L'espace géopolitique entre le Rhin et l'Elbe du IV au VI siècle apr.J.Chr.

The geographical area between the Rhine and the Elbe rivers was conceived as a part of the Roman Empire from Augustus to Marcus Aurelius and then to Maximinus Thrax ; during the IVth century it became an outward space, which was out of control from a political point of view, but already open to the spread of Christianity ; during the VIth and the VIIth century this area belonged to the cultural horizon of contemporary geographers ; finally in the Vth and in VIth century first Attila the Hun and then Theoderich the Ostrogoth tried to give it political stability by military or diplomatic means : thus they anticipated its annexation to Charlemagne’s Sacred Roman Empire.