De l'Écosse jusqu'à la Mésopotamie, de l'embouchure du Rhin jusqu'aux contreforts de l'Atlas, Rome a dominé durant près de cinq siècles un immense territoire. Le démembrement rapide de sa partie occidentale a d'autant plus frappé les esprits que l'empire a remporté jusqu'au bout des succès décisifs, notamment contre Attila en 451.
Pour faire comprendre ce paradoxe, Peter Heather rouvre le dossier en déplaçant le point de vue. Brassant une superbe documentation avec un art consommé du récit, il s'intéresse autant à la vie culturelle, économique et politique de l'Empire qu'à celle des « barbares ». Ceux-ci, en effet, ne viennent pas de nulle part. Qu'il s'agisse des peuples germaniques ou, plus encore, des Huns, Peter Heather fait revivre de l'intérieur la logique des adversaires de Rome. Une logique qui, tout autant que celle des héritiers d'Auguste, façonnera le Moyen Âge européen. On découvre ici l'histoire de la fin de l'empire d'Occident autant que celle des débuts de l'Europe.
On appréciera notamment les pages puissantes sur la constitution de l'autre empire rival : celui des Huns. L'auteur raconte la géopolitique d'Attila, la déstabilisation des empires d'Orient et d'Occident puis la victoire finale (mais trop tardive) d'Aetius, le dernier grand consul et stratège romain. On découvrira aussi de nombreux personnages que Heather fait revivre à partir d'archives peu connues: diplomates de Rome et de Byzance toujours sur les routes, généraux, chefs barbares, impératrices ambitieuses, poètes, philosophes, théologiens...
Publiée en 2005, considérée comme un classique, cette « histoire nouvelle » est enfin traduite en français.
'A fascinating story about a religion in a surprisingly precarious position' Dan Jones, Sunday Times.
'Superb storytelling ... captivating and profound' Literary Review.
'A page-turner' The Spectator.
*A major new reinterpretation of Christendom, by one of our foremost medieval historians*.
In the fourth century AD, a new faith exploded out of Palestine. Overwhelming the paganism of Rome, and converting the Emperor Constantine in the process, it resoundingly defeated a host of other rivals. Almost a thousand years later, all of Europe was controlled by Christian rulers, and the religion, ingrained within culture and society, exercised a monolithic hold over its population. But, as Peter Heather shows in this compelling new history, there was nothing inevitable about Christendom's rise to Europe-wide dominance.
In exploring how the Christian religion became such a defining feature of the European landscape, and how a small sect of isolated and intensely committed congregations was transformed into a mass movement centrally directed from Rome, Peter Heather shows how Christendom constantly battled against both so-called 'heresies' and other forms of belief. From the crisis that followed the collapse of the Roman empire, which left the religion teetering on the edge of extinction, to the astonishing revolution of the eleventh century and beyond in which the Papacy emerged as the head of a vast international corporation, Heather traces Christendom's chameleon-like capacity for self-reinvention and astounding willingness to mobilize well-directed force.
Christendom's achievement was not, or not only, to define official Christianity, but-from its scholars and its lawyers, to its provincial officials and missionaries in far-flung corners of the continent-to transform it into an institution that wielded effective religious authority across nearly all of the disparate peoples of medieval Europe. This is its extraordinary story.
'Sweeping and engaging history ... a non-triumphalist history of the triumph of Christianity, and all the more powerful for it' Financial Times.
In the fourth century AD, a new faith exploded out of Palestine. Overwhelming the paganism of Rome, and converting the Emperor Constantine in the process, it resoundingly defeated a host of other rivals. Almost a thousand years later, all of Europe was controlled by Christian rulers, and the religion, ingrained within culture and society, exercised a monolithic hold over its population. But, as Peter Heather shows in this compelling new history, there was nothing inevitable about Christendom''s rise to Europe-wide dominance.br>br>In exploring how the Christian religion became such a defining feature of the European landscape, and how a small sect of isolated and intensely committed congregations was transformed into a mass movement centrally directed from Rome, Peter Heather shows how Christendom constantly battled against both so-called ''heresies'' and other forms of belief. From the crisis that followed the collapse of the Roman empire, which left the religion teetering on the edge of extinction, to the astonishing revolution of the eleventh century and beyond in which the Papacy emerged as the head of a vast international corporation, Heather traces Christendom''s chameleon-like capacity for self-reinvention and astounding willingness to mobilize well-directed force.br>br>Christendom''s achievement was not, or not only, to define official Christianity, but - from its scholars and its lawyers, to its provincial officials and missionaries in far-flung corners of the continent - to transform it into an institution that wielded effective religious authority across nearly all of the disparate peoples of medieval Europe. This is its extraordinary story.>
Toby, le jeune garçon trouvé à sa naissance dans une chambre du Grand Hôtel, un palace du bord de mer, a été élevé par le personnel de l'hôtel. En échange d'une mansarde sous les combles, le directeur exige de lui les corvées les plus ingrates.Un jour, sur la plage, il fait la connaissance d'Eliza Flot, une jeune sirène, et de ses parents. Sa vie en est transformée. Mais bientôt leur amitié éveille les soupçons. La famille Flot est en danger ! Toby trouve alors une cachette incroyable...
