A.H. Merills, History and Geography in Late Antiquity, Cambridge University Press 2005
Dr A.H. Merrills is a historian of the ancient and early medieval period at the University of Leicester. Since 2005 he is a member of staff in the School of Archaeology and Ancient History. He deals especially with the time of the fall of the Western Roman Empire and its political, social and intellectual impacts. The role of geographical understanding in ancient and early medieval time and its connections to historical understanding is an important focus of his work.
In his long Introduction (p. 1-34) Merrills stresses the importance of not only chronology but also geography for history writing. He entitles geography as the ‘history’s other eye’ which underlines his argument that geographical information is essential to locate historical narratives and contribute to their narrative impact. In Late antiquity, new kinds of geographic depictions challenged the previous classical Weltbild and represented a change in geographic understanding. According to him, these geographic depictions started with the apologetic historiography of Orosius in the early 5th century. Merrills outlines that these changes are still relevant for the modern interdependence between Geography and History: as present or single time-frame description (Geography) and narrative of the past (History) – “separation of the temporal and spatial becomes increasingly difficult. Historical writing, it must be stressed, is concerned, not with the passage of time per se, but with the activities of humankind over time […] History and geography alike are concerned with the activity of humanity in time and space.” (p. 8).
In the following chapters, the author analyses the role of geography in the works of four Late antique or early medieval writers: Orosius, Jordanes, Isidor of Seville and Bede. He states two propositions in advance: On the one hand the strong influence of Christian thinking about concepts of earthly empires, which on the other hand challenged and modified the imperial geographic view of Eternal Rome. In each chapter, Merrills provides an overview over the work of each author and especially introduces the geographical aspects and their connections with the historical visions of the world. As a result, he emphasizes the close relationship that Orosius and the following authors established between the complementary disciplines of geography and historiography. In this way they contributed to a new view of the world as both a physical world and world history/time.
Extent and structure of the chapters naturally vary due to the different (extend of) works of the authors and their geographic amount. While for example the geographic parts in Orosius are coherent and mainly concentrated in one place, the chapter about Isidor needs to put together more pieces and different works or passages. In the case of an author like Isidor, the observations about the status of geography in the work might thus be more of a construction.
In the end certain lines of development in historical and geographical thinking can be spotted from Orosius on and seem to be mainly a result of the Christian claim to universality and the crisis of the Roman Empire. Especially with Orosius, the effects of geographical aspects and environmental conditions on war or the outcome of war serve as an explanatory pattern. The examples of the following authors make clear that new ideas about historic and geographic connections had a great influence on later perceptions. For the strong connection between time and space though, Merrills could have also referred easily not only to modern Geographers but also to the philosophical discourse (namely Kant and successors).
The book, particularly the long introduction, is interesting for any reader who would like to gain an impression of the role that geography plays in historical context(s). It seems also useful for anyone who is interested in concrete effects that ancient and medieval thinking could have on modern concepts (such as geography and history). Besides, the structure with one chapter for each author provides the possibility to get well-aimed information for the special authors, or give further impulses for the lecture of other authors. A translation of all relevant Latin text passages in the end of the book also make possible profound understanding.