From the earliest times, successive waves of foreign invaders have left their mark on Italy. Beginning with Germanic invasions that undermined the Roman Empire and culminating with the establishment of the modern nation, Girolamo Arnaldi explores the dynamic exchange between outsider and âeoenative,âe liberally illustrated with interpretations of the foreigners drawn from a range of sources. A despairing Saint Jerome wrote, of the Sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410, âeoeMy sobs stop me from dictating these words. Behold, the city that conquered the world has been conquered in its turn.âe Other Christian authors, however, concluded that the sinning Romans had drawn the wrath of God upon them. Arnaldi traces the rise of Christianity, which in the transition from Roman to barbarian rule would provide a social bond that endured through centuries of foreign domination. Incursions cemented the separation between north and south: the Frankish conquerors held sway north of Rome, while the Normans settled in the south. In the ninth century, Sicily entered the orbit of the Muslim world when Arab and Berber forces invaded. During the Renaissance, flourishing cities were ravaged by foreign armiesâe"first the French, who during the siege of Naples introduced an epidemic of syphilis, then the Spanish, whose control preserved the countryâe(tm)s religious unity during the Counter-Reformation but also ensured that Italy would lag behind during the Enlightenment. Accessible and entertaining, this outside-in history of Italy is a telling reminder of the many interwoven strands that make up the fabric of modern Europe.

Italy and Her Invaders is an account of the invasions of Italy from the era of Attila the Hun to the invasion of Naples by the Normans in the 11th century. Written by historian Thomas Hodgkin, it provides an insightful perspective on the chaos and upheaval of the Dark Ages. The book is a classic in the field of medieval history that serves as a comprehensive guide to the civilizations that inhabited Italy during that time. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Montenero Val Cocchiara is usually referred to simply as Montenero, or Mundunur in the local dialect. It is a typical mountain village on the border of Italy's Abruzzo and Molise regions, but Montenero is more than that. Certainly the village and its people retain unique traditions and character traits because of its relative seclusion. At the same time-as fully revealed in this book-its history was tinted by contacts with numerous powerful groups over many centuries. Since Naples was the political and cultural heartbeat of south Italy, it sewed threads that tie Montenero to a heritage common to all living in the sunny south. Anyone with roots in south Italy will certainly benefit from reading this book. However, the author's greater aspiration is that others will equally enjoy the story of Montenero as a metaphor for their own ancestral village or town, regardless of country-or even see the village as a microcosm of the world, where the forces of history and culture forge the character of people.