I was recently invited to give a short speech on networking through decline. This is something of a transcript. It borrows from a previous substack article, linked at the end. Imagine you are French. My apologies if that triggers some instinctive sense of disgust. Nonetheless, imagine you are a citizen of the city of Orléans. Imagine you are a citizen in that old European city. You’re surrounded by cobblestone roads, plastered buildings, and the subtle breezes that pass the hills and valleys of your beloved Countryside.
And the Roman capital of Gaul was located in Soisson, with Syagrius falling to Clovis in 486, so that though the families in support of Gaul had wished to build themselves a base of power, they were usurped and conquered by Clovis who used their lands and those of his own people as a foundation for his own kingdom.
That said, any who joined him were accepted as Francs, so that there was little in the way of conflits between him and the local people as he in some ways assimilated to them rather than the other way around.
Excellent article, I always liked Aetius and found that I could not understand why historians hated him, he beat Attila! He drove the man back! Shouldn't he be praised for this and for having attempted to save the Empire? And yet, most English-speaking historians I've met hate him and consider him a buffoon for some reason (saving a few here and there). Or they describe him as 'tedious to study' never understood that.
And the Roman capital of Gaul was located in Soisson, with Syagrius falling to Clovis in 486, so that though the families in support of Gaul had wished to build themselves a base of power, they were usurped and conquered by Clovis who used their lands and those of his own people as a foundation for his own kingdom.
That said, any who joined him were accepted as Francs, so that there was little in the way of conflits between him and the local people as he in some ways assimilated to them rather than the other way around.
Excellent article, I always liked Aetius and found that I could not understand why historians hated him, he beat Attila! He drove the man back! Shouldn't he be praised for this and for having attempted to save the Empire? And yet, most English-speaking historians I've met hate him and consider him a buffoon for some reason (saving a few here and there). Or they describe him as 'tedious to study' never understood that.
Twas a pleasure seeing you in person, glad I can read this over once more and absorb some fascinating history on top of the lessons it holds.