IMC 2012: Sessions

Session 1210: Texts and Identities, III: The Organisation of War and Peace in a Post-Imperial World

Wednesday 11 July 2012, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:	Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien / Utrecht Centre for Medieval Studies, Universiteit Utrecht / Faculty of History, University of Cambridge
Organisers:	E. T. Dailey, School of History, University of Leeds Gerda Heydemann, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien / Institut für Geschichte, Universität Wien
Moderator/Chair:	Walter Pohl, Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung, Universität Wien
Paper 1210-a	The Techniques of Barbarian Accommodation: Some Economic Explanations (Language: English) Paolo Tedesco, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien Index terms: Economics - General, Military History, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 1210-b	Imperial Nostalgia and the Yearning for Old Virtues in a New World: 'Outdated' Values in the Post-Roman Military and Diplomatic Rhetoric (Language: English) Ekaterina Nechaeva, American Academy in Rome Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Military History, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 1210-c	War and Peace in Avitus of Vienne (Language: English) Glenn McDorman, Department of History, Princeton University Index terms: Military History, Political Thought
Abstract	This session explores the transition from an imperial to a post-imperial world by focussing on how continuity and changes in the organisation of war and peace shaped early medieval societies. Paolo Tedesco offers a fresh approach to a hotly debated topic, the question of the accomodation of barbarian soldiers, arguing that the distribution of land should be understood first and foremost as a mode of financing the army in a society where a model based on redistribution through taxes and trade could no longer be sustained. The second paper (Ekaterina Nechaeva) examines the rhetoric of Romanness in military and diplomatic contexts, tracing the uses of ancient Roman virtues and imperial political values in foreign relations in a post-Roman society. Glenn McDorman offers a complementary perspective by bringing into focus the thought of one particular author on warfare and society. His paper investigates how bishop Avitus of Vienne wrote about war and peace, thus providing a rubric for understanding such concepts in the immediately post-imperial West.