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The “Fall” of Rome
The History of Western Civilization to 1500
Prof. Dr. George S. Vascik
Outline
•  The “Fall” of Rome
•  Barbarian Invasion or Germanic
Migration?
•  A Dark Age?
Vascik
Fall or Transformation
•  The Roman world had changed dramatically
between the Golden Age and the 5th century
–  Emperors were rarely resident in Rome from the
Crisis of the 3rd Century forward
–  Constantine’s “New Rome”
–  City sacked in 410 by Goths
–  Imperial regalia sent to Constantinople in 476
•  Historians now argue for a slow “transformation”
of the Roman world into a Germanic one
Vascik
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The “Fall” of Rome
•  Aspects
–  Political structural collapse
–  Social-economic collapse
–  Cultural change/decline
•  Reasons
–  Scientific or pseudo-scientific
–  Gibbon: Christianity
–  Barbarian invasions
Vascik
The blending of Church and State
•  As the Roman state collapsed, Christian
churches filled in important gaps
–  Tertullian (160-220 AD)
•  Patrician and lawyer, first Latin theologian
•  The classics contained Christian truths
–  Ambrose (339-397 AD)
•  General, patrician, intellectual
•  Bishop of Milan
–  Took over civil administration, organized defense against
barbarians
•  Asserts Church supremacy over Emperor (390)
–  When the Emperor Theodosius massacred 7000 rebels in
Thessalonica, Ambrose made him do public penance
Vascik
The blending of Church and State
–  Augustine (354-430 AD)
•  Philosopher and scholar
•  Originally Manichaean, turned to Christianity for its
intellectual content
•  Bishop of Hippo, organized defense of city against the
invading Vandals
–  Jerome (331-420 AD)
•  Classical scholar living in Jerusalem
•  Translated Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic texts into Latin
–  This translation was called the Vulgate, because it was in
the tongue of the people
•  Mourned sacking of Rome in 410 AD
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The collapse of the Roman state
180 A.D.
325 A.D.
500 A.D.
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Cultural/artistic change
General Stilicho
Equestrian ivory
Peter & Paul
Vascik
Migration or invasion?
•  Stage One - migration
–  Opportunity (military service)
–  Plagues depopulated empire (after 165 AD)
–  The “good life”
•  Stage Two - invasion
–  Driven by nomads to the East (Huns, Avars)
–  Overpopulation and competition among
Germanic tribes
–  The dynamics of Germanic kingship
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Was there a Dark Age?
•  Lack of sources
–  End of general literacy
–  End of non-religious writing
•  Cultural, political and economic decline
–  Disruptions of invasions
•  Cities and wealth disappear
•  People flee to the countryside
–  Expansion of Islam
–  Henri Pirrene: “without Mohamed, Charlemagne
would have been unthinkable”
•  To the East, Byzantium and Islamic worlds thrive
Vascik
The Pirrene Thesis
International
trade Islamic expansion
Western Civilization
before 800
Western Civilization after 800
Vascik
The Germanic Kingdoms
The History of Western Civilization to 1500
Prof. Dr. George S. Vascik
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Outline
•  Germanic settlement
•  The Franks
•  The Merovingians
•  The Carolingians
Germanic settlement
Sub-Roman
Germans
Pre-Roman
Romanized
Roman
Post-Roman
Germanic settlement
•  Germans only make up 2-5% of the population
–  We can see this reflected today both ethnically and
linguistically
•  Needed allies to control and exploit native
population
–  Mostly pre-literate
–  Primitive administrative skills
•  Religious differences
–  Arian Christians
–  Considered heretics by the local Catholic population
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The Franks
•  The Frankish areas of settlement was in
northern Gaul and the Rhineland
•  Franks were the one Germanic tribe that
was still pagan
•  Broken up into quarrelling kingdoms
Clovis (c.466 –511)
•  Clovis (Louis/Ludwig) claimed to be descended
from hero-god Merovich
–  Hence the name Merovingian for his family
•  His wife, Clotild, was a Christian
•  Clovis came to see value of a Christian alliance
•  Decided upon mass baptism for his entire tribe in
496
–  This gave him clerical allies who enabled him to
establish his dominance over other Frankish tribes
Charles Martel
•  By 715, Frankish
kingdom had
degenerated into civil
war
•  “Mayor of the Palace”
–  Hereditary position
–  Also “Duke” of the
Franks
–  Victor in civil war
•  Battle of Tours (732)
–  Battle of Poitiers
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Pepin the Short (741-768)
•  Determined to win the royal dignity for his family
(the Carolingians)
•  Asked Pope Zacharias if it were right that “one
man has the power but not the title, while
another has the title but not the power.”
•  Zacharias’s successor, Steven, journeyed to
Paris in 754 and anointed Pepin in St. Denis
Basilica
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