Michael Maas (editor) - The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila

This book examines the Age of Attila, roughly the fifth century CE, an era in which western Eurasia experienced significant geopolitical and cultural changes. The Roman Empire collapsed in western Europe, replaced by new barbarian kingdoms, but it continued in Christian Byzantine guise in the eastern Mediterranean. New states and peoples changed the face of northern Europe where Rome had never ruled, while in Iran, the Sasanian Empire developed new theories of power and government. At the same time, the great Eurasian steppe became increasingly important in European affairs. This book treats Attila, the notorious king of the Huns, as both an agent of change and a symbol of the wreck of the old world order.

MICHAEL MAAS is Professor of History and Classical Studies at Rice University. The focus of his research is late antiquity. His publications include The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian (2005); Exegesis and Empire in the Early Byzantine Mediterranean (2003); and Readings in Late Antiquity: A Sourcebook , second edition (2010).

The Age of Attila, which lasted from the late fourth through the early sixth century CE, witnessed manifold changes in western Eurasia. During this transformative era, the peoples and polities of the greater Roman Mediterranean world, northern Europe, the Iranian realm, and the Eurasian steppe itself took new forms and found new voices. Alterations in the geopolitical map across this broad horizon were more than matched by profound internal changes in cultural, religious, economic, and political life. Attila, the king of the Huns who terrified Europe in the middle of the fifth century, stands as an emblem of this turbulent period and gives this volume its title. Although Attila was indisputably a significant figure, this book is not about him or even about the kingdom of the Huns, though their presence is felt throughout the pages that follow. Instead, this volume provides a provocative new overview of the long fifth century, largely from a Roman perspective, by introducing many different vectors of change.

The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila is intended for an Anglophone university audience, students and specialists alike. The contributors strove to make their discussions accessible to a more general readership as well. Consequently, English translations of most ancient sources will be found in the bibliography, and secondary sources in other languages have been kept to an essential minimum. At all times, interested readers will be guided to further reading. A chronology of important events mentioned in the volume is found at the beginning of the volume in the Chronology, and thumbnail sketches of the main ancient authors, and modern translations of their works into English, are provided in Selected Ancient Sources.