Download History 214 Introduction to European History

“Late Antique”, “sub-Roman”, or “early
medieval”? Europe without Empire
How to Catch Flies, ca. 1400
“If you have a room or floor in your dwelling infested with
flies, take little sprigs of fern, tie them together with
threads like tassels, hang them up, and all the flies will
settle on them in the evening. Then take down the tassels
and throw them outside… otherwise, tie a linen stocking to
the bottom of a pierced pot and set the pot in the place
where the flies gather and smear the inside with honey, or
apples, or pears. When it is full of flies, place a platter over
the opening, then shake it.”
Le Ménagier de Paris (ca. 1400)
What we’re doing today
 The Background to European History: The Roman Empire
 in FIVE minutes??!!
 The ‘Fall’ of Rome or is it a Transformation?
 This lecture and next - from ‘Rome’ to ‘Europe’
 Your Timeline
 Three Interlinked Processes:
 The ‘Barbarian’ Hordes
 Christianization / Romanization
 Linguistic Divides between East and West
The Roman Empire – in 5 minutes
 Rome under Kings, 753BC-509BC
 Roman Republic, 509BC-44BC
 Ruled by Senate
 Imperial Period 44BC (Augustus) -- ?
 Pax Romana
 Expansion of empire
 Senate is increasingly ‘sidelined’ by Princeps or ‘first citizen’, ie the Emperor
 Roman Army controlled by Emperor; Legions in Imperial Provinces – not in Senatorial
Provinces
 Increasing instability in 3rd Century – Roman Emperor captured by Persians in 260AD
 Is the Empire ‘too big’? Divided by Diocletian into East & West ruled by four Emperors
The Roman Empire – in 5 minutes
By 44 BC
The Roman Empire – in 5 minutes
BY 117 AD
The Roman Empire – in 5 minutes
WHEN is the ‘fall’ of the Roman Empire?
 293 AD: Diocletian’s division
 324-330 AD: Constantine founds Constantinople

a “New Rome”?
 395 AD: West & East Empires (Honorius in Ravenna, Arcadius in
Constantinople)
 406 AD: Rome ends protection of the Rhine
 410 AD: Sack of Rome (by Alaric)
 476 AD: Odoacer (Germanic general) last Emperor in the West (at Ravenna)
The Roman Empire – in 5 minutes
The Roman Problem – Fall or Transformation?

Should the fall of the western Roman Empire be interpreted in value neutral terms,
through the lens of “transformation,” which has been the dominant scholarly view of the
last thirty years?

“Seen against this background, the ‘decline’ explanation appears outmoded. It is
premised on the idea that it is reasonable to expect cultures and societies to be able to
maintain themselves indefinitely in the same state. Phrases such as the ‘end of antiquity’
and the like assume an entity, ‘classical antiquity,’ which is not itself liable to change. But
societies do not exist in a vacuum. The world itself is in constant change. In the same
way, myriads of small and large changes happened both within the vast territories of the
empire and outside its borders: it is these changes taken together which have
misleadingly been labelled ‘decline.’ But it is not the historian’s place either to sit in moral
judgement on his subject or to impose inappropriate classical norms.”


A. Cameron, The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity (1993) p. 198
“What we call the fall of the Roman Empire was an imaginative experiment that got a
little out of hand.”

W. Goffart, Barbarians and Romans AD 418-584: the Techniques of Accommodation (1980) p. 35.
Edward Gibbon
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
 The rise of Christianity emasculates Rome, leaving it open to more powerful
conquerors, i.e. ‘barbarians’
What have the Romans ever done for us?
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9foi342LXQE
The Roman Empire – “Legacy”?
 A common linguistic and cultural ‘background’ for much of western Europe
 Infrastructure – roads, bridges, etc., cities
 Education – intellectual life, books, art, writing
 Law & Justice – Roman codes of law, property, economics, morality
 Culture – Public & Civic life (going to the Forum, etc.)
… how is this all transmitted, translated, appropriated, adapted, taken up…?
The Roman Empire – “Legacy”?
 “Legacy” -- implies passive reception
 “Transmission of culture” -- active processes (translation, appropriation)
 cultural continuities (e.g. languages, religions) are connected to power
relations, politics
 transmission is never pure
 Missing sources – much of antiquity is LOST!
 E.g. Burning of the Library of Alexandria
 most books lost; Christianization involves selective transmission of preChristian (or pre-Roman) past
From ‘Rome’ to ‘Europe’ c. 400-c.700AD
 How do we get from ‘Rome’ and its empire, which spanned most of Western
Europe, circled the Mediterranean, and included Asia Minor (Turkey!), and
parts of Palestine, and all of Egypt to a notion of ‘Europe’?
 It’s gradual, and a shift – taking CENTURIES to occur (not 30 minutes lapsed
time in lecture!!)
The “Dark” Ages?

Traditional name for 4th-9th century in European history

Scholars have other ideas

classicists -‘Late Antiquity’

Historians and medievalists -‘Early Medieval’

Depends on perspective – generally it’s held to be a discrete ‘historical period’ involving
the reconfiguration of Europe

Some Trends

“Bloody mess of a place” – poverty, famine, disease; nearly constant warfare, almost universal illiteracy,
horrific material standards of living.

Warring states in the West; Beleaguered empire in the East

Economic Collapse and Isolation in the West – except for SLAVES

FEW historical sources – they’re RARE

“Medieval” Society eventually emerges out of the rubble – carrying aspects of Rome with
it, combined with Germanic roots, and strong Christianity. It is a NEW culture.
The Timeline – 400-550
 http://digihum.mcgill.ca/~matthew.milner/teaching/classes/hist214_f13/ti
meline/
Three long-term linked processes
 Movement of ‘barbarian’ peoples into the Empire and ‘barbarianization’ of
provinces
 Spread of Christianity within the Empire, and gradual Romanization and
then Christianization of barbarian peoples under Roman influence
 Growing divisions between the Latin West and Greek East
The ‘Barbarians’…
 ‘Barbarian’ is a name assigned to the groups of people who invaded or
overwhelmed the Roman Empire from c. 3rd Century onwards
 Greek Barbaroi (Scythians etc.) – ‘bearded’
 Celts (Gauls, Britons, etc.)
 -- assimilated earlier
 Slavic groups
 Germanic groups:
 western: Franks, Frisians, Angles, Saxons, etc.
 eastern: Goths, Lombards, Vandals, Alans, etc.
The ‘Barbarian’ Hordes
The ‘Barbarian’ Hordes
Creating the ‘Barbarian Invasions’
 Are texts about the Barbarians merely mirrors of Roman values?
 what do they tell us about Romans? do Romans “create” barbarian polities?
 put “barbarianization” into local political context of provinces
 Guy Halsall (2005) “Instead of viewing the end of the Western Roman
Empire as the result of the barbarian invasions ... the barbarian migrations
were the result of the end of the Western Empire”
 Barbarian Invasions? Or barbarian coups? Accommodation of, and reliance
upon, “barbarians” for military control of the empire
 Barbarian chiefs accept positions in Roman power structure (foederati) and
partially Romanize (provinces “barbarianized”?)
 Germanic and Gothic kingdoms in west are successors of ‘foederati’
Tacitus, Germania
 (c. 98 AD)
 G. Cornelius Tacitus, 56-117,
Roman senator and historian.
 The Germania vs De Origine et
Moribus Germanorum
 (On the origin and manners of the
Germans)

Germany as a whole is separated
from the Gauls and Alpine
provinces by the Rhine and
Danube ...

Germania omnis a Gallis Raetisque et
Pannoniis Rheno et Danuvio fluminibus
...
Tacitus, Germania
“I accept the view that the peoples of Germany have never been
contaminated by intermarriage with other nations and the race
remains pure, unique, and unlike any other. As a result, their
physical appearance ... is always the same: fierce blue eyes, red
hair, large bodies. ...”
“... [the Germani] lead lives of well-protected chastity, corrupted
by none of the enticements of public performances ... banquets ...
letters... Among [them], there are few instances of adultery... no
one is amused at vice, nor calls [it] ‘modern life’...”
Tacitus, Germania, Section 4
“I accept the view that the peoples of Germany
have never been contaminated by intermarriage
with other nations and the race remains pure,
unique, and unlike any other. As a result, their
physical appearance ... is always the same: fierce
blue eyes, red hair, large bodies. ...”
Effects of Migrations
Failure of ‘Foederati’ - Battle of Adrianople (378)
Roman Legions destroyed; Visigoths bought off
Sacking of Rome – 410 (Visigoths), 455 (Vandals)
Deposing of last western Emperor (Romulus Augustus) in 476 by
Odoacer
Economic collapse? – Vandals take up piracy, disrupting trade in
the Mediterranean
Population decline (in Rome itself)
The Goths
 East European Germanic tribe
 Romanized and Christianized (Arian heresy) by
3rd century
 Move from Black Sea to western Empire
(Spain, Italy)
 Original Goths (4th-6th century)
 Term used by Renaissance for late Medieval
architecture (Davies, 356)
 Eighteenth-century term for “medieval”
 Romanticism and the “Gothic novel”
 From Romanticism to post-punk
Ivory Diptych, c. 395, depicting:
 Compare the terms Vandal, Hun, etc.
Flavius Stilicho (359-408), and his wife Serena, and
son Eucherius. Stilicho was the son of a Vandal father
and Roman mother.
He held the Roman titles Magister Militum (master of the
soldiers), Patricius (patrician), and Consul.
Ostrogoths
Theodoric I the Great (ruled 493-526)
King of the Ostrogoths
Ostrogothic Italy:
 Preservation of Roman Law
 Latin = court language
 Repaired ancient monuments in Rome
 Patronized Greek and Roman library in Rome
 Maintained court in Ravenna, where he built grand
public works
 Roman aristocracy continued to hold offices (consuls)
and play a role in administration
 Good relations between Arian Gothic and Catholic
Roman elites.
 Gothic elite gradually adopted Catholic Christianity: ex.
Pope Boniface (530-532) was an Ostrogoth.
Ivory diptych showing Fl. Rufius Gennadius Probus
Orestes, consuls (530), flanked by personifications
of Rome and Constantinople. Artifact suggests the
endurance of Roman cultural symbols.
Franks
 Germanic tribe who move into N. of Gaul
 Clovis I (ruled 481-511)
 King of the Franks
 Defeated Syagrius(486)
 Converted to Catholic Christianity (c. 490)
 Merovingian dynasty (to 751)
 Charles Martel (mayor of the palace) and battle of
Poitiers (732)
 his son Pepin the Short (751-68) deposes Childeric
III, becomes King of the Franks (Pope Stephen’s
coronation 753; see Hunt, 310)
 his son Charlemagne, b. ?742, r. 768-814
 Carolingian dynasty to 876 (breaks up)
Coin of
Theodoric the Great
Legend in Latin.
Early Christianity
 Christianity – early followers of Jesus of Nazareth following his crucifixion by the
Romans c. 33AD.
 Diverse group, centered around telling of the story of Jesus
 Spread is facilitated by Pax Romana – easy movement, trade within empire.
 Early status conflicted – heretical jews? Jewish rebellion doesn’t help. Arises at
the same time as Rabbinical Judaism with the Destruction of the Temple in 70AD
 Christians initially low-status & slaves, but demographics change in early 3rd
century as aristocrats convert
 Persecuted sporadically in provinces as superstitious, rebellious, incestuous,
cannibals
 Imperial edicts attempt to suppress Christianity over 3rd century – Christians
persecuted, killed in arenas, crucified, land seized, etc.
 Develop sense of unity despite diversity – is an empire within an empire?
Early Christianity
Imperial Christianity
 Diocletian attempts to wipe out Christianity
 Constantine converts after success at Milvian Bridge 312
 Edict of Milan 313 legalizes Christianity
 Christianity sanctioned and recognized; becomes an imperial religion
 Theodosius I – 391 Edict banning paganism – Christianity now ‘Roman’
religion
 Church Councils – Nicaea 325, Constantinople 381, Chalcedon, 451
 Creation of Christian Creeds – Nicene Creed – as statement of CORE Christian beliefs
 Patriarchal ‘Sees’: Jerusalem, Alexandia, Antioch, Rome, Constantinople
Christian Texts
 Bible
 Use of the Tanakh (Hebrew)
 New Testament not settled until 2nd Century
(Greek)
Letters of Apostles (Paul and Others)
Gospels
 Christianity as a ‘Writing’ community
 Nicene Creed
 Translations – Septuagint (Greek),
Vulgate (Latin)
 Church fathers (Greek and Latin)
Mark’s gospel, from the “Book of Durrow” (c. 650; Ireland or Northumbria) (Trinity College Dubin)
Christianization / Romanization of the ‘Barbarians’
 ‘Barbarians’ convert – religiously to Christianity, but also to Roman civic
culture.
 Conversion is a story – just like the story of the early church:
 (e.g. Bede, Church History of English People, 731)
1.
From “Our Gods” to the Christian God
2.
A chief (king) receives a Sign
3.
(Chief has already-Christian wife?)
4.
A victory in battle convinces chief
5.
(Chief confers with assembled elites)
6.
Chief converts to Christianity, and his followers and subjects with him
7.
“Good kings” defend Christianity and wage war against pagans (converting them)
Christianization / Romanization of the ‘Barbarians’
 Local religions (“old gods”) given up,
for the prestige of the (Roman) church
 romanitas = universality
 How to preserve local identity? How
to maintain connected to centres of
power?
Staffordshire Hoard of Anglo-Saxon Treasure (7th-8th cent.)
Biblical quotation on shield strap: “Rise up O Lord, and may thy enemies be dispersed
and those who hate thee be driven from thy face” (Book of Numbers, ch. 10)
Beowulf [7th-10th cent], trans. Seamus Heaney, ll. 170-188
These were hard times, heart-breaking
For the prince of the Shieldings; powerful counsellors,
the highest in the land, would lend advice,
plotting how best the bold defenders
might resist and beat off sudden attacks.
Sometimes at pagan shrines they vowed
offerings to idols, swore oaths
that the killer of souls might come to their aid
and save the people. That was their way,
their heathenish hope; deep in their hearts
they remembered hell. The Almighty Judge
of good deeds and bad, the Lord God,
Head of the Heavens and High King of the World,
was unknown to them. Oh cursed is he
who in time of trouble has to thrust his soul
in the fire’s embrace, forfeiting help;
he has nowhere to turn. But blessed is he
who after death can approach the Lord
and find friendship in the Father’s embrace.
Christianization / Romanization of the ‘Barbarians’


Christianity: provides cultural institutions (monasteries)
Cultural impact on Europe’s people: religion based on the
Book (Bible) - Literacy?


Conversion stories provide ‘pattern’ for more conversion – i.e. ‘how I did it’.
Culturally unifying? sense of identity (Christendom) vs. Others
(pagans, Jews, Muslims, etc.)
 Goths become ‘Arian’ Christians – heretics?
Division of the Latin West from the Greek East
Administrative Divisions of the Empire - Tetrarchy (Diocletian)
Praetorian Prefectures (Constantinian Reforms)
Division of the Latin West from the Greek East
Lingua ‘Franca’ – common
‘tongue’
 Law courts
 Administration
 Christianity & Public Life
Take Away
Terms
 No real ‘Fall’ of Rome; rather it evolved, and
changed in a gradual process – it’s complicated
Fall of Rome
Barbarians
Sack of Rome 410
Odoacer
Goths
Foederati
Edict of Milan
Clovis I
Theodoric I
Tetrarchy

Does the ‘Fall’ mean the city or the empire? Rome
sacked in 410, 455… Deposing of last western
emperor by Odoacer in 476?

Migrations of peoples from the east who are initially
welcomed by the Romans
 Economic collapse; decline in population
 Christianization / Romanization of New Peoples
 Linguistic divisions between east and western
Empire(s)