The Decline of Rome and the Coming of the Dark Ages

My voice sticks in my throat…and sobs choke my utterance. The City which had taken the

whole world was itself taken - Jerome, 410 CE

Emperor Qin 221 BCE

Germanic “nations”

1. Romanized tribesCelts / Gauls / Britons

2. Romance & Germaniclanguages

3. “Imperial” Germans

Battle of Teutoburg Forest, 9 CE

“Imperial” Germans- Weregeld

- oaths

Comitatus

1. “The Scourge of God”- the Huns

2. Valens and the VisigothsBattle of Adrianople 378

Theodosius - foederati

3. Alaric 370-410

- Honorius & the last defense of the West

- Sack of Rome 410

Each community decides what willmake it happy, and when each getswhat it wants, it lives with the con-sequences of its choice.

- Augustine, The City of God

1. Battle of Châlons 451 - Flavius Aëtius

2. Fused aristocracies- German security

- Gallo-Roman titles

Letters of Sidonius

3. Origins of serfdom- tax reform

1. Theodric & the Ostrogoths 489-526

- Boethius Consolation of Philosophy 524

- Cassiodorus Greek to Latin translationsAnno Domini

- Jerome “Vulgate”

1. Byzantine Empire preserves Roman / Western ideals for 1000 years

2. Feudal system provides social continuity

3. “Romanized” Germans maintain links to Rome

4. City of God ca. 411 CEcity of God (Christianity) endures

city of Man (Rome) is falling

* Augustine argues for universal salvation…

BUT, must be a member of the Church- would give Roman Church unrivaled power and legitimacy for the next 1000 years

By 500, the western half of the Roman Empire was under the control of Germanic chieftains…

…but at the local level society still governed by Roman laws and aristocrats

Dominance of the Church

Political / cultural diversification- Germanic Kingdoms

Roman-Germanic fusion- “European” civilization

1. Clovis & the Merovingians- Patrice 487 - pagan or Arian?

2. Language, law & class- Latin and Francia “Romance”- source of law

leges barbarorum

1. Slavery- Manorial system

2. Serfdom- marriage depended on permission

3. Christian / peasant culture- blending pagan/Christian rituals

- status of women

- the Church and power

1. Land (Roman) and warfare (German)

2. Liege-lord grants fiefs- Germanic loyalty

- vassal serves lord in exchange for fief

3. Aristocratic women- non-primogeniture

4. Pursuit of honor- “quest” myths

Beowulf - 8th Century - Nordic; pagan mysticism

- oral tradition; Old English- written down by Christian scribe

Between 500 - 700, Germanic tribes establish kingdoms in the West based on Roman land-use patterns and Germanic customs

Lombards – divided Italy

Visigoths – religious strife

Angles/Saxons – Britons