http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/dominicselwood/100259552/why-the-so-called-darkages-were-just-as-civilised-as-the-savage-roman-empire/
Why the so-called “Dark Ages” were just as civilized as the Roman Empire – For
The Telegraph
By Dr. Dominic Selwood
Dr. Domnic Selwood is a former criminal barrister, novelist and historian with a
passion for the less visited corners of the archives. He is the author of the cryptothriller, The Sword of Moses (2013), and the textbook on the Knights Templar,
Knights of the Cloister (1999).
The Roman Empire officially died on the 4th of September AD 476 – and so “civilisation”
ended, until awoken in 1401, when the contest to cast the bronze doors of Florence’s
Baptistery of St John sparked the Renaissance.
This is Victorian pseudo-history at its judgmental worst – a tragically emotionalised and
simplistic view of the past with all the historical accuracy of Errol Flynn playing Robin
Hood. It may have been good enough for a child’s history primer in the mid-1800s, but
these days we know it to be wrong in so many key ways.
First, it assumes that the barbarians overwhelmed Rome by force, bringing civilisation to an
abrupt and violent end. That may be how it happens in Hollywood, but it’s not remotely
accurate.
The Western Roman Empire had been disintegrating for centuries (just as the wheels had
come off from under the Roman Republic before it). The Western Empire was old, tired,
and coming apart at the seams. It was in a state of terminal decline. The emperors had long
ago even done the unthinkable and abandoned Rome – choosing instead to rule from Trier,
Milan, and especially Ravenna. As the map changed, they also realised they needed to shift
power eastwards, which is why the Emperor Constantine eventually built his magnificent
new Rome at Constantinople (Istanbul). There, where Europe meets Asia, the everphilhellenic Romans continued to flourish as the Byzantine Empire for another thousand
years.
So, barbarian hordes may have picked over the carcass of the fading Eternal City in the 400s,
but imperial Rome continued largely uninterrupted on the shores of the Bosphorus until AD
1453 (give or take the odd Crusader coup d’état).
Next, the notion of Rome giving way to a “Dark Age” presupposes that the Roman Empire
shimmered in light, wonder, and glory.
To an extent, it did. How can you not be impressed with a culture that gave us Catullus and
Christianity, stone arenas of up to 50,000 seats, the stunning temples at Baalbek, the
unsupported concrete dome of the Pantheon, and armies of almost living marble statues
(largely in the Greek style), depicting everything from megalomaniacal emperors to
callipygous goddesses? There is no doubt it was an impressive culture.
But beyond these achievements, there was also a distinctly less glamorous side. The Romans
were as violent as the barbarians.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/dominicselwood/100259552/why-the-so-called-darkages-were-just-as-civilised-as-the-savage-roman-empire/
The Romans were, and made no bones about being, an aggressively militaristic and
expansionist society. The pax romana was built and governed the old fashioned way – by
hardened soldiers armed with bronze and steel. You need only read Tacitus’s account of
how the legions met the druids of Anglesey to appreciate that Roman rule was not a soft,
fluffy, inclusive proposition.
Reassured by their general, and inciting each other never to flinch before a band of females and
fanatics, they charged behind the standards, cut down all who met them, and enveloped the enemy in
his own flames. (Tacitus, Annals)
If the Romans were coming, subjugated people either opened their doors and welcomed
them or faced annihilation. Whichever Roman spin-doctor put the “pax” in pax romana
certainly earned his keep.
Existence could be harsh in the farther reaches of the Empire. Yet even in the glittering city
of Rome itself, life for half of its million inhabitants left a lot to be desired.
If you happened to be born female, you probably had a very different experience of Rome.
Unless you were highborn from an aristocratic patrician family, the chances are you had no
education, no influence and no role outside the home – a significantly less glorious and
civilised existence than the one offered to the city’s male shakers and movers.
Everyone knows how Nero burned Christians as “Roman candles” to illuminate his gardens.
But he was not alone. There were the persecutions under Domitian, Trajan, Decius,
Diocletian, and the others. There was also a more personal violence, too. For instance, on
one occasion Caligula was so bored at the games that, to liven things up, he had an entire
section of the crowd rounded up by his troops and dumped into the arena to be torn apart
by the wild animals. The Emperor Commodus took the bloodmania even further. He loved
the idea of being a heroic gladiator (but only in rigged fights). To satisfy his craving, he
would have the city’s cripples tethered to stakes in the arena so he could dress as a gladiator,
pretend they were giants, and enthusiastically club them to death in front of the delighted
crowd
For all the literary and artistic wonders of ancient Rome, we also need to recognise that
Roman imperial society was complex, and it is difficult to ignore a deep element of what was
definitely “dark”.
So, if Rome was unenlightened and barbaric in certain ways, then what did Gibbon & Co
find so abhorrent about the European tribes that succeeded them?
It certainly wasn’t the brutality of their conquest – because the fall of Rome was all relatively
civilised.
When Alaric the Visigoth entered Rome in AD 410 for a three-day sack, his men did a good
deal of pilfering, but there was not much bloodshed. And 45 years later, in June 455, when
Gaiseric the Vandal sacked Rome definitively for fourteen days – one of the many dates
regularly touted as the end of the Roman Empire – he heeded Pope Leo I’s request not to
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/dominicselwood/100259552/why-the-so-called-darkages-were-just-as-civilised-as-the-savage-roman-empire/
murder the inhabitants or raze the buildings. Instead, he focused on the real priority of
stripping the Eternal City of all remaining valuables.
The restraint shown by Alaric and Gaiseric – who were both Christians – would have been
unrecognisable to the Roman legions who had slashed and bludgeoned their way across the
Empire.
Nevertheless, it is a fair question to ask whether darkness descended as the “Dark Ages” got
under way.
In a manner of speaking, it did. Writing and record keeping fell off sharply in the early
medieval period (no one says "Dark Ages" any more), leaving us with a lot less information
to pick over. But there was still plenty of learning and nib-scratching going on. Early
medieval chroniclers wrote up what they saw, heard, and read, and their works were every bit
as sophisticated as anything that came before.
Take the Venerable Bede (born AD 672), the sage of Sunderland. His history of the English
people, written in excellent clear Latin of the day, is one of the great works of English
history. No one can criticise him for ignorance. His opening stands as a classic:
Britain, an island in the ocean, formerly called Albion, is situated between the north and the
west, facing, though at a considerable distance, the coasts of Germany, France, and Spain,
which form the greatest part of Europe. It extends 800 miles in length towards the north,
and is 200 miles in breadth, except where several promontories extend further in breadth, by
which its compass is made to be 3,675 miles. (Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People)
Not long after Bede, Europe bore one of its greatest ever kings – Charlemagne (Charles the
Great, born 740s). As well as being the first European ruler since the fall of Rome to be
crowned emperor, he was passionate about education and literacy. Not content with fully
educating himself and his court, he sponsored the “Carolingian Renaissance”, encouraging
the highest standards of learning in his kingdom, taking scholars from all over (under the
direction of the mighty Alcuin of York), tasking them with overseeing a fresh burst of
education throughout his lands.
For although correct conduct may be better than knowledge, nevertheless knowledge precedes conduct.
Therefore each one ought to study what he desires to accomplish that so much the more fully the mind
may know what ought to be done. And may this be done with a zeal as great as the earnestness with
which we command it. (Charlemagne, On the Study of Letters)
Just over a century later, England found its own Charlemagne in King Alfred the Great
(born 849). He was quite happy translating theological and moral texts from Latin into
English himself, for the betterment of his people. In the preface to his most famous
translation he was clear about his priorities:
Therefore it seems better to me, that we also [like the Greeks and Romans] translate certain
books which are most needful for all men to know into that language that we can all
understand, so that all the youth of free men now in England who have the means to apply
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/dominicselwood/100259552/why-the-so-called-darkages-were-just-as-civilised-as-the-savage-roman-empire/
themselves to it be set to learning until they know how to read English writing well. (King
Alfred, Pastoral Care)
With this kind of approach to learning, it is hard to see the “barbarity” in these kingdoms. It
is simply plain wrong to categorize the early medieval period as an age of bovine ignorance.
And then there is the art.
The exquisite 'Dark Ages' cross of Lothar, 1000
AD
Ruskin famously remarked that great nations
write their most trustworthy autobiographies
in the books of their art (well, he would). But
it is worth testing his theory by looking at the
art of the early medieval period.
As far as anyone can tell, finely skilled
craftsmen continued to flourish, just as they
had in Rome. The statues were no longer
marble, and they depicted the holy family and
saints rather than pagan deities, but the skill
of the sculptor was undiminished.
In terms of the decorative arts, our museums
burst with incomparable early medieval
wonders – the Alfred Jewel, the Sutton Hoo
treasures, the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Book
of Kells, the Cross of Lothair, the list is
endless. Archaeologists have dug up a mass
of items attesting to the artistic genius of the
period.
Turning to buildings, the scale was diminished, but the quality was not. Take Charlemagne’s
Palatine chapel, now at the heart of Aachen cathedral. t is far from being a mud hut,
wooden shack, stone bunker, or anything else one might expect from the “Dark Ages”. As
you gaze around its undulating polychromed stonework, you see a Roman/Byzantine chapel
built with all the skill of the inheritors of Rome. It makes clear, if there were any lingering
doubts, why our European neighbours have no concept of the “Dark Ages”. The expression
is simply alien to them. And for a very good reason.
It never existed.
So far we have only looked at the early middle ages (AD 476–1000). But for Gibbon and the
Victorians, the Dark Ages carried on through the high middle ages (AD 1001–1300), and
even the late middle ages (AD 1301–1500). In their eyes, civilisation did not return until the
Renaissance.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/dominicselwood/100259552/why-the-so-called-darkages-were-just-as-civilised-as-the-savage-roman-empire/
But that is simply untenable. The high middle ages burned with knowledge and creativity.
The 12th-century Renaissance saw a quantum leap in human understanding and achievement
as cathedrals, universities, scholars, mystics, scientists, and philosophers pushed the
boundaries of their minds. And it is a rank absurdity to denigrate the late middle ages of
Dante, Marco Polo, Chaucer, Petrarch, and the many others, whose outlook seems closer to
our own modern experiences than to life in Rome.
So, for all the Victorians' wondrous achievements in industry, machinery, railways,
architecture, and a host of other areas, they built on Gibbon and both romanticised and
distorted the past unrecognisably, leaving a legacy we are still battling to undo.
In fact, if we shine a light closely into the gloomy underbelly of Victorian society, with its
Jack-the-Ripper slums, gin-sodden destitution, workhouses, debtors' prisons, and not always
fragrant imperial administrations, it may be that they are among the last people who should
be pejoratively labelling any age "dark".
But finally back to Gibbon, perhaps the first and greatest detractor of the middle ages. He
summed up his hostile view of the period clearly:
The clergy successfully preached the doctrines of patience and pusillanimity; the active
virtues of society were discouraged; and the last remains of the military spirit were buried in
the cloister. (Gibbon, Decline and Fall)
Aside from his well-known hostility to Christianity, his main problem with the middle ages
was therefore not that they were filled with conflict – which they were, just like today and
every other period in history. But rather he was aghast that the middle ages had turned
people soft, killing off the Roman martial spirit and zeal for war.
That’s my day sorted out then. I can clear that one up once and for all. I’ll nip down to
Fletching parish church this lunchtime and drop him off a box set of Game of Thrones.