Germanic Spirit in the Mediterranean

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translated from the Third Reich original. When the Roman Empire fell, Germanic tribes such as the Goths, Vandals and Langobards invaded Roman lands and founded their own empires. This is the story of their rise and fall.

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SC. 43pp.

This transition period in world history, from Late Antiquity to Early Middle Ages, was shaped by great Germanic leaders like Stilicho, Alarich, Geiserich, Theoderich, Odoaker and Pelagus. When the Roman Empire fell, Germanic tribes such as the Goths, Vandals and Langobards invaded Roman lands – often fighting against their Germanic brothers in Roman service (!) – and founded their own empires. This is the story of their rise and fall in Italy, Spain and even Northern Africa. In the final chapter, the 5th century Roman monk Salvianus expresses dismay over Roman decadence and grudging respect for the morality of the “barbarians”: “There is no virtue in which we Romans surpass the Vandals. We despise them as heretics, and yet they surpass us in fear of God. God puts them over us in order to punish the most indecent folks with the most chaste…where Goths rule, nobody is indecent, aside from the Romans, where Vandals rule, even the Romans have become chaste…Be ashamed of yourselves, Roman folks [römische Völker], be ashamed of your life! Almost no city free of districts of prostitution, none free of sordidness aside from those where the barbarians settle.”