Fall Of The Roman Empire Research Articles

:World Medievalism: The Middle Ages in Modern Textual Culture

:<i>World Medievalism: The Middle Ages in Modern Textual Culture</i>

The Roman Legacy on European Chestnut and Walnut Arboriculture

ABSTRACT The political and administrative unification process under the Roman Empire resulted not only in a progressive linguistic, religious, and cultural homogenisation of the concerned population, but also in the need of trade and exchanges for satisfying new dietary habits and markets. In this paper, we use palaeoecological pollen and macroremain records extracted from Neotoma online database and from scientific literature to analyse the contribution of the Romans in the distribution and cultivation history of Castanea sativa and Juglans regia, two tree species, which are usually considered highly connected with Romanisation. Our results highlight a substantial difference in the impact of the Romans on the history of the two species between the territories of the Western and Eastern Empire, where the Roman influence is much less evident. In the western territories, Juglans regia experienced a significant pre-Roman increase and spread, which was only partially intensified under Roman domination. Castanea sativa, on the contrary, benefited from a significant boost following the Roman conquest, especially in the mountain areas south of the Alps and in France. After the fall of the Roman Empire this led to the traditional medieval chestnut civilisation in which the chestnut tree became a main source of livelihood.

The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome: The History of a Dangerous Idea by Edward J. Watts

Reviewed by: The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome: The History of a Dangerous Idea by Edward J. Watts Jeremy J. Swist The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome: The History of a Dangerous Idea. By Edward J. Watts. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2021. Pp. 320. Hardcover, $27.95. ISBN: 978-0-190-07671-9. Good titles sell books. That of this one promises a critical look at not only how cyclical notions of “decline and fall” are one of the ways history rhymes rather than repeats, but more importantly how such notions can be weaponized. I did not need Peter Brown’s endorsement on the back cover to convince me that its author was as capable as any to tackle a topic spanning over two millennia of (mostly Roman) history. Edward Watts authored a number of recent books, such as Hypatia (2017) and Mortal Republic (2018), written with an eye steadily fixed on the present moment. Beyond its appeal to my specialist interests, I welcomed this book for its affordability and accessibility to non-specialist and especially lay audiences who should benefit from being equipped with a historical perspective on this ever popular temptation to ground one’s grievances with contemporary society in the precedent of Rome. Watts’ work essentially elaborates on an evergreen observation tweeted by Mike Duncan during the previous presidential administration, namely that the American left thinks they are living through the fall of the Roman Republic, while the right thinks they are living through that of the Empire. Mortal Republic may have responded to the anxieties of the former, The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome more often to the latter; but the essential point is the same: a “decline and fall” is much less often a historical process than it is a rhetorical construction serving an ideological agenda. Drawing from a rich array of primary sources, this book focuses primarily on how declines-and-falls were “manufactured” at various stages of the Roman, Byzantine and Holy Roman Empires. While its first couple chapters discuss how Republican figures like Cato the Elder and Cicero represented their respective presents in terms of the decline of traditional virtues and civility into a decadent “Republic of violence,” the bulk of the work must make do with sources with vested interests in transforming the recent past into a fallen age of iron as a prelude to a new golden age of virtue, piety, prosperity and military glory restored by the present autocratic regime. Tacitus and Pliny, for example, despite benefiting from the capable regime of Domitian, had few qualms recasting it as a chaotic reign of terror, contrasts with which made the subsequent Trajanic order gleam all the [End Page 121] brighter. The key takeaway from this rhetoric is how easy it is either to create scapegoats for political and military misfortunes, be they individual rulers like Commodus and Michael III, groups such as “dissolute” Greeks and heretical Goths, or collective offenses that incur divine disfavor such as abandoning paganism or venerating icons. While Watts does not state it, his is a systematic critique of reductionist ways of historical thinking, especially the kind that tie the success or failure of a state to the character and policies of whichever executive is in charge, the kind of thinking that blames the one guy for the systemic problems that the next guy will be expected to magically fix. In a word, this book is a powerful assault on the Great Man Theory, whose toxic persistence must continually be challenged. Watts is mostly candid in identifying the present circumstances to which this book responds, namely the deepening political divisions in America (and elsewhere) inflamed by Donald Trump’s decline-and-fall rhetoric that serves his MAGA agenda. The book begins and ends by advocating for collaboration over mutual recrimination in order to arrest our present decline. This is itself a political position, and a popular one; but it nevertheless guides the reader’s evaluation of historical figures and events, treating positively, for instance, Marcus Aurelius’ humane response to the Antonine plague while putting in a more negative light Tiberius Gracchus’ more revolutionary reaction to economic inequalities. It assumes...

『살리 프랑크 부족법(Lex Salica)』, 로마와 프랑크 왕국을 잇다

It is said that the ‘Lex Salica’ is the codification by the latin succeeding the Roman civilization, at the same time, bearing the traditional customs and the original culture of the Franks. From the beginning of the Frankish kingdom to the empire of Carolus Magnus, because the Lex Salica enables us to recognize the society of the Franks, the Gallo Romans and the others in the Franksh kingdom, it is very precious archives to solve the difficulties for understanding the history between the fall of Roman Empire and the opening of Frankish kingdom as well as the early medieval western civiliztion. In this article, it aims to follow the roles of the Franks leading their history and their civilization not only their original customs but also the Roman inheritance encouraging the germnination of the medieval age. Let us read the challenge and the strategy of the Frankish kings for the making the new epoch with the Lex Salica, not causing the old historic argument between the Romania and the Germania. (Gyeonsang National University)

Performing The Politics of Translation in Modern Japan: Staging The Resistance by Aragorn Quinn

Reviewed by: Performing The Politics of Translation in Modern Japan: Staging The Resistance by Aragorn Quinn David Jortner PERFORMING THE POLITICS OF TRANSLATION IN MODERN JAPAN: STAGING THE RESISTANCE. By Aragorn Quinn. London and New York: Routledge, 2020. 169 pp. Hardcover, $128.00; paperback, $39.16. "Political theatre" is a term loaded with a variety of meanings. In the history of Japanese theatre, especially in the Meiji and Taishō eras, political theatre is often used in conversations about the Jiyū Gekijō (Free Theatre, 1909–1919) and the Tsukiji Shōgekijō (Tsukiji Little Theatre, 1924–1928) as well as the work of playwrights and artists such [End Page 421] as Hijikata Tatsumi and Kubo Sakae. Inherent in this discussion is the connection between political, modern, and "Western;" for many of these artists modernity was inimically linked to political activism and new forms of theatre. As Aragorn Quinn aptly demonstrates in his work Performing the Politics of Translation in Modern Japan, during the early Meiji Restoration era performance and memory was deeply connected with explorations of term such as liberty (jiyū) and revolution (kakumei). The text demonstrates how the engagement of these words and the world of performance extends from the Restoration through the Proletarian Theatre movement and into the postwar world. With this book Quinn has done a deep dive into the intersections between performance, politics, and language. In doing so, he has created an important resource for scholars of Japanese and political theatre. Quinn's book is divided into 5 chapters, but it is better seen as an exploration of three different periods in Japanese theatre: The Freedom and People's Rights Movement, the Proletarian Movement, and the Occupation/postwar period. What connects all of these periods in Quinn's argument is the connection between their performances and the differing ideas (and translations) of political/cultural terms such as "liberty" and "revolution." The first chapter looks at how "liberty" was translated in the early Meiji period and how that manifested itself through productions of William Shakespeare's plays and the performances of Kawakami Otojirō. One of the highlights in this chapter is the translation, publication, and production histories of works such as Tsubouchi Shōyō's The Amazing Story of Caesar: The Legacy of the Sharpness of Liberty's Sword (Jiyū no tachi nagori no kireaji: Shiizaru kidan), his translation of Julius Caesar, as well as Kawashima Keizō's The Rise and Fall of Rome (Rōma seisuikan), his translation of the same play. This chapter also includes how these translations were connected with the Association for Theatre Reform (Engeki kairyō kai). In addition, Quinn illustrates how this terminology was used by Kawakami Otojirō and by other political theatre (shōshi shibai) performances. The second chapter explores plays of the Meiji Restoration. One of the more interesting elements of this chapter is a reclamation of Sasaki Takamaru's place in theatre history. Sasaki was involved with the Forerunner Theater (Seunkuza) as well as the Avant-Garde Theater (Zen'eiza). Much of the chapter is devoted to an analysis of his play The Secret Account of Tsukuba (Tsukuba hiroku). One of the delights of Quinn's text is his inclusion of segments of the play in both Japanese and in his translation; one wishes for a complete translation of the play. Quinn's analysis of Sasaki gives an interesting reading as to why the Proletarian Theatre movement failed to foment revolution and can prove as an interesting model for other leftist writers of this period. [End Page 422] Chapter Three looks at plays which take the attempted assassination of Itagaki Taisuke in 1882 as their primary subject matter. For Quinn, "these plays sit at important transitions in performance conventions in modern Japanese theater and are uniquely situated to highlight the inter-relationship of … seemingly disparate performance modes" (p. 81), such as kyūgeki (old theatre), sōshi, and shingeki (new theatre). In this chapter Quinn raises many interesting possible readings of leftist theatre while looking at the texts of one night pickle plays (ichiyazuke) by Kawakami, Sudō Sadanori, and Sasaki. This chapter argues for several interesting ideas about expanding Japanese theatre scholarship—he argues for a "long nineteenth century" approach to...

An Analysis of The Decline of The Roman Empire From The Perspective of Daily Life

The Roman Empire created a prosperous situation in western history and experienced many major attempts and problems in western society since modern times. The rise and fall of the Roman Empire has always been a thought-provoking and important issue. This paper mainly reexamines the decline of the late Roman Empire from the perspective of life. This paper is mainly divided into two parts. The first part mainly combs the relevant research on life culture and civil life in ancient Rome in recent years from the perspective of civil life and social change. It can be seen that lifestyle has always been an important factor to measure the rise and fall of a country, whether in the period of the Roman Republic or the Roman Empire. The second part mainly analyzes the text based on Histories, and summarizes the final response of many factors to the decline of the Roman Empire in public life. This paper holds that the main manifestation of the decline of the Roman Empire is the numbness of people's life. Due to the growing gap between the rich and the poor, the social class has been destroyed, the city has become increasingly declining, and the rural atmosphere has swept through the city. The people are completely dependent on religion, and the church undertakes the function of people's moral education and ideal vision. The numbness of life became an important reason and symbol of the decline of the Roman Empire. This paper will be helpful to further discuss the root causes of the decline of the Roman Empire from the cultural perspective of daily life.

An efficient method to identify, date, and describe admixture events using haplotype information.

We present fastGLOBETROTTER, an efficient new haplotype-based technique to identify, date, and describe admixture events using genome-wide autosomal data. With simulations, we show how fastGLOBETROTTER reduces computation time by an order of magnitude relative to the related technique GLOBETROTTER without suffering loss of accuracy. We apply fastGLOBETROTTER to a cohort of more than 6000 Europeans from 10 countries, revealing previously unreported admixture signals. In particular, we infer multiple periods of admixture related to East Asian or Siberian-like sources, starting >2000 yr ago, in people living in countries north of the Baltic Sea. In contrast, we infer admixture related to West Asian, North African, and/or Southern European sources in populations south of the Baltic Sea, including admixture dated to ∼300–700 CE, overlapping the fall of the Roman Empire, in people from Belgium, France, and parts of Germany. Our new approach scales to analyzing hundreds to thousands of individuals from a putatively admixed population and, hence, is applicable to emerging large-scale cohorts of genetically homogeneous populations.

Stalagmite-Inferred Climate in the Western Mediterranean during the Roman Warm Period

The circum-Mediterranean region is the cradle of ancient civilizations that had their roots in the Holocene. Climate change has been considered a key element that contributed to their rise or fall. The Roman Warm Period (RWP), 200 B.C. to 400 A.D., was the warmest period in Europe during the last two thousand years. Hydroclimatic change at the end of the RWP has been suggested as a possible influence on the stability of the Roman political regime and the eventual collapse of the Roman Empire in 476 A.D. A lack of precise proxy records hampers our understanding of hydroclimatic variability over the RWP. Here we present a stalagmite-based climate record from 550 ± 10 B.C. to 950 ± 7 A.D. (2σ) from northern Italy, which reveals a climatic trend of warming and increased humidity throughout the RWP. By comparison with other proxy records in Europe and the circum-Mediterranean region, we argue that the warm, humid climate in southern Europe could be linked to the multi-centennial warming of the Mediterranean Sea. Our record further suggests a century-long rapid drying trend from the early-4th to early-5th century, followed by a 100-year-long drought event, which could have influenced the fall of the Roman Empire.

A Lady Philosophy or A Concealed Wife of Bath: Geoffrey Chaucer’s Prudence in the Tale of Melibee

Renowned as a reference book of Dante and Chaucer, Boethius’s Consolation of Philosopy occupies a peerless room in literary realm. Dante draws on the Boethian elements in his Vita Nuova, the Convivio and the Commedia. Among his other works, Chaucer’s making use of Boethius’s Consolation in Troilus and Criseyde has been well documented by Chaucerians. A work belonging to the time of the collapse of the Roman Empire, Consolation focuses on fate, fortune and free will and was translated into numerous languages even by Chaucer himself, Boece, and by an Anglo-Saxon king, Alfred the Great. Recognised as a philosophical treatise, this exceptional work embraces a patchwork of Aristotelian, Stoic, Epicurean, and neo-Platonic thoughts. Alongside its philosophical concerns, featuring Lady Philosophy as a guide, teacher and a doctor to Boethius, Consolation suggests the authority of women over men via the power of female discourse. Tracing the footsteps of Lady Philosophy, another female character, Chaucer’s Prudence in the Tale of Melibee consoles and guides her husband Melibee to goodness via her powerful discourse. Mostly treated as a dull text by critics, the Tale of Melibee is put in the category of the least favourite tales of Chaucer. In this paper, yet, I will focus on the tale with positive lens and read it as a text revealing the mastery and authority of women over men reversing the gender roles in a period well-known for its misogyny. Thereby, I assert that Prudence is an undisclosed Wife of Bath who raises the flag of victory in the everlasting power struggle between women and men. Finally, the paper comes to an end with an appeal for attraction in that women should take their share in real world alongside in fiction in accordance with Virginia Woolf’s argument in A Room of One’s Own.

The importance of the formation, development and decentralization of local self-government in the reconstruction of the country

The principle of separation of powers still dates back to the Roman Empire, and then the idea was re-conceived and revised by John Locke and Charles Louis Montesquieu, which helped popularize the idea. Locke gave us his views on the necessity and importance of separation of powers in The Second Treatise on Civil Government (1690), which Montesquieu considered in the following works: The Persian Letters, The Spirit of Law, and the Causes of the Rise and Fall of Rome. “.The distribution of power in democracies is mainly based on two principles, vertically and horizontally. Vertical refers to central, regional, municipal, and district governments, while horizontal refers to legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government.Proper and effective governance is possible only in a democratic society, which also helps to increase public confidence in the system of government and increases the legitimacy of the government (citizens do not have problems with public relations). It should also be noted that the decentralization of the country itself contributed to the redistribution of power, which meant a reduction of influence and legitimate power by individual political forces. The goal of local self-government is to improve the decentralization process and achieve better governance at the local level.

Water Quality Focusing on the Hellenic World: From Ancient to Modern Times and the Future

Water quality is a fundamental issue for the survival of a city, especially on dry land. In ancient times, water availability determined the location and size of villages and cities. Water supply and treatment methods were developed and perfected along with the evolution of urbanization. In Europe, after the fall of the Roman Empire, water supply and sewage systems went through fundamental changes. However, in medieval times, the lack of proper sanitation and low water quality increased the spreading and effects of epidemics. The importance of potable water quality was established during modern times. In Greece, the significance of water filtration and disinfection was not understood until the beginning of the 20th century. Moreover, the beneficial effects of water quality and sanitation on human health and especially on life expectancy are considered. In Greece and other countries, a dramatic increase in life expectancy mainly after the 2nd World War is probably due to the improvement of potable water quality and hygiene conditions. However, since the mid-20th century, new water quality issues have emerged, such as eutrophication, the improvement of water treatment technologies, as well as chemical and microbiological water pollution problems. This study, in addition to the historical evolution of water quality, highlights and discusses the current issues and challenges with regard to the management and protection of water quality, including global changes in population and urbanization, lack of infrastructure, use of nonconventional water resources, spreading of emerging pollutants and contaminants (e.g., antibiotics and microplastics), and climatic variability impacts. Against these, a review of the main proposed strategies and measures is presented and discussed to protect water quality and maintain water supplies for the future. Understanding the practices and solutions of the past provides a lens with which to view the present and future.

Fighting against nature: Romans and Barbarians on the Icy Danube

Abstract Scholars have long debated the nature of the Roman frontier. From linear defense systems designed to hold back barbarian tides to arteries of communication and exchange, rivers have been at the forefront of this discussion. This paper focuses on the Lower Danube frontier and argues that Rome’s most enduring enemy in the Balkans was not a barbarian tribe, but the river itself. The Danube frequently froze in wintertime facilitating the passage of massive raiding parties. Indeed, the most devastating attacks recorded by ancient observers took place during the dead of winter, when the ice on the Danube was hard enough to allow the crossing of large number of horsemen. These attacks set in motion events and long-term processes that forever changed the cultural fabric of the region. Unable to contain the threat, early Roman emperors led campaigns north of the Danube and ultimately conquered Dacia, which allowed them to control both sides of the river. In Late Antiquity, Constantine and Justinian dramatically altered the cultural landscape with their massive programs of fortification designed to finally secure the Balkan provinces. Centuries after the fall of Rome, Byzantine emperors still relied on a combination of brute force, consolidation and diplomacy in order to prevent winter attacks. In the end, all attempts at devising a permanent solution failed and the frozen Danube remained a barbarian ally slowly eroding the empire’s control in the Balkans.

‘I am not who I was’: Old age and masculinity in Maximianus Etruscus' elegies

The Elegies of Maximianus Etruscus (sixth century CE) are first-person narratives in which the poet writes about the life cycle, making love and sex the building blocks of the story. Through his failed relationships with different women, Maximianus talks about the perception of his aging, especially the changes in his body and his eroticism, and the progressive loss of masculinity that to him comes with old age. The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between old age and gender in Maximianus' elegies from a double perspective: the perception of old age itself as a unique and personal fact, and age and masculinity as interacting social constructions that are historically constructed. We will address issues such as the emotions linked to aging, the representation of old age as a living death, the relationship of masculinity with sexuality and the importance of erection. Finally, we will place Maximianus' poems within their historical context, analyzing how they can be interpreted as a metaphor for the period in which its author lived, in which old age and loss of power symbolized the disappearance of the Ostrogothic kingdom of Italy and, in general, the end of the Roman Empire. A literary exercise but also a life story, this set of six elegies allows us to approach the social construction of gender and age in Late Antiquity.

Murder, Greed, and Corrupt Politicians: The Fall of the Roman Republic

With a prompt that has been written about countless times, this essay argues that the fall of the Roman Republic was inevitable by examining the end of the republic through a new lens- political instability. This paper draws on primary sources and key individuals such as Julius Caesar and the lesser-known Gracchi brothers. The title does not lie – the fall of Rome is filled with exciting twists and turns that are examined within this work. This paper focused on three important political leaders from roughly 130-40BC. The Gracchi Brothers introduced a new strategy to gain power as Tribunes and set a precedent for political violence in the Roman Republic. Lucius Sulla utilized his unstoppable military power to gain control of the Republic as a dictator and removed plebeian favour reforms, removing power from the citizens of Rome. Julius Caesar was the Roman Republic’s final leader; his thirst for power and political self-interest is what eventually caused the Roman Republic to come to an end. The reader will come to find that ancient politics was much more violent than its modern-day counterpart. The Roman Republic did end, but why? Could these key figures have made different choices that might have saved Rome?

The comparative method in Guido Panciroli's treatise "Two books about memorable things, now lost and, on the contrary, recently ingeniously invented"

This article is devoted to the problem of understanding the phenomena and objects inherent in antiquity and modern times in Guido Panciroli's treatise "Two books about memorable things", published for the first time in 1599 in Amberg. Of particular interest in Panciroli's work is his approach to the search and comparison of phenomena that fell out of use due to the fall of the Roman Empire or came into use in the updated tradition already in the Middle Ages. The formulation of the problem and the logic of the reasoning of the author of the treatise fully reveal his ideas about the replenishment and loss of knowledge available to people in a historical perspective. The main merit of Panchiroli is an attempt to reconstruct the circle of forgotten and new technologies by comparing different historical periods. At the same time, the author strives for the impartiality of his judgments and does not try to reveal the superiority of one era over another. Through an appeal to the "forgotten" and "lost" ancient knowledge, Panchiroli gives it publicity, draws attention to it, which together leaves hope for the possibility of revival. The "new" inventions, which somehow became part of the European tradition, personified the increment of knowledge. Their discovery became another confirmation that reality is plastic and subject not only to oblivion, but to renewal.

Roman Greatness

In the 1776 preface to his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon set out his aim to recount the revolutions that ‘gradually undermined, and at length destroyed, the solid fabric of Roman greatness’.1 Brimming with erudition, Gibbon’s hefty tomes stood testament to the pervasive influence of Rome and its most famous dramatis personae on English literary culture. Gibbon was uneasy with the violence of empire in all its manifestations, judging it continually self-destructive. Nonetheless, the period of Roman history that he held most in awe, which gave rise to and sustained ‘the solid fabric of Roman greatness’, preceded the narrative of decline that Decline and Fall charts from the accession of Commodus in 180 ce. This earlier period of Roman history, populated by late republican writers such as Cicero and Sallust, famous generals such as Scipio Africanus, and writers of the...

The Material Fall of Roman Britain, 300–525 CE By Robin Fleming. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2021. Pp. 303. $45. ISBN 978-0-8122-5244-6 (cloth).

<i>The Material Fall of Roman Britain, 300–525 CE</i> By Robin Fleming. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2021. Pp. 303. $45. ISBN 978-0-8122-5244-6 (cloth).

Zloupotreba i privatizacija državne moći u poznom periodu rimske imperije, kao primeri doprinosa propasti rimskog carstva

This paper continues the story about political corruption in the Roman Empire. Towards the end of the Principate, and the beginning of the dominate, the form of rule was changed; at first the principles and then the emperors became absolute or despotic rulers. History offers an array of examples from this period that testify to the conduct of corrupt, cruel rulers whose "lack of restraint finally led to the fall of the Roman Empire". The emperor became the sole and exclusive ruler of the entire state: he was the legislator, chief of executive power, supreme judge, and commander-in-chief. In terms of formal law, the emperor's power was unlimited as he was the Lord and God (Dominus et Deus). The state was no longer res publica (public matter) but rather a res privata (private matter) of the emperor. The emperor was aided by a ramified bureaucratic apparatus, whose main characteristic was unreserved loyalty towards the emperor; the officials were appointed and dismissed according to the emperor's will. In addition to this, incompetency of these officials was frequently apparent and their immediate contact with citizens was marked by fear that they spread through their arbitrariness, proneness to bribery and harshness. Polybius' phrase that "democracy declines when the government makes people corrupt and greedy" seems to be characteristic of this period, yet it has not lost its topicality even today. As the legislator, the emperor passed such laws as suited him. The full meaning of Tacitus' thought: "the more laws, the more corrupt the state" came to the fore.

The Lower Rhine (Germany) in Late Antiquity: a time of dissolving structures

Abstract From the middle of the 1st century AD, the Lower Rhine was part of the frontier of the Roman Empire (Limes). However, this Limes was not an impermeable line, but rather an open corridor that served as march area and as a trade and supply route for the adjacent military and civilian settlements as well as the hinterland. This required access to the river and permanent harbours. When planning military camps and towns along the Rhine, the existing topography and the challenge of a dynamic riverine landscape had to be taken into account. The prefered location for forts and towns were the raised edges of the Lower Terraces close to the undercut bank of a meander. For many years, research assumed that the river bend adjacent to a Roman site had to be an oxbow lake. The main argument being that only an oxbow situation would have protected the Roman sites against strong currents and the risk of demolition of land and settlements by the main stream (abandoned channel hypothesis). A re-evaluation of the extensive archaeological, sedimentological and palynological archive and published data from the Rhine plain, as well as of supplementary data from new boreholes, lead to a considerable increase in the previously incomplete knowledge of the fluvial history, especially regarding the timing of palaeomeander infilling. It showed that most of the meanders and river bends of the Rhine with Roman settlements on their banks not silted up before Late Antiquity (from the end of the 3rd century AD on). Before that those meanders were part of the main stream. The advantage of steep undercut banks was that a quay could be built on a location that ensured mooring all year round, even at low water level. However, it was necessary that stabilising bank protections were present in order to avoid shifting the course of the river with subsequent destruction of the infrastructure. Such an antique bank protection construction (a so called “Packwerk”) could be recognised in front of the Colonia Ulpia Traiana (CUT, Xanten). With this knowledge in mind, other excavated structures on the banks of palaeomeanders, previously mostly interpreted as Roman harbour remains, could be interpreted as bank protections. At Wesel near the strategically important mouth of the Lippe, the archaeological, sedimentological and palynological data showed that a meander that had silted up in Prehistoric times (Bronze Age) had been reactivated in Roman times and silted up again in Late Antiquity. A man-made diversion (perhaps by building a groyne) of the main stream could have been responsible for this. With the beginning of the Late Antiquity crisis of the Roman Empire at the end of the 3rd century, it presumably became increasingly difficult to maintain these water works. This enabled the river to regain its morphodynamics, by cutting of the meanders that were active during Roman times. We hypothesise that this increase in fluvial activities of the Lower Rhine from the end of the 3rd century onwards is due to an anthropogenic trigger: the collapse of the Roman Empire.

Papal Jurisprudence, 385-1234: Social Origins and Medieval Reception of Canon Law by David L. d'Avray

Reviewed by: Papal Jurisprudence, 385-1234: Social Origins and Medieval Reception of Canon Law by David L. d'Avray Michael Edward Moore d'Avray, David L. Papal Jurisprudence, 385-1234: Social Origins and Medieval Reception of Canon Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. $99.99. Pp. 300. ISBN: 978-1-10867-143-9. In this tightly woven, carefully argued book, the rise of thirteenth-century legal science is explained as the return, or the awkward persistence, of old papal law in new contexts, and the corresponding need for exposition, explanation, and decision-making to resolve complex situations in which the old laws did not readily correspond to a new historical world. This argument is not only about the 'new' situation of ecclesiastical life and jurisprudence from 1100 to 1234, but the long-enduring presence of old papal decisions from the period 400 to 500. How did the old law serve in new situations 700 years later? D'Avray contends that in considering the history of papal jurisprudence, as it flowed into the schools in the age of Johannes Teutonicus and the Liber Extra, the historian must account for two major ages, two key sets of problems, and two principal historical contexts: the first wave and the second wave of papal decretals. 'The main focus of this study is on the parallels and connections between the two decretal ages' (193). Indeed, one of the strong theses of d'Avray book is the existence and mutual reflection of two decretal ages (5th century / 12th century). If the long history of papal law can be described as a structure, it has the shape of a barbell graph. These parallel phases of papal-legal history mirror one another and are also termed 'the first and second decretal waves, c.400 and c. 1200' (213). The book is not concerned to provide a detailed narrative sweeping over all those centuries. Instead, short précis of changing historical circumstances are presented at certain key points in order to demonstrate the dramatic changes leading up to the first and second periods of papal jurisprudence. The scaffolding of European history is somewhat in the background, but helps to explain and orient readers to legal changes. The fall [End Page 217] of the Roman Empire is presented as a great crash, in the strong versions of Peter Heather (106) and Julia Smith (218), rather than the current fashion for seeing continuity instead. There is Peter Brown's thesis that Christianity brought a total change of mentality about death, a re-negotiated social world and the erection of a new cosmos (4). And there is Ian Wood's view that massive transfers of wealth in late antiquity allowed for the substantial take-off of the Church (107). The fall of Rome did not mean the fall of the City, which was able to provide an exceptional degree of intellectual and institutional continuity. In some fine passages d'Avray expresses the nature of Roman memory and continuity as embodied in building programs such as the basilica of Maria Maggiore (107-108). The letters of Pope Leo the Great are similarly described as monuments of memory and recordation (119). After the demise of Attila and the collapse of the Hunnic project, the City of Rome began to take center stage in western Europe (23-24). Carolingian history is briefly alluded to as the frame for the Admonitio Generalis. And so on to the rise of the Ottonian Empire and the dispersal of wealth and political power in post-millenial Europe. D'Avray's analysis of the period 1050-1150 is fascinating. The situation of the clergy had changed. No longer part of a cohesive late antique urban world, the early medieval clergy now found themselves in an agricultural countryside beset by small competing political principalities. Now they lived in the shadow of lords and castles: this was 'a world of rural parishes, utterly different from the original context'—i.e. the context of the old papal decretals regarding such matters as priestly marriage and priestly sexual activity (177). It was not the rise of towns in the early Middle Ages that accounts for the Investiture Controversy and the papal turn...