Introduction. New perspectives on the Late Roman Northwest

Since the appearance of Gibbon’s seminal work Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1789), the final phase of the West Roman empire has always attracted much scholarly attention. Several key issues in the current debate are centuries-old and have been regularly revitalised. A remarkable constant in the discussion is the relation between imperial authority and external ‘barbarian’ groups, and this interaction of endogenous and exogenous forces will be the point of departure of this volume. The Roman empire cannot be understood without considering the social dynamics in its frontier regions.This volume focuses on the social and cultural dynamics in the northwestern frontier zone during the 4^th and 5^th century, paying special attention to Germania Secunda and Britannia, regions where important new archaeological research has taken place in the last decades in combination with innovative theoretical discussions.