Price: $12.00
Quantity: 1 available
Octavo, black cloth & blue boards (hardcover), gilt letters, map illustrated endpapers, xxiv + 392 pp. Fine in a Fine, mylar protected dust jacket. From dust jacket: The very word ÒbarbariansÓ conjures up images of savage warriors, cruel conquerors, and battles marked by ruthless carnage. This compilation of primary sources presents dozens of striking accounts of the exotic customs and fierce deeds of those considered barbarians by the writers of these eyewitness reports. The authors, mostly near-contemporaries of the events they describe, range from classical histirans like Herodotus and Tacitus, to generals, ambassadors, and ordinary soldiers. In often colorful prose, they describe the exploits of legendary warriors such as Attila the Hung, Genghis Khan, and Tamerlane (reputed to erect pyramids of skulls before the gates of catured cities), along with Vikig raids, Mongol invasions, epic battles, and general depravity. Beginning with an excerpt from Stabo's Geography, Chronicles of the Barbarians takes the reader from the ancient world of the Scythians -- considered barbarians not least because they couldn't speak Greek -- through centures of bloody warfare between the Romans and various foes: Britons, Germans, Gauls, and Goths of every type. By the time Attila's Huns swooped down on Europe in the fifth century, the term ÒbarbarianÓ had taken on darker overtones. Huns, Vandals, Vikings, and Mongols were seen not only as people who held different beliefs and practiced strange customs but as creatures of the devil and, paradoxically, as instruments of God's wrath...
Title: Chronicles of the Barbarians: Firsthand Accounts of Pillage and Conquest, from the Ancient World to the Fall of Constantinople.
Location Published: New York: History Book Club, (1998).
Categories: Ancient Civilization
Seller ID: 9111gcs
