The stranger in their midst
An iconoclastic exhibition casts a fresh light on the Dark Ages
HISTORY has been unkind to the Barbarians. Some 1,600 years have passed since they began to redraw the boundaries of Europe, yet their names are best remembered for the anti-social and savage behaviour always associated with Vandals, Goths and Huns. Now an exhibition in Venice seeks to help rehabilitate them. The Vandals? They took Carthage when the locals were watching a circus. Huns? Attila was not always as bad as he is painted; he forbore, after all, to sack Rome. As for the Goths, they were not without their redeeming features, either.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “The stranger in their midst”
From the February 16th 2008 edition
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