Practice question · Multiple choice
Germanic settlements arose through negotiated accommodation rather than wholesale external destruction. What does this distinction imply for how we interpret the authority of early post-Roman kings?
Hints
- Did these incoming leaders seek to abolish Roman civic structures or operate within them?
- How did leaders like Odoacer formally position their authority relative to Constantinople?
Show the answer
D. They derived legitimacy by sustaining existing imperial frameworks
Why
Negotiated settlement meant rulers maintained Roman administrative systems rather than sweeping them away. Viewing kings as conquerors who governed solely through Germanic custom mistakes later medieval statehood for the hybrid legal accommodation that defined Late Antiquity.
Practise Late Antiquity and the Germanic Kingdoms
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