Princeton Univ. Press, 1980, $?, ISBN 0-691-10231-7, 278 pages, softback

Goffart, a professor of History at University of Toronto, pens quite the academic work, full of footnotes and deadly dull prose. That he has researched the subject of settling barbarians inside the Roman Empire is not debatable--he's done his homework. That anyone will be awake by the end of Chapter 1 is open to speculation.

The subject proves to be promising. Goffart takes the approach that Roman accommodated, that is, officially granted lands, to barbarians quite a bit more than given credit for. Indeed, rather than the rapacious invasions of conventional wisdom, the Romans manipulated the tribes. The tribes settled in Gaul and Italy and thus prolonged state institutions into the so-called Dark Ages. The approach is well documented. What Goffart challenges is the level of success achieved over a long period of time.

Goffart's execution provides ever-increasing increments of dread with each page to be turned. If the goals of academia are imparting knowledge and crystallizing thought, he observes both topic and analysis under an avalanche of dry, stilted, and boring writing. Put another way--you know you're in trouble when his footnotes take up one-third to three-quarters of each page. If all those extended footnotes are so important, they should be reflected in the main text. It's lazy writing, it's crappy writing, and it's boring writing, and pity his poor students who probably had to buy this sorry book for a course.

If you harken back to American colonial history, you understand that the Quartering Acts imposed by the British government upon the colonists caused considerable complaint. Other topics from American history include forced resettlements of Native Americans, land grants during the 19th Century in the West, and the role of public land in the US. Imagine the excitement of reading how the Romans applied their law in similar situations. It's the idea that the past can serve as future guidance that makes history interesting. This book starts with a study of quartering under Roman law, then moves into an analysis of land grants and other allotments under a variety of laws.

Alas, the excitement peters out. I lasted the first 50 pages, then started to skip forward in the hopes of recapturing the initial interest. What this needs is a complete and total reorganization, restructuring, and rewrite. I don't have an idea how well Goffart's premise holds up -- Barbarians and Romans is a voluntary read for me. I do know that such a fascinating topic deserves a better fate.

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