A Few Questions

[Nathan Ross]

it is with no small degree of disappointment I see someone has more or less beat me to my chosen topic (the conspiratio barbarica)

I wouldn't lose heart - considering the amount of time it takes to write a novel, rewrite it, find an agent, find a publisher, edit it and wait for a suitable opening in the publishing schedule (which could all take 2-3 years), anything could have happened by the time it sees the light of day... mile:

Meanwhile, if you haven't done so already, take a look at the first few chapters of Wallace Breem's 1970 novel Eagle in the Snow, which also concerns the 367 'conspiracy'...

Ammianus and the events of 367... there is something very strange about this episode as well as the end of it.

I'll say! I think the idea that there was some sort of provincial revolt or army mutiny, perhaps led by this mysterious Valentinus, with perhaps other groups taking advantage of a breakdown in imperial control, is more likely than a massive barbarian conspiracy and rebellion. But Ammianus is too vague to allow for any certainty.

In the meantime, it's fertile ground for fictions. There was a recent theory (by Guy Halsall?) that Hadrian's Wall was settled by barbarian laeti from the continent - Franks or Saxons. Could they have been the 'areani' trusted to defend the frontier? Could they have been suborned by a traitorous Roman renegade, or infiltrated by other barbarians from further north? So much, perhaps, is possible...

;-)