A vindication of the Pirenne thesis!

As the news of the Paris summit on the new Mediterranean Union filtered out, my mood gradually became exultant (in an understated way).

Forty-two (forty-two!) heads of government gathered in Paris to discuss extending European Union “access” to the countries of north Africa and the middle east so that the entire Mediterranean becomes a medium for commercial, cultural and intellectual exchange.

Finally (I thought) we shall see a vindication of the Pirenne thesis!

Henri Pirenne argued that the Roman Empire did not “fall” as a result of the “Barbarian” invasions, but withered away as a result of disruption of Mediterranean trade routes following the Muslim invasion of north Africa and the middle east. His thesis was very controversial and has been challenged over the years since its publication in 1935 (even the “partial Pirenne thesis” has its critics). With the restoration of the Mediterranean as a medium of exchange the fall of “Rome” (using that word to mean Byzantine civilisation in its widest sense) will presumably be reversed - with all that that implies.

At this rate even Gregorovius might come back into fashion.

As an aside, The Times today had a big editorial on the Paris summit (prominent Editorial on the inside front cover) but no actual report. It seems typical of the newspaper (and News International in general). All opinion and no facts.

The editor of The Times is James Harding (he replaced Robert Thompson late last year).

More on the Pirenne thesis: http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/personal/reading/pirenne-mohammed.html

More on Gregorovius: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Gregorovius

Also on the subject of the (much earlier) Roman empire, the podcast of today’s Start The Week is worth listening to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/stw/ - a new book on the Emperor Hadrian is reviewed.



Above: the Emperor Hadrian is the subject of a major exhibition at the British Museum this summer (I think it opens next week). John Boorman’s film Memoirs of Hadrian is due for release this year. It is based on the novel by Marguerite Yourcenar.

I was in Heffers bookshop in Cambridge a while ago ordering some new books. There was a queue behind me, and the assistant was obviously having a difficult day and wanted to get me out of the way (“are you sure it’s not on the shelves” as if I hadn’t made much of an effort). Anyway, we came to a Yourcenar book and she totally changed. She couldn’t have been kinder or more helpful. Ignoring the other waiting customers she took me to the back of the store and explained that the Yourcenar books sometimes got shoved onto an overflow shelf (being “Y” they were at the end of the line). She asked me what other Yourcenar books I had read, what I thought of them - she was obviously a Yourcenar scholar working part-time to make ends meet.