This turned out to be an old set of lectures that Bury made when he assumed the chair at Cambridge. It has all the makings of the sage on the stage but was still enjoyable.
I really did begin to consolidate some knowledge about the movements of the Germanic peoples during the later stages of the Roman Empire, from the movement of the Eastern Germans into the transRhine and transDanube region. Then it appears that the Visigoths moved into the empire first, in the 370's or so, followed roughly by movements of the Vandals across the middle part of Europe, through Spain, and thence to Africa. Turns out that a much of the "Germanic invasion" comes through the miscalculation of Stilicho as he removes legions from the Rhine to meet the advance of the Visigoths under Alaric. The Ostrogoths followed roughly a hundred years later, and essentially brought the empire to an end, although Bury is quick to point out that they just saw themselves as federati and protectors of the western empire under the dominion of the Emperor in Constantinople.
I was surprised that Bury did not cover the reconquest of the west and the extinction of the Vandals and the Ostrogoths under Justinian. But he does clarify the movement of the Burgundians, the Franks, and finally the Lombardi into Germany, France, and Italy, with the growing ascendancy of the Franks, especially after Clovis made close deals with the Roman Catholic Church. The abrupt ending and the gaps, especially the lack of material on Justinian's recapture of the Western empire, make me wonder if not all the material was made into this book.
Author: Bury, J. B.
Date Published: 1928
Length: 8hr 3min
Narrator: Griffin, Charlton
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