Both volumes are divided into chapters on the aristocracy, the underclass, family, social turmoil, Christianity, elite women, and socially subversive activities.
That this work is no ordinary reader is further indicated by its organization. The "connective tissue" (x) of the narrative supplies both fuller context and nuance to the sources quoted, while the extended length of the quotations themselves offers a more complete understanding instead of just the "operative words." Instead of broad comments followed by brief excerpts left to speak for themselves at simple face value, the author brilliantly weaves his narrative and sources together in an original and effective manner that exists nowhere else to my knowledge. Mathisen's work thus avoids the overgeneralization and lack of nuance that is the Achilles' heel of many sourcebooks and anthologies. A kaleidoscope of personal experiences of late antique men and women becomes microcosmic instances of larger social realities (xi). In order to accomplish this very ambitious task, it was essential to provide the extended historical, cultural, and literary contexts of these voices from history and integrate them into scholarly discussion. The underlying reason for the unique format of this work is Mathisen's desire to illustrate not only the public lives of the male-dominated literary aristocracy but especially the "individual, nonpublic, non-elite sides of society," including women and children, depicting "individuals participating simultaneously in social circles based upon gender, religion, ethnicity, legal and economic status, and family relationships" (2).
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Hence the first volume can stand alone and serve well as a textbook, while the second can cater to a professional audience and those specifically interested in late antique Latin. The first volume sets the evidence in an integrated historical framework, while the second concentrates on the words of the people of the age themselves.
Mathisen wisely realized early on (xi) that the translations and the Latin texts would mostly serve two different audiences. followed by pages of snippets from primary texts. What clearly distinguishes this work is that in the first volume it presents a succinct survey of the social history of the late antique west seamlessly illustrated with copious quotations from the sources, not the typical introductory paragraph on women, the army, barbarians, etc. The result is impressive, encompassing 140 Latin texts from 70 literary and epigraphical sources from Gaul and western Europe, covering the period from the end of the third to the beginning of the seventh centuries C.E.
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Mathisen's purpose is not to offer another in a long series of sourcebooks and readers (e.g., JECS 10, 421-23), useful as those anthologies may be, but to present a first volume that incorporates extended quotations of sources in translation into his own narrative framework and a second, identically arranged volume, providing the Latin originals with a separate introduction focusing on the Latinity of the sources along with apparatus and textual notes and comments on the text. This present work, however, is not only valuable but unique. The readers of this journal will be familiar with the many fine contributions Professor Mathisen has made to late antique and Byzantine studies. II, Selected Latin Texts from Gaul and Western Europe. Translated Texts from Gaul and Western Europe. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003. Mathisen, People, Personal Expression, and Social Relations in Late Antiquity, 2 vols. Journal of Early Christian Studies 12.1 (2004) 133-135 In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:
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