Obsessio montis Badonici. Britain before the Barbarian Invasions: Survival or Abandonment of the Models of the Late Roman Army?

Authors

  • Miguel Pablo Sancho Gómez Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53351/ruhm.v6i12.372

Keywords:

Arthur, Late Antiquity, Roman Britain, Usurpers, Late Roman Army

Abstract

This work focuses on a key period of British history, both obscure and difficult: the end of Roman Britain and the formation of different successor states, including the newly arrived Germanic peoples who would be a decisive factor in the subsequent development of the island. From the point of view of military history, the problems multiply, for the period begins in AD 406-411 with the remains of the imperial army still present and ends around AD 500 with a series of established kingdoms, both Celtic and Anglo-Saxon, heavily imbued with heroic culture and in an almost permanent state of war. We are talking about the “Dark Ages”, now commonly called Sub-Roman Britain. The personal clienteles of warriors took control of the situation at the mid of the Fifth-Century and the classic legions became something of the past. We will try to establish some historical guidelines to analyze these complicated phenomena, especially from the perspective of war history.

This period saw as well the emergence of Arthur, another key figure of British history, still hotly debated today. Trying to avoid the much sterile polemic, we will try to trace some link between Roman warfare and the remains of the Imperial rule throughout this complicated period in order to show the state of the historical processes that framed the evolution of the Late Roman World to become the early medieval one. Hypothesis will focus in the military developments of the age and the transformation of the former Roman regular professional army into the so-called aristocratic and heroic warbands, paying attention to the possible Roman remains on the Arthurian warfare.

The so-called “Age of Tyrants” and the “land Fertile on Tyrants” is treated too, with a brief scheme concerning the threats featuring in the Military Anarchy, the Third Century Crisis and the overall Barbarian onslaught as the catalyzers of the proclamation of tyrants in Britain.

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Author Biography

  • Miguel Pablo Sancho Gómez, Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia

    Miguel P. Sánchez Gómez (Murcia, 1978).- Ingresó en la Facultad de Letras de la Universidad de Murcia en 1997, obteniendo la Licenciatura de Historia, con las especialidades en Historia Antigua y Medieval. Cursó el CAP en el curso 2001/2002, realizando después el Doctorado en la Universidad de Murcia, programa “Continuidad y Ruptura en la Historia”; su tesina (“Tribus, Personalidades y Devenir de los Godos, 378-414”) se presentó en 2004 obteniendo Sobresaliente. La tesis doctoral, con el título de “Guerra y Política en el Imperio Romano de Occidente (337-361)”, fue defendida en 2008; el tribunal le otorgó por unanimidad la calificación de Sobresaliente Cum Laude.

    Desde 2006 realiza publicaciones de investigación científica histórica, referentes al Ejército Romano, la Antigüedad Tardía y el fin del Mundo Antiguo. Desde 2011 trabaja en el Departamento de Ciencias Sociales y de la Comunicación, en la Universidad Católica San Antonio (Murcia). Actualmente prepara nuevas monografías y artículos.

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Published

2017-12-30

How to Cite

Obsessio montis Badonici. Britain before the Barbarian Invasions: Survival or Abandonment of the Models of the Late Roman Army?. (2017). Revista Universitaria De Historia Militar, 6(12), 128-148. https://doi.org/10.53351/ruhm.v6i12.372

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