Peter John Heather (born 8 June 1960) is a British

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

late antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

and the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages (historiography), Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start o ...

. Heather is Chair of the Medieval History Department and Professor of Medieval History at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

. He specialises in the

fall of the Western Roman Empire The fall of the Western Roman Empire, also called the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Rome, was the loss of central political control in the Western Roman Empire, a process in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its vast ...

and the

Goths The Goths were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe. They were first reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the 3rd century AD, living north of the Danube in what is ...

, on which he for decades has been considered the world's leading authority.

Biography

Heather was born in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

on 8 June 1960. He was educated at Maidstone Grammar School, and received his M.A. and D.Phil. from

New College, Oxford New College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by Bishop William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as New College's feeder school, New College was one of the first col ...

. Among his teachers at Oxford were John Matthews and James Howard-Johnston. Heather subsequently lectured at

Worcester College, Oxford Worcester College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms was ad ...

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

and

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

. In January 2008, Heather was appointed chair of the Medieval History Department and professor of medieval history at

Research

As a historian, Heather specialises in

and the

, especially the relationships between the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

and "

barbarian A barbarian is a person or tribe of people that is perceived to be primitive, savage and warlike. Many cultures have referred to other cultures as barbarians, sometimes out of misunderstanding and sometimes out of prejudice. A "barbarian" may ...

" peoples, and on the ethnicity of

Germanic peoples The Germanic peoples were tribal groups who lived in Northern Europe in Classical antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In modern scholarship, they typically include not only the Roman-era ''Germani'' who lived in both ''Germania'' and parts of ...

. His extensive works on the

are considered as the best available on the subject.. "For about twenty years now, the study of the Goths in English has been associated, above all, with the name of Peter Heather... for the formative period of Romano-Gothic relations from the third century to the fifth, Heather's remains the most concerted contribution...". "Peter Heather's ''Goths and Romans, 332–489'' (Oxford, 1991) is the best treatment of its subject available in any language... Unfortunately, Heather's more recent works... dvocate aneo-Romantic vision of mass migrations of free Germanic peoples... eatherlack theoretical rigour in relating archaeological and historical evidence.. "The best modern general history in English is Peter Heather's ''The Goths'' (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996), replacing the pioneering one by Henry Bradley, ''The Goths'' (London:Fisher-Unwin, 1888)." In his earliest works, Heather mostly rejected the ''

Getica ''De origine actibusque Getarum'' (''The Origin and Deeds of the Getae''), commonly abbreviated ''Getica'' (), written in Late Latin by Jordanes in or shortly after 551 AD, claims to be a summary of a voluminous account by Cassiodorus of the ori ...

'' of

Jordanes Jordanes (; Greek language, Greek: Ιορδάνης), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat, claimed to be of Goths, Gothic descent, who became a historian later in life. He wrote two works, one on R ...

as a valuable source on early Gothic history. In later years, as a result of advances in archaeology, Heather has largely retreated from that position, and now considers the ''Getica'' to be partially based on Gothic traditions, and that the archaeological evidence confirms a Gothic origin on the

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages *Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...

. Heather disagrees with the core-tradition () theory pioneered by the Vienna School of History, which contends that Germanic tribes were constantly changing, multi-ethnic coalitions held together by a small warrior elite. Instead, Heather contends that it was the freemen who constituted the backbone of Germanic tribes, and that the ethnic identity of tribes such as the Goths was stable for centuries, being held together by the freemen. Heather has written several works on the

. Contrary to several historians of the late 20th century, Heather contends that it was the movements of "barbarians" in the

Migration Period The Migration Period ( 300 to 600 AD), also known as the Barbarian Invasions, was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories ...

which led to the collapse of the

Western Roman Empire In modern historiography, the Western Roman Empire was the western provinces of the Roman Empire, collectively, during any period in which they were administered separately from the eastern provinces by a separate, independent imperial court. ...

. He accepts the traditional view that it was the arrival of the

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was par ...

on the

Pontic steppe Pontic, from the Greek ''pontos'' (, ), or "sea", may refer to: The Black Sea Places * The Pontic colonies, on its northern shores * Pontus (region), a region on its southern shores * The Pontic–Caspian steppe, steppelands stretching from n ...

in the late 4th century which set these migrations in motion. Heather's approach differs from many of his predecessors in the late 20th century, who have tended to downplay the importance migration played in the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Guy Halsall groups Heather together with Neil Christie and E. A. Thompson as being among the so-called ''Movers'', who trace the collapse of the Western Roman Empire to external migration. These are contrasted with the ''Shakers'', including

Patrick Amory Patrick Amory (born 1965) is a historian and an executive in the recorded music industry. Early life Patrick Amory was born in New York City on July 10, 1965, to literary parents. His father, the late Hugh Amory, was noted as the most "rigorous ...

and Jean Durliat, who trace the collapse to internal developments within the empire, and contend that the barbarians were wilfully but peacefully integrated into the empire by the Romans. The ''Movers'' and ''Shakers'' are largely divided, as the Germanists and Romanists were in the early 20th century. According to Heather, the idea that the invading barbarians were peacefully absorbed into Roman civilisation "smells more of wishful thinking than likely reality". Along with Bryan Ward-Perkins and other scholars affiliated with the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, Heather belongs to a new generation of historians who beginning in the early 2000s started to challenge theories on Late Antiquity that had been prevalent since the 1970s. These older theories generally denied the importance of ethnic identity, barbarian migrations and Roman decline in the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. According to Andrew Gillet, Heather's works have been championed by (especially British) academics as a "new, definitive narrative" on the fall of Rome.

Criticism

Peter Heather has been criticised by members of the Toronto School of History. Michael Kulikowski, who is sometimes associated with this group, has said Heather promotes a "

neo-Romantic The term neo-romanticism is used to cover a variety of movements in philosophy, literature, music, painting, and architecture, as well as social movements, that exist after and incorporate elements from the era of Romanticism. It has been used ...

vision of mass migrations of free Germanic peoples" and wishes "to revive a biological approach to ethnicity". According to Kulikowski, Heather "comes perilously close to recreating the old, '' volkisch'' notion of an inherent "Germanic" belief in freedom." On the other hand, Kulikowski has praised Heather for his works on Gothic history, calling him "the most subtle modern interpreter of Gothic history." Guy Halsall has identified Peter Heather as the leader of a "counter-revisionist offensive against more subtle ways of thinking" about the Migration Period. Halsall accuses this group, which is associated with the University of Oxford, of "bizarre reasoning" and of purveying a "deeply irresponsible history". Halsall writes that Heather and the Oxford historians have been responsible for "an academic counter-revolution" of wide importance, and that they deliberately provide "succour" to far-right extremists such as

Anders Behring Breivik Anders Behring Breivik (; born 13 February 1979), officially named Fjotolf Hansen from 2017 to 2025, and Far Skaldigrimmr Rauskjoldr av Northriki since March 2025, is a Norwegian neo-Nazi terrorist and mass murderer. He carried out the 2011 No ...

. Similar criticism has been levelled by Andrew Gillett, another associate of the Toronto School, who laments Heather's "biological" approach and lists Heather's research as an "obstacle" to the advance of multicultural values.

Selected works

*Peter Heather, ''The Goths and the Balkans, A.D. 350-500''.

DPhil thesis 1987. *Peter Heather and John Matthews, ''The Goths in the Fourth Century''. Liverpool:

Liverpool University Press Liverpool University Press (LUP), founded in 1899, is the third oldest university press in England after Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. As the press of the University of Liverpool, it specialises in modern languages, lit ...

, 1991. *Peter Heather, ''Goths and Romans 332-489''. Oxford:

Clarendon Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 1991. *Peter Heather, 'The Huns and the End of the Roman Empire in Western Europe', ''English Historical Review'' cx (1995): 4-41. *Peter Heather, ''The Goths''. Oxford:

Blackwell Publishing Wiley-Blackwell is an international scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons. It was formed by the merger of John Wiley & Sons Global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business with Blackwell Publis ...

, 1996. *Peter Heather, ed. ''The Visigoths from the Migration Period to the Seventh Century: an ethnographic perspective''. Woodbridge: Boydell, 1999. *Peter Heather, 'The Late Roman Art of Client Management: Imperial Defence in the Fourth Century West', in ''The Transformation of Frontiers: From Late Antiquity to the Carolingians'', eds. Walter Pohl, Ian Wood, and Helmut Reimitz. Leiden–Boston:

Brill Brill may refer to: Places * Brielle (sometimes "Den Briel"), a town in the western Netherlands * Brill, Buckinghamshire, a village in England * Brill, Cornwall, a small village to the west of Constantine, Cornwall, UK * Brill, Wisconsin, an un ...

, 2001, pp. 15–68. *Peter Heather, 'State, Lordship and Community in the West (''c''. AD 400-600)', in ''The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume xiv, Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors, A.D. 425-600'', eds.

Averil Cameron Dame Averil Millicent Cameron ( Sutton; born 8 February 1940), often cited as A. M. Cameron, is a British historian. She writes on Late Antiquity, Classics, and Byzantine Studies. She was Professor of Late Antiquity, Late Antique and Byzantine ...

, Bryan Ward-Perkins, and Michael Whitby. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, 2000, pp. 437–468 *Peter Heather, ''The Fall of the Roman Empire: a New History of Rome and the Barbarians''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. *Peter Heather, ''Empires and Barbarians: Migration, Development and the Birth of Europe''. London: Macmillan, 2009. *Peter Heather, ''The Restoration of Rome: Barbarian Popes and Imperial Pretenders''. London–New York:

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2014. *Peter Heather, ''Rome Resurgent: War and Empire in the Age of Justinian''. Oxford University Press, 2018. *Peter Heather, ''Christendom: The Triumph of a Religion, AD 300-1300''. Knopf, 2023. *Peter Heather and John Rapley, ''Why Empires Fall: Rome, America, and the Future of the West''. Yale University Press, 2023.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Heather, Peter 1960 births Living people Academics of King's College London Academics of University College London Alumni of New College, Oxford 20th-century British historians 21st-century British historians Fellows of Worcester College, Oxford Historians from Northern Ireland Male non-fiction writers from Northern Ireland People educated at Maidstone Grammar School Yale University faculty Historians of the University of Oxford