Des Goths a la Nation Gothique: Les Origines de L'Idee de Nation En Occident Du Ve Au Viie Siecle

What can we learn from the history of the Goths, as presented in the Latin texts of Late Antiquity? First, that its history is inseparable from that of the Western world’s Roman Empire, even though it plays an essential role in this era’s literature. It is actually the Western history of the three centuries separating the barbarian horde’s flight before the Huns (376 A.D.) and the coronation of Wamba, the first Visigoth king (672 to 680) to be anointed in Toledo.Suzanne Teillet explores both the Romans’ political conception of the Barbarians and the role played by the Goths, whose territory was evolving from the status of a “confederation” to that of a “nation.” As a corollary, the author compares the notion of “empire” to that of “nation” in this expansive and fascinating work in which countless literary documents are examined. Readers witness the birth of the Europe of Nations, from the crossing of the Danube by the Goths to the Fall of the Roman Empire, from Constantinople to Toledo, and the Moor invasions through the writings of Orosio, Salvian, Sidonius Apollinaris, Hydatius, Marcellin, Corippus, Eugippius, Ennodius, Cassiodorus, Jordanes, Gregory the Great, Gregory of Tours, John of Biclaro, Aurelius Victor, Isidorus of Sevilla and Julian of Toledo.