The Dark Ages: History Channel Documentary
Name: _________________________
Rome’s once invincible domain shattered into a thousand pieces, each one held by a
military strongman who wanted to collect them all. The glory of Rome was gone forever,
and the Dark Age had begun.
As used in this sentence, invincible most closely means:
a) broken
b) weak
c) incapable of being defeated
d)
The people settled next to the Roman ruins and could not sustain the structures and took
the stones from the ruins to make their own houses and buildings. Overtime, even
The___________________________________, once Rome’s grandest showcase of power and prestige,
succumbed to the decay of civilization.
In the early Middle Ages, people would have been confronted with the fact that there was
this once glorious civilization that had preceded them, and that they could still see around
them. They could see the road system the Romans built, the aqueducts that were still
standing, an the building. Hen they looked at those things and looked at the level of
engineering that I took to build them, it must have led to them to believe that they
regressed---that like had been better in the past than in the present.
After Rome’s Fall, Western Europe splintered into countless small territories commanded
by Germanic conquerors. What term did Romans use for these Germanic conquerors?
_______________________________________________
After the Fall of Rome, the average countrymen or average citizen life could be very difficult.
Christianity, which offered some hope of eternal peace, was attractive.
Clovis united the barbarian tribes of France into one emerging superpower: The Franks. He
forged a crucial alliance with the increasingly influential Roman Catholic Church. In so
doing, he proven to be a stabilizing force in a time that can be described as chaotic,
dangerous, and dark.
For centuries after the Fall of Rome, Western Europe would remain shrouded [def: covered]
in a thick layer of misery. But to the East, there was a light shining forth that pieced the
night. There, the Roman Empire endured.
What was this Empire called? __________________________________________________________
What was the name of the Byzantine Emperor who had ambitions to reunite the Roman
Empire?
____________________________________________
The Dark Ages: History Channel Documentary
Name: _________________________
In what way was Justinian’s view of his wife, Theodora, progressive for the time?
Justinian used the chaos to build his empire by building the greatest symbol of Christianity:
The Hagia Sophia Church. All the mosques in Constantinople, St. Marks Church in Venice,
and even the Vatican imitated Hagia Sophia.
What was the “invisible killer” that made its way to Constantinople?
_________________________________________________________________________
The Bubonic Plague killed 1/3 of Europe as a whole. In more concentrated areas, like
Constantinople, the disease killed up to ______________________ of the people. The Plague
arrived in Constantinople via cargo ship. It was carried by infected fleas, hidden in the fur of
_________________ who hitchhiked from parts unknown.
Justinian’s dream of a reunited Rome died with him. The Byzantine Empire decided that it
could not fund forces overseas. Justinian’s influence was not a lasting influence because the
Byzantine Empire could not financially sustain what was once the Roman Empire.
In Western Europe, what group of people preserved many of the classical literature from
the pre-Christian era in manuscripts?
Who were the “best pirates and raiders” of the Middle Ages?