Roman Aristocrats in Barbarian Gaul by Ralph W Mathisen

In 1993, R W Mathisen, currently Professor of History at the University of Illinois, wrote Roman Aristocrats in Barbarian Gaul: Strategies for Survival in an Age of Transition. At the time of its publication the book was acclaimed as an excellent, scholarly examination of the impact of the barbarian invasions on the "Roman" aristocrats of Gaul. Unfortunately, in the intervening years anyone wishing to buy the book has had to pay ever-more inflated prices, until at the time of writing (June,2011) copies of the original hardback are being offered for sale in excess of $150. Now, 18 years later, the University of Texas Press have released a paperback edition, selling for less than $25. To those of us with an interest in Late Antiquity, this is a great relief and will hopefully act as an example for other publishing houses to reprint and so help lower the extremely high prices being asked for vital textbooks...

...read the full review of Roman Aristocrats in Barbarian Gaul by Ralph W Mathisen