ANST - book: Chronicles of the Barbarians

[j'lynn yeates]

all the brouhaha about 13th Warrior ties in nicely with a excellent book i just 
finsihed (why in a followup posting) that should be on the shelves of anyone 
interested in the end of the great ancient empires and transitions that allowed 
the medieval period to be born.

Chronicles of the Barbarians
edited by David Willis McCullough
History Book Club, 1998

this work is a compliation of translated excerpts from *period* primary 
sources, primarily through various contemporary eye's (and few modern), of the 
"barbarian's" that ravaged "civilization" from the Greek hsitorian Heroditus 
(424BC on the Scythians and Thracian's) to the fall of Constantinople in 1453 
by the Ottoman Turks (ending the eastern Roman Empire). 

the book is structured in an interesting way.  during the older period when the 
barbarian ages ripped apart the weastern roman empire and civilization faced a 
celtic/germanic threat with many varying facets, it's broken down by problem 
region.  in the more historically rich period, it's broken down by peoples.

here's a breakdown of the boosk structure for those intested:


Introduction
	- with a *excellent* "Barbarian Chronology"

(... for my early period cynn)

I	Barbarians On The Landscape
	Strabo, "Geography", 24 AD

II	The Greeks' Barbarians
	 Herodotus, "Scythians and Thracian", 424 BC

III	Rome Encounters The Celts
	Diodorus Siculus, "Romans and Celts Battle in Umbria", ca. 390 BC
	Livy, "The Celts Enter Rome", ca. 390 BC
	Polybius, "The Early Celtic-Roman Wars", 225 BC

IV	Gaul
	Julius Caesar, "On The Gauls", 58 BC
	Diodorus Siculus, "On the Peoples and Customs of Gaul", ca. 50 BC
	Julius Caesar, "Border Battles", 55BC

V	Germany
	Julius Caesar, "On the Germans", 55 BC
	Tacitus, "Germania", 98 AD

VI	Britain
	Julius caesar, "The First Invasion of Britain", 55 BC
   	Diodorus Siculus, "The People and Customs of Britain", ca. 50 BC
	Tacitus, "A battle Between Romans and Caledonians in Southern Scotland", ca. 		
		80 AD

VII	The Goths Turn South To Rome
	Ammianus Marcellinus, "The Gothic Invasion and the Battle of Hadrianople", 378 
		AD
	Procopius, "Alaric Sacks Rome", 410 AD
	Edward Gibbon,  "The Death and Funeral of Alaric"

VIII	The Huns
	Claudian, "The Huns", ca. 400 AD
	Priscus, "Negotiating and Dining with Attila", 449 AD
	Jordanes, "A Goth's Biography of Attila", 551 AD

IX	The Vandals
	Edward Gibbon, "from "The History of the Decline and Fall of teh Roman Empire"

(... for the later types)
 
X	The Vikings
	"The Battle of Maldon", 991
	"Viking Raids", from "The Annals of St. Bertin), 843-859
	"Viking Raids", from "The Anglo Saxon Chronicle", 994-1016
	Ibn Fadlan, "A Viking Funeral", 922
	Procopius, "The Beastly Eruli", ca 560

XI	Ireland
	Geraldus Cambrensis, "The Customs of the Irish", 1185
	"Bricrius's Feast" and "The War of the Words of the Women of Ulster", from 			
		"Cuchulainn of Muirthemne", 12th Century

(... for my eastern cynn)

XII	Genhis Khan
	Juvaini, from "The History of the World Conqueror", 1260
	"Some Incidents During Genghis's War with the Tatars", from "The Secret
		History of the Mongols", 13th century

XIII	Mongols and Tartars
	C. De Bridia, from "The Tartar Relation", 1247
	from "The Chronicle of Novgorod". 1224-1259
	Matthew Paris, from "Chronicles", 1240-1243

XIV	Tamerlane
	Ahmed Ibn Mohammed Ibn' Arabshah, from "The Life of Timur", 15th century
	Johann Schiltberger, from "Travels and Bondage", ca. 1430

XV	The Crusades: Infidel Against Infidel
	Robert The Month, "Pope Urban II Calls for a Crusade", 1095
	Anonymous Norman Knight and Raymond, Canon of Le Puy, The Captures
		of Jerusalem", 1099
	Usamah Ibn-Murshid, "Encounters with Crisaders in Syria", ca 1150
	Doukas, "The Fall of Constantinople"

Epilogue:
	Doukas, "At the Gates of Hadrianople", 1453

Sources
Selected Biliographies of Secondary Sources
Index

... two sets of illustrations from period sources, many in color


highly suggested aas a addition to most SCAdian libraries ...

'wolf
 




... truth is the sword of us all (lords of the new church)
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