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?

economic decline

crisis of authority

external threats

provincial elites

East/West differences

Internal Problems of the Late Roman Empire

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

Roman basilica in Trier

Northern capitals: Trier, Milan, Ravenna

Germanic peoples threaten Rhine-Danube frontier

Christianization progresses

Germanic Peoples

Tacitus (55-117 CE)Germania

A pair of fibulae (early 5th c. CE)

How does Tacitus describe them?

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”

Correcting some misconceptions:

Movement!

Note:separate groups

Goths and Vandals

Stilicho, the Roman general (d. 408)

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

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 sea455 sack Rome

Independent kingdom (until 533 CE)

Huns = Asiatic nomads

The Last Western Roman Emperor

476 CE - Odoacer kills Roman Emperor of the West

A Hunembroidered on silk, Mongolia (1st c. CE)

Church in Ravenna

(5th c. CE)

Attila the Hun (d. 453 CE)

The OstrogothsTheodoric “the Great” (490-526 CE)

King of Italy

Similar kingdoms emerge elsewhere in Roman Europe:

Gaul = Franks, under Clovis

So. Gaul along Rhone = Burgundians

Spain = Visigoths

Britain = several Anglo-Saxon kingdoms

Bicultural society: small Ostrogothic population in a sea of Romans of all classes

Each under own law

Germanic king recognized by E. Roman emperors

A New Europe

Justinian (d. 565 CE) = last Roman Emperor to try to reclaim west

533 CE - destroys Vandals

535-55 CE - war in Italydestroys OstrogothsAlso destroys Italy!

from 586 - Longobards (Lombards) in Northern Italy

Hagia Sofia, Constantinople

The Christian Church

Gregory “the Great” Bishop of Rome (590-604 CE)

Papacy

BishopsMonasteries

Ivory diptych (mid 5fh c. CE)

Archbishop’s throne from Ravenna

charitymoraleleadershipliteracyLatin

Population decline

Economy contracts

De-urbanization

Epidemics

Literacy declines

Germanic Europe: A New Society

Crown of Recceswinth, the Visigothic king of Spain

Massive instability New Order

Kingdoms

Germanic law

Rural

Christian

Germans RomanizedEurope Germanized

Christianity

Subsistence-level agriculture

ConstantinopleGreek-speakingUrban & CommercialOrthodox Christianity

Byzantine Empire = The Roman Empire

“Falls” in 1453 CE

Hagia Sofia

Byzantine Icon