Barbarians Speak, The
Peter S. Wells
Number of quotes: 9
Book ID: 198 Page: 18
Section: 4B
The Roman Empire was one of the world’s greatest unifying forces, linking peoples militarily, politically, economically, and culturally, from northern Britain and the Straits of Gibralter in the west, to the upper Euphrates and southern Egypt in the east. Rome’s trade connections reached even further afield-north to Finland, south to sub-Saharan Africa, and east to India. The empire’s effects are apparent in the languages, customs, and legal systems in many European countries today and in other parts of the world where Europeans have settled or where indigenous peoples have borrowed ideas from ancient or modern Europe.
Quote ID: 4477
Time Periods: 147
Book ID: 198 Page: 20
Section: 4B
No other empire plays such a powerful role in our imaginations, and our ideas about the Roman Empire form a major component of what we think we know about “the past.”
Quote ID: 4478
Time Periods: 147
Book ID: 198 Page: 148
Section: 1A
After the conquests of the different landscapes, and often after a period during which provincial administrations were organized, the archaeology shows the gradual introduction of Roman-style material culture – military camps, urban centers, public buildings, baths, villas, pottery, metalwork, and so forth. But at the same time, much of traditional material culture and behavior continued to be expressed, created, and used.
Quote ID: 4479
Time Periods: 047
Book ID: 198 Page: 163
Section: 2A
All human societies use ritual practices to create and communicate essential meanings about relationships between people and between people and the supernatural. Analysis of ritual provides insight into the values and attitudes of a community. There is strong evidence throughout the Roman frontier provinces for the continuation of traditional practices of ritual activity throughout the Roman Period.
Quote ID: 4480
Time Periods: 014
Book ID: 198 Page: 172
Section: 4B
Recent studies have argued that much of the public building in the new towns was sponsored not by the Roman state or the provincial government, but by members of the indigenous elite groups, as a way of demonstrating their wealth and power on the one hand, and their links with the cosmopolitan Roman fashions on the other.
Quote ID: 4481
Time Periods: 147
Book ID: 198 Page: 184
Section: 2B2
One of the clearest expressions of the changes that took place in the new Roman provinces of temperate Europe was the creation of new representations of indigenous deities that integrated Roman conceptions with local ones. The issue is complex, because in most instances we only learn of the identity and attributes of traditional deities after they have been named in inscriptions and represented on Roman-style sculpture. The indigenous Iron Age peoples generally did not portray their deities in human form, and, because these prehistoric peoples left no written record, no inscriptions inform us of their names or attributes. In order to study the character of the indigenous Celtic and Germanic deities, we must begin with their representations in the Roman media of stone and ceramic sculpture and Latin inscriptions.
Quote ID: 4482
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 198 Page: 189
Section: 4B
This chapter focuses on the ways in which the peoples of Roman-occupied temperate Europe constructed their lives, their communities, and their identities in terms of the wide variety of choices and challenges with which they were faced during this dynamic time. The Roman Empire of which these groups were part was cosmopolitan and multiethnic on a large scale. There existed no “pure” Roman culture, nor any common “provincial Roman” society, but instead a wide variety of amalgamations of different traditions, constantly shifting over time.
Quote ID: 4483
Time Periods: 147
Book ID: 198 Page: 192
Section: 3B1
In order to understand the nature of the changes among the peoples of temperate Europe during the early Roman Period, we need to consider two different and opposing processes that were operating at the same time. One was a strong trend toward uniformity in outlook, architecture, material culture, and lifestyle.
Quote ID: 4484
Time Periods: 1
Book ID: 198 Page: 192
Section: 3B1,4B
But it is important to bear in mind that this apparent homogeneity of material expression, lifestyle, and to some extent worldview was restricted to the elites in the different provinces. As indigenous elites acquired status in the imperial aristocracy, they may have come to identify themselves first as members of the Roman nobility, and second as members of their local societies. The transmission of Roman ideology – a particular vision of the world and of how societies should operate – was a powerful force in bringing about change in Europe and throughout the empire.
Quote ID: 4485
Time Periods: 45
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