"The Penguin History of Europe series ...is one of contemporary publishing's great projects". (New Statesman). The world known as the 'Dark Ages', often seen as a time of barbarism, was in fact the cr
A unique and enlightening look at Europe's so-called Dark Ages Defying the conventional Dark Ages view of European history between A.D. 400 and 1000, award-winning historian Chris Wickham presents The Inheritance of Rome, a work of remarkable scope and rigorous yet accessible scholarship. Drawing on a wealth of new material and featuring a thoughtful synthesis of historical and archaeological approaches, Wickham agues that these centuries were critical in the formulation of European identity. From Ireland to Constantinople, the Baltic to the Mediterranean, the narrative constructs a vivid portrait of the vast and varied world of Goths, Franks, Vandals, Arabs, Saxons, and Vikings. Groundbreaking and full of fascinating revelations, The Inheritance of Rome offers a fresh understanding of the crucible in which Europe would ultimately be created.
Containing substantial new studies in music, liturgy, history, art history, and palaeography from established and emerging scholars, this volume takes a cross-disciplinary approach to one of the most
La Cité Antique is the best-known work by the nineteenth-century French historian Fustel de Coulanges (1830–1889), who pioneered an objective approach to the study of history, and the use of primary rather than secondary sources. This reissue is of the 1866 edition of the book, which was originally published in 1864 while the author was professor of history at Strasbourg. It explores the influence of religion and kinship on the development of the laws and political institutions of ancient Greek and Roman societies. Coulanges describes many aspects of Greek and Roman family law including marriage, divorce, adoption, property and inheritance. After giving an account of the social organisation of cities, their administration, and the rights and duties of citizens, he outlines the processes of institutional change and the evolving power relationships between the social classes. Finally he discusses the effects of Christianity in the political sphere.
Adoption in other cultures and other times provides a background to understanding the operation of adoption in the Roman worlds. This book considers the relationship of adoption to kinship structures in the Greek and Roman world. It considers the procedures for adoption followed by a separate analysis of testamentary cases, and the impact of adoption on nomenclature. The impact of adoption on inheritance arrangements is considered, including an account of how the families of freedmen were affected. Its use as a mode of succession at Rome is detailed, and this helps to understand the anxiety of childless Romans to procure a son through adoption, rather than simply to nominate heirs in their wills. The strategy also had political uses, and importantly it was used to rearrange natural succession in the imperial family. The book concludes with political adoptions, looking at the detailed case studies of Clodius and Octavian.
