The sack of Rome by the Visigoths on 10th August 410 is regarded as the day on which the Western Roman Empire fell. Yet the Visigothic army did little damage to the city compared to the sea-borne attack by the Vandals in 455, or the three sieges of Rome during the Ostrogothic Wars which devastated Italy between 535 and 551. We shall reconsider the rise and fall of the Goths, and how their reputation in history has been overshadowed by the propaganda of their greatest enemy, Byzantium. This has led to their association with darkness, which is in sharp contrast to their status in Old English and related heroic verse, where they were often held in the highest honour.
The Visigoths went on to settle in Gaul and Spain and thus began the transformation of the Western Roman Empire into the nation-states of Europe. We shall look at this transformation with particular reference to the beginnings of England. The process through which the English-speaking peoples became dominant in Britain now appears more complicated than was previously thought, but far more interesting.
Recent research suggests that England may have been unified as early as the second decade of the 7th century under the authority of King Rædwald of the Eastern Angles. This same king is also thought to be the most likely royal candidate (on the present evidence) to have lain in state aboard the treasure-laden funeral-ship berthed beneath Mound One at Sutton Hoo.
We shall examine some of the artistic and technical wonders found beneath this barrow and consider the questions they raise. The superb jewellery of gold, garnet, and blue glass, for example, reveals a high-culture synthesis of styles from Britain and the Continent. Some of the finest of these masterworks appear to have been made in the East Anglian royal workshop, perhaps at nearby Rendlesham as recent excavations suggest.
We shall see that the Sutton Hoo treasures, along with related recent discoveries from elsewhere in England, such as the Staffordshire Hoard, suggest that the early seventh century was truly a golden age.
