (2001). The centre of Merrills’ interest is, of course, the way in which each author utilised what he knew. The first, Orosius, is in some ways the most important, his geographical prologue being the formative source for much of medieval cosmography. It is also the most unproblematic to interpret: it arises from and declares the universality of Orosius’ ‘pretensions towards historical universality within the work’. The chapter on Jordanes has, necessarily, to consider the problem of Jordanes’ relation to Cassiodorus. While this remains problematic, Merrills sketches a reasonable view which allows him to conclude that while Jordanes’ Getica made use of Cassiodorus’ Gothic History it also displays a ‘clear rhetorical and argumentative coherence and was certainly composed with a definite motive’. Jordanes wished to celebrate the antiquity and identity of his own nation within Justinian's restored Roman Empire, and to present its partnership with the Empire as the consummation of its history. His geography and ethnography were composed with this aim in view. On Isidore of Seville, Merrills adopts a very reasonable solution to the problem of the relation of the shorter and the longer versions of his Gothic History. His conclusion that the Laus Spaniae at the start of Isidore's history ‘dramatically presents the ultimate conclusion of the narrative—the Catholic union of gens and Hispania’ is persuasive, and strengthened by his analysis of the bearings of the nuptial imagery is abundant in the work. The chapter on Bede is a wide-ranging discussion of Bede's treatment of the nations included in his Historia, along with an examination of his ethnographic vocabulary. None of this is very new, and some of it is not very closely related to the geographical subject matter. Merrills’ argument that geography is central to Bede's theme seems like something of an exaggeration. Nevertheless, Bede's geographical introduction evidently contributes to the main thrust of his History: the inclusion of the English in the universal Church. The book is an interesting and unusual contribution to the study of Late Antique historiography and meticulously argued.