Thomas Samuel Burns

Dr. Thomas Samuel Burns
Emory University
Ph.D. The University of Michigan, 1974 under the co-direction of Sylvia L. Thrupp and John W. Eadie
contact: histsb@emory.edu

Work in Progress:

Comparative Study of Late Roman Urbanism in Pamphylia (southcentral Turkey) and the German Provinces on the Rhine and Upper Danube, being done in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Adelaide, Australia.

Archaeological Excavation of a Late Roman/ Early Medieval farmstead at Babarc, Hungary, 1989 to the present, renewed field excavations to run May through July 1998 with Prof. Drs. H. Bender and Z. Visy, technical analysis of findings and publication in progress.

“The Barbarian Invasion in the West: the First Generation, Initial Contacts, Confrontations, and Settlements.” As part of the encyclopedic Aufstieg und Niedergang der RÄmischen Welt. Geschichte und Kultur Roms in Spiegel der neueren Forschung ed. Wolfgang Haase. Professor Haase has set aside 50-80 pages of type for my contribution to the section “Politische Geschichte: Provinzen und Radvolker” of part three of the project on late antiquity.

Valentinian I (364-75 AD): An Iron Man with Vision a biography of one of the last great Roman leaders. He is the only remaining major Roman Emperor without a modern biography for whom amble evidence exists.

ARCHEOLOGICAL PROJECTS and NUMISMATIC PROJECTS (as co-director OR co-organizer):

1) Excavation of a Roman Military Watchtower, ca. 350-425 AD, at Passau-Haibach, with Prof. Dr. H. Bender, 1978 and 79.

2) Excavation of a Pre-Roman, Celtic Oppidum at Manching near Ingolstadt, a section with Prof. Dr. H. Bender, under the overall supervision of F. Maier, Römisch-Germanische Kommission, 1985.

3) Excavation of a Late Roman farmstead at Babarc near Mohacs, Hungary, 1989 – 99, Field Director, May through July, 1998. With Prof. Dr. Z. Visy, University of Pécs and Prof. Dr. Helmut Bender, Universität Passau. Publication in progress, anticipated 2005.

4) The traveling coin exhibition, “Rome and the Germans as Seen in Coinage,” originally organized in 1987, is now at its second venue in Australia after being shown at thirty locations in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This exhibit is co-organized with Prof. Dr. Bernhard Overbeck, Staatliche Münzsammlung, München.

Books:

1) The Ostrogoths; Kingship and Society, Historia, Einzelschriften, No. 36, Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1980.
2) A History of the Ostrogoths, Indiana University Press, Bloomington,1984. A selection of the History Book Club.
3) Rome and the Germans as Seen in Coinage, with Bernhard H. Overbeck (Emory University, Atlanta, 1987). A catalog for the exhibition.
4) Barbarians Within the Gates of Rome: Roman Military Policy and the Barbarians, ca. 375-425 A.D. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1994. A selection of the History Book Club.
5) Urban Centers and Rural Contexts in Late Antiquity, with John W. Eadie (East Lansing, Michigan State University Press, 2001)
6) Rome and the Barbarians, 100 BC to AD 400, (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003). A selection of the History Book Club, the Discover Book Club, and the Reader’s Subscription Book Club.

Recent articles:

"The Twilight of Roman Raetia: An End and a Beginning," Exegesti Monumentum Aere Perennius: Essays in Honor of John Frederick Charles (Indianapolis, 1994) pp.1-18.

"Alaric, Stilicho and Radagaisus (402-06): Reflections upon Limits and Realities," in Minorities and Barbarians in Medieval Life and Thought [v.7, Sewanee Medieval Studies, ed. Susan Ridyard, Sewanee, TN, 1996] pp.141-58.

"Extending the Fulbright Teaching Experience: Internet Distance Learning," The Funnel. Newsmagazine of the German - American Fulbright Commission, 33.3 (Summer, 1997) pp.50-52.

"Imperial Propaganda and the Barbarians: Marius, Caesar, and Augustus," Humanitas – Beiträge zur antiken Kulturgeschichte. Festschrift für Gunther Gottlieb zum 65. Geburtstag, P. Barcelo and V. Rosenberger, eds. (Schriften der Philosophischen Fakultäten der Universität Augsburg, v.65, Munich, 2001) pp.63-79.

Medieval Italy. An Encyclopedia, edited by Christopher Kleinhenz, entries for Amalasuntha, Ostrogoths, Theodahad, Theodoric, Totila, and Witigis (Routledge, New York and London, 2004.

Recent Papers:

"Evolving Platforms of Roman and Barbarian Interaction, ca. 100 BC – AD 450," SUNY at Geneseo, Annual History Department Distinquished Lecture, September, 2000.

"Sometimes Bitter Friends, Romans, Barbarians, and the Birth of Europe," Tulane University, 29 October 2001.

“The Film Gladiator and Real Barbarians, Ancient and Modern,” Saint Marks’ College, Adelaide, Australia, September 2002.

“Perspective on Romans and Barbarians, ca. 100 BC – AD 400,” Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand, September 2002.

“Hidden Realities: Foreigners on Rome Coinage,” Classical Association of South Australia meeting in Adelaide, October 2002.

“Time and Change as Seen from the Roman Attitudes towards Barbarians,” Post-Graduate Seminar in Classics and General Linguistics, University of Adelaide, Australia, October 2002.

“The Decline of the Ancient City in Late Roman Pamphylia, Southcentral Turkey,” University of Adelaide, Australia, October 2002.

“Rome and the Barbarians, 100 BC – AD 400,” Smithsonian Institution, November 2003.

“Jobs, Markets, and the Transformations of Roman Frontiers,” The Society for Hungarian Antiquities and the Pannonius University of Pécs, Hungary, June 2004.