Mischa Meier

In August 410, Alarich and his Gothic warriors besieged, stormed and sacked Rome. The world went into shock.
The authors make no attempt to describe the actual siege and fall of Rome, because there are no eyewitness accounts. Instead they concentrate on how events were received, interpreted and instrumentalised throughout the ages, first by contemporaries, later by historians.
During the first chapters, I found the writing style irritating, verbose and full of unnecessary qualifiers. I also had some trouble with “Altgläubige” being used to signify non-Christians, because the term is already in use for sub-groups in the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches. They also have an annoying tendency to repeat themselves, disguised as summing-up: the various chapters aren’t long enough to justify it.
I am not sure that I agree with their view of Otto von Freising, his career can’t have been that unusual in his times, and I don’t see that his times were any more tumultuous than those before or after.
However, as we progress towards modern times, the book demonstrates once again that writing history is mostly about reflecting the times the writer lives in. I closed the book thinking that Gregorovius is worth trying. And I will bear their comments in mind when I get around to Herwig Wolfram and Michael Kulikowski.… (altro)