The Byzantine Emperor The Byzantine Emperor JustinianJustinian

The Byzantine Emperor The Byzantine Emperor JustinianJustinian

Constantinople (founded 330)

The Spread of ChristianityThe Spread of ChristianityThe Spread of ChristianityThe Spread of Christianity

Constantine had divided the empire in half, each ruled by a co-emperor, with the eastern emperor in Constantinople as

the senior partner

The two halves would gradually drift apart and

become, by 395, basically independent political entities

Fatal development for the West

65% of all revenue came from the East but 66% of the entire

army was stationed in the West

Result was horrible and insoluble financial crisis in the

West

Troops went unpaid, supplies could not be purchased, bribes could not be paid to barbarian

chiefs, etc.

Division of the Empire into two independent halves left the Western half very weak and

vulnerable—just as the Germans were renewing their attacks on the frontier again

FEUDALIZATION• Cities declined further and power of large rural landowners

increased– In the West, cities declined rapidly and urban dwellers fled into

the countryside• Gradually fell under the control of large landowners

– In exchange for oaths of loyalty and annual fees and rents, these immigrants were granted small plots of land and military protection of landlord

• Aristocrats and peasants constructing a network of relatively stable and independent cells that survive the collapse of the Western Empire and serve as foundation for the Middle Ages

CHURCH AND STATE

• In the West, church leaders adopted an independent attitude towards the state

• What remained of towns and cities looked to Church, not the corrupt state. for protection and justice

SHIFT OF LOYALTY• Because of the leadership of the Church, German

barbarians tended to be generally respectful towards church leaders

• Many Roman citizens had come to view the state as parasitic – Robbing and persecuting them and giving absolutely

nothing in return– In their eyes, local church leaders and large

landowners were the only people they could trust for protection and justice

THE GERMANS

• Begin to migrate out of their homeland in Scandinavia and NE Russia around 500 BC– 100 BC occupy most of modern-day Germany– Primarily raised sheep and cattle– Raiding

KINSHIP• No formal political organization

– Tied together by bonds of personal loyalty• Kinship and Lordship

• Kinship – Based on clans (large group who were blood relations)– Group of clans would join together to form a tribe

• Maintained cohesion with myth that they all were descended from a legendary hero or god

– Major function was mutual protection• If a person was killed or injured, his kin were

expected to get vengeance from the offender or from the offender’s kin group.

LORDSHIP• Relationship between leader and his retinue of warriors

– Voluntary relationship• How it worked

– Leading man would issue a call to all young warriors who wanted to fight with him• Those who answered call would swear to serve

leader faithfully in return for his protection and share of spoils

• Members of different clans would join these bands• Formed groups of companions, bound to one another and

to their leader by oaths– Took place outside traditional ties of kinship

DIFFERENTIATION • Before they began their migration around 500 BC, Germans had

a similar language and culture– But after the migrations began, different groups became

isolated from one another and differences in language and culture developed.

• By 300 AD, two distinct major groups of Germans had developed– West Germans (Saxons, Franks, and Alemanni who settled

along the Roman border of the Rhine River and supported themselves by farming)

– East Germans (Goths, Vandals, and Lombards who lived in Hungary and southern Russia and supported themselves as nomadic horsemen and herders)

WEST GERMANS• Large, with red or blond

hair, worn long, and blue eyes

• Lived to hunt and fight and, during peaceful times, drank until they passed out

• No central government– Might choose war leader

in times of emergency, but– otherwise--unity provided by kinship and lordship

MUTUAL INFLUENCE• Since the beginning of the Roman Empire,

Romans and German barbarians had influenced each other– Germans began to enlist in the Roman army in

the 3rd century AD• Did not join individually• Joined in units known as Foederati

–War bands who fought for Rome under their own chieftains

– Trade developed between two groups

MILITARY SITUATION• Germans constantly pressed against Roman borders

– Sometimes broke through and caused trouble• Always ultimately driven back across the border

• Situation sometimes became confusingGerman Foederati fighting German barbarians

“MILITARY DEMISE”• Manpower shortage caused Rome to relax eligibility

requirements in the army so that most soldiers were German mercenaries by 420 AD– Many became officers and some even became

some commanders• Called Patricians

–Emperors became their puppets• But the problem remained

– Disloyal, ill-disciplined, poorly equipped German mercenaries

– Rome did not really have an army anymore

INVASION

• Up until 400, Germans satisfied to launch periodic raids into the empire

• Around 400, entire tribes and groups of tribes (nations) began to move into the empire simultaneously

• Captured huge chunks of territory, settled, set up independent kingdoms

THE HUNS

• Huns forced huge German migration– Nomadic people from Gobi Desert– Expert horsemen– Entered northern Europe

–Terrorized German tribes who lived there–Germans migrated to escape them

INVASIONS

• Visigoths cross Danube River 375 and ultimately settle in Spain

• 200,000 Sueves, Vandals, and Alans sweep into Gaul and then Spain in 406– Occupy huge chunks of these provinces– Vandals cross Strait of Gilbralter

• take control of North Africa and Sicily

THE West “END”• In the years that followed, Angles

and Saxons took Britain• Franks took a large portion of Gaul• Ostrogoths invade Italy• In 476, the patrician Odovacar

deposed the last pupper emperor, Romulus Augustulus, sent imperial regalia to Constantinople, and made himself king of Italy

• Western Empire “finished”

Romulus Augustulus

Barbarian Invasions

Many barbarian kingdoms would not last long but they did mark the way for the future

Europe, as a unified unit, was finished forever—replaced by a multitude of small, competing

entities

“Wild animals run from the dangers they actually see, and once they

have escaped them, worry no more. We, however, are tormented alike by what is past and what is to come.”

– Seneca

HUNS

The Huns appear in history in the 3d cent. B.C

Nomadic and pastoral people who originated in N central Asia, Gobi Desert

Appeared in Europe in the 4th cent. A.D., and

Built up an empire there.

Organized in a predominantly military manner.

Divided into hordes

Undertook extensive independent campaigns, living off the countries they ravaged.

Huns described as short and somewhat Mongolian appearance.

Military superiority due to small, rapid horses-on which they practically lived, even eating and negotiating treaties on horseback.

Invaded lower Volga Valley c.372--advanced westward

Pushed Germanic Ostrogoths and Visigoths

Precipitated great waves of migrations that destroyed the Roman Empire…

…and changed the face of Europe.

They crossed the Danube, penetrated deep into the Eastern Empire

Forced (432) Emperor Theodosius to pay them tribute

Attila, their greatest king, had his palace in Hungary

Most territories that now constitute European Russia, Poland and Germany were tributary to him

Paid as Roman general in chief.

When Rome refused (450) further tribute, the Huns invaded Italy and Gaul

Defeated (451) by Aetius, but ravaged Italy before withdrawing after Attila’s death (453)

Later movements are little known

The word Huns has been used as an epithet, as for German soldiers = destructive militarism.

ATTILA

King of the Huns (445–53).

After 434 he was coruler with his brother, whom he murdered in 445.

In 434, Attila obtained tribute and great concessions for the Huns in a treaty with the Eastern Roman emperor Theodosius II,

But, taking advantage of Roman wars with the Vandals and Persians, he invaded the Balkans in 441.

Soon afterward in Hungary, Attila died of a nasal hemorrhage suffered while celebrating his marriage

Attila inspired fear and was harsh, but a just ruler to his own people

Encouraged presence of learned Romans at his court

Often called the Scourge of God

Turned back & invaded (452) N Italy but abandoned plan to take Rome itself

Withdrawal, credited to the diplomacy of Pope Leo I

Motivated by shortage of provisions & outbreak of pestilence.

THE GOTHS• Divided into two sub-groups

– Visigoths (lived along Danube River)

– Ostrogoths (lived in southern Russia)

• Developed more advanced form of political organization than other Germans– United under strong kings

• Established close contact with Eastern Roman Empire– Exposed to Roman/Greek

civilization– Reason why they were first tribe

to convert to Christianity, first to become literate, and first to assume a veneer of civilization

Ostrogoth King

OSTROGOTHS

(East Goths), division of the Goths, one of the most important groups of the Germans Ancestors of Goths were the Gotar of S. Sweden

By the 3d cent. A.D., Goths settled in region N of Black Sea

Split into two divisions

Names reflect areas in which they settled

Ostrogoths settle in Ukraine

Visigoths (West Goths) moved further west

Ostrogoths subject to Huns until the death of Attila

Ostrogoths chose Theodora-the-Great as king (471)

Byzantine emperor, Zeno, commissioned Theodora to reconquer Italy from Odoacer

Ostrogoths entered Italy (488)

Defeated and killed Odoacer (493)

Set up Ostrogoth kingdom of Italy -Ravenna as capital

Justinian to send Belisarius to reconquer Italy.

Crushed Ostrogoth kingdom, but

Ostrogoths rebelled under leadership of Totila.

552 Byzantine general Narses defeated Totila, who fell in battle.

Ostrogoths lost national identity, and the hegemony over Italy passed to Byzantium, and

Shortly afterward to the Lombards.

VISOGOTHS

In 401 Alaric began attacks on Italy

First halted then successful w) invasion

Visigoths became masters of Italy

Negotiations between Alaric and Emperor Honorius failed

410 Visigoths sack Rome

Alaric dies soon afterward

•Under Ataulf, Visigoths left (412) Italy and went into S Gaul and N Spain

•Increased territories in Spain (evacuated by Vandals)

•Extended influence

•Height of Visigothic power reached under Euric (466–84)

•Completed conquest of Spain

•In 507, Alaric II defeated by Franks

•Lost all possessions N of Pyrenees

•Toledo became new Visigoth capital, and

•History of the Visigoths became essentially that of Spain