Heirs to Rome: Late Antiquity & Early Medieval Europe

Today’s Topics

• I. “Dark Ages” & “Barbarians” (5th c.)• II. Byzantine Empire (5th-14th c.• III. Expansion of Islam (7th c. - )• IV. Charlemagne & Carolingian

Renaissance (9th c.)

Germanic Kingdoms

• When?– Ca. 370-530

• Who?– Huns, Vandals, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, A-Saxons

• Where?– From East and North and South, all over Europe

• Why?– Migration; outside pressure; farmland; collapse of Rome

• So What?

“Barbarian” Invasions

Location of Germanic Tribes• P. 223 in your textbook

Fighting “Barbarians”

Ostrogoth

More Fighting Barbarians

Various views of “Barbarians”

• Ammianus Marcellinus– “They have squat bodies, strong limbs, and thick necks, and are prodigiously

ugly…They have no buildings to shelter them…They never change their clothing until it rots to pieces….” (p. 221)

• Priscus– “Attila’s dwelling had highly polished timbers and elegant towers…Maidens came

to meet him under fine white linens, and offered him dainties and other wine, which he graciously accepted from his horse.” (p. 221)

• Tacitus– “In the election of kings they look to birth; for generals, valor; between wars they

are in a sluggish repose, divided between sleep and the table….They have an ignorance of the art of building….The matrimonial bond is nevertheless strict and severe among them, and adultery is extremely rare, its punishment instant.”

Significance of Germanic Tribes in Western Civ

• Germanic + Roman + Christian = Europe

• Intermarriage, assimilation, and transformation of Roman legacy

• Slow conversion to Xity• Collapse & rebuilding of polit. states & econ.

Trade & large latifundia• Germanic legal traditions• Local > imperial control

II. Byzantine Empire

• Begun in 6th c. by Emperor Justinian; lasts until 13th c. when conquered by Turks• Capital at Constantinople• Battles against expansionist Islam• Eastern Orthodox Christianity, w/ patriarch• Innovative Legal developments• Complex imperial administration (“byzantine”)• See Map, p. 250

Emperor Justinian (527-565)

• Digest and Law Codes and Institutes

• Built Hagia Sophia• Married Theodora• Plague• Promoted Eastern

Christianity (“Greek Orthodox”)

Noble, pp. 224-228

The Hagia Sophia (Constantinople)

See p. 229 in our textbook

Mosaics at Ravenna (Justinian, Theodora)

•See pp. 227 and 237 in our textbook

III. Expansion of Islam

Arab Conquest to 733

Expansion of Islam

• Muhammad (570-632)• Prophet of new religion

• Hijra (622) • pilgrimage from Mecca to Medina

• Umayyad dynasty (661-750)• Abbasid dynasty (750-12th c.)• Sunni vs. Shi’a

IV. Charlemagne (768-814)• King of Franks (in Gaul)• New ruling ideology• Ardent defender of

Christanity• United FR, GER, NETH,

N.Italy• Supra-regional empire• Carolingian miniscule• Court at Aix-la-Chapelle• See Noble, p. 257 ff.

Charlemagne’s Empire

See also the map in Noble, p. 259

Einhard

• See p. 260 in textbook, and on Internet History Sourcebook

• Biographer of Charlemagne; consciously imitates Suetonius.

Charlemagne & the Church

Charlemagne & the Church

German Fraktur vs. Carolingian Miniscule

See Noble, p. 273

Royal Palace at Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen)

See p. 263 in textbook

Charlemagne’s Palace at Aachen

Charlemagne’s Palatine Chapel