Transcript Heirs of Rome

Heirs of Rome
The Byzantine Empire
The Muslim Empire
Christian Europe
The Franks
The Empire at its height, c 250
Diocletian, The Tetrarchy, 285 CE
In 324, Constantine moves East
The Germanic Tribes c. 362
Rome’s last gasps…
Theodoric the Great 489-526
• - Ostrogoth king ruled Italy
from Rome… after killing
Odoacer
• His rule was enlightened,
peaceful and just- praised
by Romans & barbarians.
• Retained the Roman
Senate, civil service and
schools. Old, aristocratic
families still held high
positions in the
government
Roman culture lived on: The Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, The East Roman Empire, 550
Justinian the Great, 527-565
• Three principal
goals:
1) restore the
western provinces
2) reform the laws
and institutions
3) promote art and
architecture
Corpus Juris Civilis, the Body of Civil Law
Hagia Sophia, 532-537
Trade and Industry flourished
Mosaics
The Byzantine Legacy…
• The codification of the laws of ancient
Rome under Justinian
• Preserved and expanded the philosophy,
science, mathematics and literature of
ancient Greece.
• It prevented Muslim Arabs from advancing
into Eastern Europe
Around 610, Muhammad was a prosperous merchant
Islam in 632
The Muslim Golden Age
The 8th & 9th Centuries
• The Arab Empire stretched from Spain to
India and was unified by a common
language-Arabic, religion-Islam and
culture
• Muslims preserved and expanded the
Greco-Roman-Byzantine achievements
in science, philosophy and mathematics…
Muslim contributions to civilization
• Education- great universities at Cairo, Baghdad and
Cordova…
• Mathematics- introduced Arabic numerals, furthered the
study of algebra, geometry, and trigonometry…
• Science- discovered many chemical compounds,
including sulfuric acid…
• Agriculture- improved farming by crop rotation
• Industry- Cordovan leather; Damascus swords; damask
cloth; crystal glass; smooth paper; beautiful rugs …
• Navigation- they believed the world to be round…
• Literature- 1001 Arabian Nights…
• Medicine- used anesthetics, compiled medical texts
The Mongols: Genghis Khan
• In 1258, Baghdad
was plundered and
burned. 50,000 dead,
including the last
Baghdad Caliph…
• For 200 years,
Mongols devastated
palaces, libraries and
universities
The Mongol Empire at its height
• The cultural greatness of the Byzantine
and Islamic Empires enriched the western
world …but…
• did not produce the major breakthroughs
that created the modern world. That is the
singular achievement of western Europe.
Christianity gained many converts:
• People were dissatisfied with the old pagan
religions and were attracted by the ideas of One
God, equality, universal love and eternal
salvation…
• Early Christians displayed courage and sincerity,
willing to suffer persecution rather than renounce
their faith.
• The concept of equality appealed to the poor
and oppressed…
• Missionaries could travel and preach- Rome’s
transportation system!
Pope Gregory The Great, 590-604
• 588 Lombard invasions
• Maintained productive
lands - kept food coming
into Rome
• Ransomed captives
• Organized defense of the
city
• Sponsored hospitals and
schools
• Aided women and
orphans
• Negotiated truce in 598
The Church as Unifier
• Became the dominant institution after the
collapse of Roman authority - assumed
many political functions
• It preserved the high culture of the GrecoRoman civilization
• Membership in a universal religion
(Catholic) replaced membership in a
universal empire (Rome)
• Taught a higher morality than Germanic
culture
The Medieval monk
• Monks and nuns built monasteries and
converted the people…
• Maintained libraries with theological works and
the ancient Latin classics
• Reclaimed the land and instructed peasants in
farming -rejected classical disdain for manual
labor
• Provided help to the old, the sick, the destitute
• Adopted a code of poverty
Monks worked in a Scriptorium
The Merovingian Dynasty, 481-787
• King Clovis I,
united the
various
Frankish tribes
and conquered
most of Gaul
• In 496, he
married
Clothild who
converted him
to Christianity
• King Clovis
r. 481-511
• After Clovis –
250 years of
“do-nothing”
kings!
• Mayors of the
palace ran the
kingdom
Pepin of Heristal,
Mayor of the Palace,
687
• Pepin’s son
Charles Martel,
later known as
“Charles the
Hammer,”
cultivated this
new aristocracy
while also giving
substantial
support to
Christian
missionaries
and Monasteries
The Battle of
Tours, 732.
Military innovation:
The stirrup
The Carolingian Dynasty
Pepin III (the Short) r. 752-768
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Carolus Magnus
Charles the Great
Karel de Grote
Charlemagne
King of the Franks
(768-814)
&
Holy Roman
Emperor (800-814)
Charlemagne:
• Conqueror
• Defender of
the Church
• Patron of the
Arts & Learning
• State-builder:
missi dominici
Missi dominici among the people….
Missi dominici…
reporting back
to Charlemagne
The Holy Roman Emperor, 800
• His religious duty:
raise the educational
level of the clergy so
they read the Bible
and properly teach
the faith
• Teach reading and
writing - scriptures
free of copying errors
• Create an enjoyable
experience for
churchgoersGregorian chants
Alcuin of
York (735804) oversaw
the Palace
School at
Aachen,
attracting
the greatest
minds of the
age.
Carolingian miniscule…
• The
Carolingian
RenaissanceA flowering of art,
architecture,
literature, music
and education in
an attempt to
recapture the
past glory of the
Roman Empire
The Treaty of Verdun, 843
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