Friends, Enemies, Neighbors: Romans and Alamanni in Late Antique Germany

 

The history of southwestern Germany between the third and the sixth centuries is generally treated as a straightforward confrontation between the Roman Empire and barbarian invaders—the Alamanni. Modern methodologies, both historical and archaeological, have begun to demonstrate the inadequacies of that simple paradigm.

“Friends, Enemies, Neighbors: Romans and Alamanni in Late Antique Germany”—a symposium to be held May 15-16, 2007, at the University of Tennessee—brings together a team of international scholars to reconsider such questions as these:

• What do we mean by Roman and Alaman in the third century?
• How do those terms change over the next 300 years?
• What are the implications of historical and archaeological methodologies for the other discipline?
• How does each discipline shed light on questions about Romans and Alamanni that cannot be answered by the other?
• Is there population change in southwestern Germany during late antiquity, or have scholars imposed migration models on the region because they are so important elsewhere in the empire?

 

Contact

Erin Read

Program Coordinator

The Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Temple Court Room 208

804 Volunteer Blvd

Knoxville, TN 37996

eread1@utk.edu