MEDIEVAL AGES
- 500AD and 1500AD.
- most violent period
- English term : mIDDLE AGES
Medieval is the Latin Term for the
Middle Ages (it comes from the same
word that gave us Median in
mathematics).
The Middle Ages is the middle period of the
three traditional divisions of Western
history: classical antiquity, the medieval
period, and the modern period. The
medieval period is subdivided into
the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages.
- In the 19th century, the entire Middle Ages were
often referred to as the "Dark Ages",
Why "dark"?
The metaphor of dark and light was
originally used by Christians to describe the
darkness people lived in before God sent
Jesus Christ to bring light to the world.
Petrarch - Italian scholar during 1300s
- He used the terms dark and
light to describe learning instead of religion.
He believed that Europe was in the dark after
the light of the Greek and Roman empires
were gone.
Historians, and others, since Petrach continued to
use the phrase Dark Ages.
They argued that during the centuries following the
fall of the Roman Empire, Europe was in a state of
cultural where. A time that:
Did not support learning
Created very little culture (art, literature,
architecture, etc.)
Was repeatedly invaded
Had no central government
Had a bad economy
Was basically a miserable place to live
- but with the adoption of these subdivisions, use
of this term was restricted to the Early Middle Ages,
at least among historians.
EARLY MIDDLE AGES (550
1000)
Key Events:
1. end of the Roman Empire
2. The Byzantine Survival
3. The Rise of Islam
4. rESURGENCE OF LATIN WEST
5. Europe terrified by waves of
invaders.
6. The emergence of Knights and
Feudalism.
7. Heavy Romanization (religion,
language, laws, architecture,
government)
1. End of Roman Empire
The beginning of the Middle
The Middle Ages begins with the Fall of
the Roman Empire in 476.
The Romans had ruled provinces in
Europe, the Middle East and North
Africa for nearly a thousand years.
1.A. THE BARBARIANS TAKE OVER
Challenges to Roman security increased
during the first century (0-100 AD) as
tribes from Germania (Germany) began to
confront the Romans.
Roman legions were stretched thin across an
empire that was becoming too large to defend
easily.
the Roman Empire beginning in 376 and had
defeated the Romans at the Battle of
Adrianople in 378.
In Dacia (present-day Romania) and on the
steppes north of the Black Sea the Goths, a
Germanic people, established at least two
kingdoms:
Therving
- a Gothic people of the Danubian
plains west of the Dniester River
Religion: no known religion but Romans
bought Christianity.
Settled in Dacia, the
Thervingi adopted Arianism, a branch
of Christianity that believed
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 that Jesus was not an aspect of God in
the Trinity, but a separate being created
directly beneath God. (Discovered by
Arius)
Language: Gothic
Leaders:
Pagan Kings
-Athanaric (369381)
The arrival of the Huns in 372375 ended the
- 2 decades; many Thervings had
converted to Arian Christianity, which
Athanaric vehemently opposed,
fearing that Christianity would
destroy Gothic culture.
-Rothesteus (underking)
- was a Gothic sub-king under
the Thervingian chieftain Athanaric.
Rebel leader:
- Fritigern or Fritigernus
- (died ca. 380) was
a Thervingian Gothic chieftain whose
decisive victory at Adrianople during
the Gothic War (376-382) led to
favourable terms for the Goths when
peace was made
with Gratian and Theodosius I in 382.
Greuthung
- The Greuthungs, Greuthungi,
or Greutungi were a Gothic people of
the Ukrainian steppes in the 3rd and the
4th centuries. They had close contacts
with the Thervingi, another Gothic
people, from west of the Dniester River
Leaders:
Ermanaric - "most warlike king"
- committed suicide, faced with the
aggression of the Alani and of
the Huns, who invaded his territories
in the 370s.
- "ruled over extensively wide and fertile
regions".
Vithimiris - He ruled barely for a year
(vix anni spatio) and then he had to
face the Huns in battle. The Hunnic
king Balamber waged a long war on
Vinitharius (diuque certati) and only in
the third battle, he managed to kill
him.
history of these kingdoms.
- The Huns, a confederation of central Asian
tribes, founded an empire with a Turkic-
speaking aristocracy.
- They had mastered the difficult art of
shooting composite recurve bows from
horseback.
- The Goths sought refuge in Roman
territory (376), agreeing to enter the Empire
as unarmed settlers. However many bribed
the Danube border-guards into allowing them
to bring their weapons.
-The discipline and organization of a
Roman legion made it a superb fighting unit.
The Romans preferred infantry to cavalry
because infantry could be trained to retain the
formation in combat, while cavalry tended to
scatter when faced with opposition. While a
barbarian army could be raised and inspired
by the promise of plunder, the legions
required a central government and taxation to
pay for salaries, constant training, equipment,
and food. The decline in agricultural and
economic activity reduced the empire's
taxable income and thus its ability to maintain
a professional army to defend itself from
external threats.
German tribes such as the Goths/ Visigoths,
Vandals, Angles and Saxons (Anglo-Saxons)
took advantage of this weakness.
GOTHS AND VISIGOTHS
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 Visigoths - These tribes flourished and spread
throughout the late Roman Empire in Late Antiquity,
or what is known as the Migration Period. The
Visigoths emerged from earlier Gothic groups
(possibly the Thervingi) who had invaded
Gothic War (376382), the Goths revolted and
confronted the main Roman army in the Battle of
Adrianople (378). By this time, the distinction in
the Roman army between Roman regulars and
barbarian auxiliaries had broken down, and
the Roman army comprised mainly barbarians
and soldiers recruited for a single campaign. The
general decline in discipline also led to the use of
smaller shields and lighter weaponry. Not wanting
to share the glory, Eastern
Emperor Valens ordered an attack on
the Therving infantry under Fritigern without
waiting for Western Emperor Gratian, who was on
the way with reinforcements. While the Romans
were fully engaged, the Greuthung cavalry
arrived. Only one-third of the Roman army
managed to escape.
VANDALS
ANGLO-SAXONS
Germans migrated south from Scandinavia and
reached the Black Sea (3rd Cnetury) creating
formidable confederations which opposed the
local Sarmatians.
1.B. ROME'S GREATEST LEGACY -
CHRISTIANITY
The Barbarians desired the farmlands,
roads and wealth of the Western Roman
Empire.
The unintended consequence of conquest
was that the tribes spread the Christian faith
throughout all the peoples of Europe.
Romes official religion since 395 had been
Christianity.
This ended nearly three centuries of
persecution of Christians (including being
burned alive, crucified and thrown into the
gladiatorial arenas).
Their was only one recognised church (the
Roman Catholic). The Pope is the head of
the church.
2. Byzantine Survival
Death of Theodosius I in 395, the last
emperor to rule over both the eastern and
the western halves of the Roman Empire,
(death of theodosius: was followed by the
division of the empire between his two sons
with wife, Aelia Flavia Flaccilla
Sons :
Arcadius
- first son; weak ruler (395-408)
- his reign was dominated by a series of
powerful ministers and by his wife, Aelia
Eudoxia.
Honorius
- second son
- reign was precarious and chaotic. His
reign was supported by his principal
general, Stilicho, who was successively
Honorius's guardian (during his childhood)
and his father-in-law (after the emperor
became an adult). Stilicho's generalship
helped preserve some level of stability, but
with his execution in 408, the Western
Roman Empire moved closer to collapse.
Honorius is widely considered as one of the
worst of the emperors; it was during his
reign that Rome was sacked for the first
time in 800 years.
The Western Roman Empire disintegrated
into a mosaic of warring Germanic
kingdoms in the 5th century, making
the Eastern Roman Empire in
Constantinople the legal successor to the
classical Roman Empire.
After Greek replaced Latin as the official
language of the Empire, historians refer to
the empire as "Byzantine." Westerners
would gradually begin to refer to it as
"Greek" rather than "Roman." The
inhabitants, however, always called
themselves Romaioi, or Romans.
The Eastern Roman Empire aimed at
retaining control of the trade routes between
Europe and the Orient, which made the
Empire the richest polity in Europe. Making
use of their sophisticated warfare and
superior diplomacy, the Byzantines
managed to fend off assaults by the
migrating barbarians.
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 JUSTINIAN I OR JUSTINIAN THE GREAT
- Byzantine Emperor
- goal to reunite the Roman world as a Christian
Empire and suppressed all paganism
- Ordered the codification of Roman laws in the
Justinian Code or Body of Civil Law that defined
civil law in the Middle Ages and the modern world
- Crushed the Nika Riot with the help of his wife
Theodora
- During his reign Latin was the official language of
the Byzantine Empire, but was later changed to
Greek (another difference between two regions)
3. THE Rise of Islam (632-750)
Religious beliefs in the Eastern Empire and
Iran were in flux during the late sixth and early
seventh centuries. Judaism was an active
proselytising faith, and at least
one Arab political leader converted to it.
* JUDAISM ( is an
ancient monotheistic Abrahamic religion, with
the Torah as its foundational text (part of the
larger text known as the Tanakh or Hebrew
Bible), and supplemental oral tradition
represented by later texts such as
the Midrash and the Talmud
Christianity had active missions competing
with the Persians' Zoroastrianism in seeking
converts, especially among residents of
the Arabian Peninsula
. All these strands came together with the
emergence of Islam in Arabia during the
lifetime of Muhammad (d. 632).
Muhammad was the prophet of the
faith of Islam.
The Islamic Holy Book (The Koran) was
the final authority on faith and lifestyle
for the followers of Islam. It was
recited by Muhammed after receiving
a vision from Allah.
Like Christianity, Islam is a
monotheistic religion (acknowledging
only one God).
Although the Koran OR Qu'ran
mentions both Mary and Jesus
respectfully it states that Jesus was
another prophet (and not the Son of
God or divine).
After his death, Islamic forces conquered
much of the Eastern Empire and Persia,
starting with Syria in 634635 and
reaching Egypt in 640641, Persia between
637 and 642, North Africa.
4. Resurgence of Latin West (700-850)
- conditions in Western Europe began to improve
after 700.
The Lombards had been thoroughly
Romanized, and their kingdom was stable and
well developed.
The Franks, in contrast, were barely any
different from their barbarian Germanic
ancestors. Their kingdom was weak,
hopelessly divided, and ruled by a king who
was barely distinguishable from a peasant.
Impossible to guess at the time, but by the
end of the century, the Lombardic kingdom
would be extinct, while the Frankish kingdom
would have nearly reassembled the Western
Roman Empire.
4.A. ITALY
The Lombards, who first entered Italy in
568 under Alboin, (KING OF
LOMBARDS 569-572) carved out a
state in the north, with its capital
at Pavia. At first, they were unable to
conquer the Exarchate of Ravenna,
the Ducatus Romanus,
and Calabria and Apulia. The next two
hundred years were occupied in trying
to conquer these territories from the
Byzantine Empire.
The Lombard state was relatively
Romanized,
It was highly decentralized at first, with
the territorial dukes having practical
sovereignty in their duchies, especially
in the southern duchies
of Spoleto and Benevento.
For a decade following the death
of Cleph in 575, the Lombards did not
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 even elect a king; this period is called
the Rule of the Dukes.
Known dukes:
Zotto, duke of Benevento - was the
military leader of the Lombards in
the Mezzogiorno. He is generally considered the
founder of the Duchy of Benevento in 571 and
its first duke
Gisulf I, duke of Friuli - was probably
the first duke of Friuli (then Forum Julii
- nephew of Alboin, first king of the
Lombards in Italy, who appointed him duke
around 569 after the Lombard conquest of the
region, though some scholars believe he
appointed his brother Grasulf I, Gisulf's father.
- Alboin's marpahis or "master of the
horse", sometimes considered a shield-bearer.
He was, according to Paul the Deacon, "a man
suitable in every way.
Euin, duke of Trent - also Ewin or Eoin,
was the first Lombard Duke of Trent (from
[1]
569) during the Rule of the Dukes,
an interregnum (575585) during which
the Kingdom of Italy was ruled by its regional
magnates, the dukes of the thirty or so cities.
The first written legal code was
composed in poor Latin in 643:
the Edictum Rothari. It was primarily the
codification of the oral legal tradition of
the people.
The Lombard state was well-organized
and stabilized by the end of the long
reign of Liutprand (717744), but its
collapse was sudden.
Unsupported by the dukes,
King Desiderius was defeated and
forced to surrender his kingdom to
Charlemagne in 774.
The Lombard kingdom ended and a
period of Frankish rule was initiated. The
Frankish king Pepin the Short had, by
the Donation of Pepin, given the pope
the "Papal States" and the territory north
of that swath of papally-governed land
was ruled primarily by Lombard and
Frankish vassals of the Holy Roman
Emperor until the rise of the city-states
in the 11th and 12th centuries.
In the south, a period of chaos began.
The duchy of Benevento maintained its
sovereignty in the face of the
pretensions of both the Western and
Eastern Empires. In the 9th century,
the Muslims conquered Sicily. The
coastal cities on the Tyrrhenian
Sea departed from Byzantine
allegiance. Various states owing various
nominal allegiances fought constantly
over territory until events came to a
head in the early 11th century with the
coming of the Normans, who conquered
the whole of the south by the end of the
century.
4.B. Britain
Roman Britain was in a state of political and
economic collapse at the time of the Roman
departure c. 400. A series of
settlements (traditionally referred to as an
invasion) by Germanic peoples began in the
early fifth century, and by the sixth century the
island would consist of many small kingdoms
engaged in ongoing warfare with each other.
The Germanic kingdoms are now collectively
referred to as Anglo-Saxons.
Christianization began to take hold among the
Anglo-Saxons in the sixth century, with 597
given as the traditional date for its large-scale
adoption.
Western Britain (Wales), eastern and northern
Scotland (Pictland) and the
Scottish highlands and isles continued their
separate evolution.
The Irish descended and Irish-influenced
people of western Scotland were Christian
from the fifth century onward, the Picts
adopted Christianity in the sixth century under
the influence of Columba, and the Welsh had
been Christian since the Roman era.
4.C. Frankish Empire
In 476 the Visigoth King Odovocar removed
the last Western Roman Ruler from power.