Lecture 15:
Germanic Invasions and the “Fall” of Rome
Topics:
Nomads and Empires
Europe after Rome
Period from 200-700 CE
Questions:
What effect did “barbarians” have on the Roman Empire,
and vice versa?
How did the Roman Empire “fall”?
In Europe, what emerged in its place?
How do these developments compare to China after the end
of the Han Dynasty?
Internal Problems of the Late Roman Empire
economic decline
crisis of authority
external threats
provincial elites
East/West differences
Solution: Division or Unity?
Diocletian (284-305 CE): tetrarchy = 2 senior + 2 junior emperors
Constantine (306-37 CE): unity
new Eastern capital = Constantinople
After 395 CE, 2 emperors: East and West
Roman Europe
Christianization progresses
Germanic peoples threaten Rhine-Danube frontier
Northern capitals: Trier, Milan, Ravenna
Roman basilica in Trier
Germanic Peoples
Tacitus (55-117 CE)
Germania
How does Tacitus describe them?
Correcting some misconceptions:
Germanic tribes long in contact with Romans
Roman frontier was not impermeable
Agricultural: often migrated in search of land
Germanic “tribes” not fixed ethnic units
Not all “barbarians” were Germanic
Some Germanic peoples settled within Roman Empire
(as “federates”) before Rome “falls”
A pair of fibulae (early 5th c. CE)
Movement!
Note:
separate
groups
Goths and Vandals
340s: Goths and Vandals
In the east, north of Danube, near Black Sea
Convert to (Arian) Christianity
Huns push Goths westward: split into two groups
Battle of Adrianople, 378: Huns & Ostrogoths
defeat Romans & kill Emperor Valens
Stilicho, the Roman general (d. 408)
Settled as federates in Pannonia (Hungary)
After 390: Visigoths, led by Alaric, in Balkans
First as army in imperial succession conflict
Then rebel when not paid; held off
After 401, Visigoths move toward Italy
410: Alaric & Visigoths sack Rome
After 415, settle in southern Gaul as federates,
and also move into Spain
Vandals: move north of
Visigoths into Gaul and Spain
ca. 415: fight with Visigoths
439: move into North Africa
Raid all over Empire by sea
455 sack Rome
Independent kingdom (until 533 CE)
Huns =
Asiatic
nomads
The Last Western Roman Emperor
Attila the Hun (d. 453 CE)
476 CE - Odoacer kills
Roman Emperor of the West
Church in
Ravenna
(5th c. CE)
A Hun
embroidered on silk,
Mongolia (1st c. CE)
The Ostrogoths
Theodoric “the Great” (490-526 CE)
King of Italy
Germanic king recognized by E. Roman emperors
Bicultural society: small Ostrogothic population
in a sea of Romans of all classes
Each under own law
Similar kingdoms emerge elsewhere in Roman Europe:
Gaul = Franks, under Clovis
So. Gaul along Rhone = Burgundians
Spain = Visigoths
Britain = several Anglo-Saxon kingdoms
A New Europe
Justinian (d. 565 CE) = last Roman Emperor to try to reclaim west
Hagia Sofia,
Constantinople
533 CE - destroys Vandals
535-55 CE - war in Italy
destroys Ostrogoths
Also destroys Italy!
from 586 - Longobards (Lombards) in Northern Italy
The Christian Church
Bishops
Monasteries
Ivory diptych (mid 5fh c. CE)
Gregory “the Great”
Bishop of Rome (590-604 CE)
Papacy
charity
morale
leadership
literacy
Latin
Archbishop’s throne from Ravenna
Germanic Europe: A New Society
Massive instability
New Order
Population decline
Kingdoms
Economy contracts
Germanic law
Christian
De-urbanization
Epidemics
Rural
Literacy declines
Subsistence-level agriculture
Europe Germanized
Germans Romanized
Christianity
Crown of Recceswinth,
the Visigothic king of Spain
Byzantine Empire = The Roman Empire
Constantinople
Greek-speaking
Urban & Commercial
Orthodox Christianity
Byzantine Icon
“Falls” in 1453 CE
Hagia Sofia