WEBVTT 00:01.267 --> 00:02.927 PAUL FREEDMAN: Today we're going to talk about the 00:02.933 --> 00:04.703 transformation of the Roman Empire. 00:04.700 --> 00:11.330 And I use the somewhat neutral and undramatic word 00:11.333 --> 00:15.173 "transformation." It can be "fall of the Roman Empire," 00:15.167 --> 00:18.567 "collapse of the Roman Empire..." It's clear that 00:18.567 --> 00:22.727 we're talking about the fall of the Western Empire. 00:22.733 --> 00:25.273 Next week we'll talk about the survival 00:25.267 --> 00:28.297 of the Eastern Empire. 00:28.300 --> 00:36.000 From 410 to 480, the Western Roman Empire disintegrated. 00:36.000 --> 00:41.500 It was dismembered by barbarian groups who were, 00:41.500 --> 00:44.970 except for the Huns, not really very barbarian. 00:44.967 --> 00:48.927 That is, they were not intent on mayhem and destruction. 00:48.933 --> 00:53.233 All they really wanted to do was to be part of the Empire, 00:53.233 --> 00:59.133 to share in its wealth and accomplishments, rather than 00:59.133 --> 01:01.303 to destroy it. 01:01.300 --> 01:06.530 Nevertheless, 476 is the conventional date for the end 01:06.533 --> 01:11.333 of the Western Empire, because in that year, a barbarian 01:11.333 --> 01:14.003 chieftain deposed a Roman emperor. 01:14.000 --> 01:17.070 Nothing very new about this for the fifth century. 01:17.067 --> 01:22.197 What was new is that this chieftain, whose name is 01:22.200 --> 01:26.730 spelled all sorts of different ways, but in 01:26.733 --> 01:28.733 Wickham, it's Odovacer. 01:28.733 --> 01:35.873 Sometimes he's known as Odacaer, Odovacar, Odovacer. 01:35.867 --> 01:38.697 We aren't even sure what so-called 01:38.700 --> 01:40.170 tribe he belonged to. 01:40.167 --> 01:47.297 A barbarian general deposed the child emperor Romulus 01:47.300 --> 01:53.030 Augustulus, who by an interesting coincidence, has 01:53.033 --> 01:57.303 the names of both the founder of the city of Rome and the 01:57.300 --> 01:59.200 founder of the Roman Empire. 01:59.200 --> 02:01.500 The "-us" on the end is little. 02:01.500 --> 02:03.570 It's a diminutive. 02:03.567 --> 02:08.297 So a man with this grandiose name, a child, deposed in 476. 02:08.300 --> 02:12.730 And instead of imposing another emperor, Odovacer 02:12.733 --> 02:16.733 simply wrote to Constantinople and said, "We're going to be 02:16.733 --> 02:18.033 loyal to you. 02:18.033 --> 02:23.333 We will recognize you as the sole emperor." Constantinople, 02:23.333 --> 02:25.073 however, was far away. 02:25.067 --> 02:28.927 And while of symbolic significance, this pledge of 02:28.933 --> 02:33.103 loyalty by Odovacer had no practical significance. 02:33.100 --> 02:38.200 For all intents and purposes, the Western Empire had, in 02:38.200 --> 02:42.930 476, become a collection of barbarian kingdoms. 02:42.933 --> 02:45.303 A kingdom is smaller than an empire. 02:45.300 --> 02:52.270 We use the term empire to mean a multi-national, very large 02:52.267 --> 02:55.797 state ruled from one center, but consisting of many 02:55.800 --> 02:57.630 different kinds of pieces. 02:57.633 --> 03:03.103 Kings, and the term and title "king", is of German origin. 03:03.100 --> 03:08.330 Kings are very powerful, but over a more limited territory. 03:08.333 --> 03:11.373 So there was a king of Italy now. 03:11.367 --> 03:18.027 There would be a king of the Franks, or Francia, the former 03:18.033 --> 03:19.233 Roman Gaul. 03:19.233 --> 03:21.233 There would be a king of the Lombards 03:21.233 --> 03:23.073 later in northern Italy. 03:23.067 --> 03:26.667 A king of the Visigoths, first in southern France and Spain. 03:26.667 --> 03:29.397 And we'll go over who is where at the 03:29.400 --> 03:31.070 beginning of next class. 03:34.633 --> 03:38.503 For now, we're going to talk about this collapse and its 03:38.500 --> 03:39.170 consequences. 03:39.167 --> 03:40.397 And we're going to orient ourselves 03:40.400 --> 03:43.230 around three big questions. 03:43.233 --> 03:44.333 One-- 03:44.333 --> 03:47.673 why did the west fall apart? 03:47.667 --> 03:52.367 And as a corollary to that question, was this because of 03:52.367 --> 03:56.297 the external pressure of invasions or the internal 03:56.300 --> 04:00.470 problems of institutional decline. 04:00.467 --> 04:04.297 Did it fall of its own accord or was it 04:04.300 --> 04:06.630 pushed, in other words? 04:06.633 --> 04:07.833 Question number two. 04:07.833 --> 04:11.233 Or big question number two. 04:11.233 --> 04:13.873 Who were these barbarians? 04:13.867 --> 04:17.697 And how Romanised or how different from Rome were they? 04:17.700 --> 04:22.900 And that's what we're going to talk about more on Wednesday, 04:22.900 --> 04:25.130 next class. 04:25.133 --> 04:31.973 And three, does this transformation mark a gradual 04:31.967 --> 04:37.397 shift to another civilization, or is it the cataclysmic end 04:37.400 --> 04:41.670 of the prevailing form of civilization, ushering in a 04:41.667 --> 04:46.667 prolonged period of what used to be called The Dark Ages? 04:46.667 --> 04:48.127 The Dark Ages-- 04:48.133 --> 04:53.203 roughly the sixth to eleventh century. 04:53.200 --> 04:55.170 This is a term we don't like to use. 04:58.200 --> 05:04.370 It implies a value judgment that is not only not 05:04.367 --> 05:09.267 necessarily accurate, but also expresses a certain kind of 05:09.267 --> 05:12.627 point of view of what are good periods in history and what 05:12.633 --> 05:16.503 are bad periods in history. 05:16.500 --> 05:20.530 But I'd like to just probe this third question first. 05:20.533 --> 05:27.503 That is, how severe a catastrophe was this? 05:27.500 --> 05:32.230 So is it the end of civilization, a la Planet of 05:32.233 --> 05:38.803 the Apes or Blade Runner, or any of those apocalyptic 05:38.800 --> 05:39.830 images we have? 05:39.833 --> 05:44.733 Or is it merely a shift in power and the survival of 05:44.733 --> 05:49.633 Roman institutions such as the Church, while Roman political 05:49.633 --> 05:51.003 infrastructure-- 05:51.000 --> 05:56.130 the emperor, the consoles, the pratorian prefects, and so 05:56.133 --> 05:57.703 forth-- while that collapses? 06:00.333 --> 06:03.703 A medieval historian named Roger Collins in a book called 06:03.700 --> 06:07.570 The Early Middle Ages writes, "The fall of the Roman Empire 06:07.567 --> 06:10.027 in the west was not the disappearance of a 06:10.033 --> 06:11.933 civilization. 06:11.933 --> 06:16.503 It was merely the breakdown of a governmental apparatus that 06:16.500 --> 06:23.830 could no longer be sustained." The key word here is "merely." 06:23.833 --> 06:28.933 The destruction of the Roman political apparatus may simply 06:28.933 --> 06:33.603 mean that the Roman state ceased to function, but that 06:33.600 --> 06:36.800 everything else continued. 06:36.800 --> 06:41.900 But really, the question is, could everything else continue 06:41.900 --> 06:46.330 in the absence of a state and of a political order? 06:49.133 --> 06:51.503 The destruction of the political order also means, 06:51.500 --> 06:54.100 after all, the destruction of the military system. 06:58.600 --> 07:01.770 When we opened this class, we talked about a civilization 07:01.767 --> 07:03.897 built on such things as the rule of law and the 07:03.900 --> 07:06.500 maintenance of peace. 07:06.500 --> 07:11.330 These are no longer possible if there is no military 07:11.333 --> 07:12.733 governmental structure. 07:15.367 --> 07:18.397 As we'll say a little later, to some extent people didn't 07:18.400 --> 07:22.370 know that it was the end. 07:22.367 --> 07:27.097 Because for a while, things seemed to go on as before. 07:27.100 --> 07:31.200 People were speaking Latin, they were living in cities, 07:31.200 --> 07:35.000 the cities were much less populated, but nevertheless, 07:35.000 --> 07:37.670 they were still there; there were still rich people; there 07:37.667 --> 07:40.967 were still poor people. 07:40.967 --> 07:42.397 In retrospect, though, we can see that 07:42.400 --> 07:45.130 things really did change. 07:45.133 --> 07:48.173 How much they changed is the subject of a lot of historical 07:48.167 --> 07:49.727 controversy. 07:49.733 --> 07:54.103 The world of the late Roman historians is divided, roughly 07:54.100 --> 07:57.530 speaking, between catastrophists and 07:57.533 --> 07:59.233 continuists. 07:59.233 --> 08:03.733 As you may guess, the catastrophists think the fall 08:03.733 --> 08:07.733 of the Roman Empire--, whether we date it 476 or there's some 08:07.733 --> 08:11.103 reasons to date it, really, 550 for reasons we'll 08:11.100 --> 08:13.400 learn in next week. 08:13.400 --> 08:17.770 Between 450 and 550, a catastrophe happened. 08:17.767 --> 08:21.297 A civilization was wiped out. 08:21.300 --> 08:30.100 And really, if not literally a Dark Ages, a more primitive, 08:30.100 --> 08:34.800 more war-like, more illiterate, and more rural 08:34.800 --> 08:36.430 period was ushered in. 08:39.800 --> 08:43.670 The disappearance of ancient texts, things that the Romans 08:43.667 --> 08:48.267 knew from that lost Hortensius dialogue of Cicero that 08:48.267 --> 08:55.627 Augustine was so fond of, to many other kinds of works that 08:55.633 --> 08:57.303 had been known to the Roman world, right? 08:57.300 --> 09:00.300 I can't remember exactly how many plays Aeschylus wrote, 09:00.300 --> 09:01.370 but it's something on the order of 09:01.367 --> 09:04.667 60, and we have three. 09:04.667 --> 09:06.627 So the disappearance of text. 09:06.633 --> 09:10.633 The end of literacy, except for a very small portion of 09:10.633 --> 09:13.903 the Christian clergy. 09:13.900 --> 09:17.000 A more primitive architecture. 09:17.000 --> 09:22.230 The end of grand civic projects like aqueducts, 09:22.233 --> 09:28.003 coliseums, theaters, baths. 09:28.000 --> 09:32.300 A more isolated society without these urban centers. 09:32.300 --> 09:36.900 A diminished population spread across the countryside, mostly 09:36.900 --> 09:39.970 engaged in subsistence. 09:39.967 --> 09:43.367 Hence, the, if not end of trade, the radical 09:43.367 --> 09:46.297 diminution of trade. 09:46.300 --> 09:50.970 The continuists, people like Collins whom I just quoted, 09:50.967 --> 09:54.327 see the political changes as dramatic all right, but as 09:54.333 --> 09:59.703 essentially surface phenomena based partly on archaeology 09:59.700 --> 10:02.430 and partly on a more sympathetic understanding of 10:02.433 --> 10:03.703 Christian practices. 10:03.700 --> 10:06.330 In other words, they don't think that the proliferation 10:06.333 --> 10:10.573 of churches, saints, cults, is necessarily a sign of a 10:10.567 --> 10:11.667 primitiveness. 10:11.667 --> 10:14.467 So based on both archaeology and an understanding of 10:14.467 --> 10:17.797 Christianity, these continuists point to the 10:17.800 --> 10:26.470 survival of trade, the role of bishops and other church 10:26.467 --> 10:30.697 officials, as replacing the Roman governors. 10:30.700 --> 10:33.670 The Roman political order may have collapsed in terms of 10:33.667 --> 10:39.427 staffing by lay people and military people, but the 10:39.433 --> 10:42.173 bishops were now the rulers of the city. 10:42.167 --> 10:45.097 The bishops would now do things like ensure the food 10:45.100 --> 10:49.870 supply, rally the local population against barbarian 10:49.867 --> 10:52.597 invasions, educate the populace. 10:55.433 --> 10:59.473 And the barbarian kings themselves try, with some 10:59.467 --> 11:05.727 success, to perpetuate the Roman order. 11:05.733 --> 11:07.673 They collect taxes, for example-- 11:07.667 --> 11:11.227 that may or may not be a good thing. 11:11.233 --> 11:14.503 They engage in some kind of public works, some kind of 11:14.500 --> 11:17.470 maintenance of order. 11:17.467 --> 11:23.827 The civilization of the sixth and seventh centuries in what 11:23.833 --> 11:27.133 comes to be considered Western Europe, rather than the 11:27.133 --> 11:33.103 Western Roman Empire, is not radically more barbarized or 11:33.100 --> 11:35.530 primitive than the late Roman Empire. 11:35.533 --> 11:38.073 Thus, the continuists. 11:38.067 --> 11:41.867 My own position, but I don't hold to it dogmatically, is 11:41.867 --> 11:53.197 that of a moderate catastrophist. I think 11:53.200 --> 12:01.700 something really happened; I think it's pretty radical; and 12:01.700 --> 12:03.200 it didn't happen all at once, however. 12:03.200 --> 12:06.970 476 is not the year of collapse. 12:06.967 --> 12:08.697 It is a process. 12:08.700 --> 12:11.030 I'm fascinated by the degree to which people were and were 12:11.033 --> 12:14.173 not aware of the cataclysm, but I 12:14.167 --> 12:16.297 believe there is a cataclysm. 12:16.300 --> 12:19.170 Wickham, the author of this book that we're starting now 12:19.167 --> 12:23.467 The Inheritance of Rome, Chris Wickham, straddles the fence, 12:23.467 --> 12:24.467 as you've seen. 12:24.467 --> 12:28.397 His chapter that you were to read for today is entitled, 12:28.400 --> 12:34.500 "Crisis and Continuity: 400 to 550." I would never use a 12:34.500 --> 12:36.200 chapter title like that, because it's really 12:36.200 --> 12:37.030 frustrating. 12:37.033 --> 12:40.573 Which is it, dude? 12:40.567 --> 12:43.727 He's the leading medieval historian in the English - 12:43.733 --> 12:45.373 speaking world. 12:45.367 --> 12:48.627 He is Chichele Professor at All Souls, Oxford. 12:48.633 --> 12:53.733 And if that doesn't sound impressive, well, it takes a 12:53.733 --> 12:54.473 lot to impress you. 12:54.467 --> 12:57.897 He's a very great historian, but I don't like 12:57.900 --> 12:59.130 that chapter title. 12:59.133 --> 13:06.933 As I said, I would emphasize crisis or change cataclysm. 13:06.933 --> 13:10.033 Well, let's ask what happened, beginning with the gradual 13:10.033 --> 13:12.673 involvement of the barbarians in the military and their 13:12.667 --> 13:15.167 entrance into the empire. 13:15.167 --> 13:17.367 We're using the term "barbarians", which goes back 13:17.367 --> 13:21.127 to the Greek term applied to outsiders. 13:21.133 --> 13:25.203 People outside but threatening. 13:25.200 --> 13:29.830 The Greeks defined barbarians as uncivilized by reason of 13:29.833 --> 13:35.003 their speech, which sounded to them incoherent, and by reason 13:35.000 --> 13:37.470 of the fact that they're nomads. 13:37.467 --> 13:41.427 People who lead settled lives don't trust nomads. 13:41.433 --> 13:47.003 Nomads almost extinct in our world, once dominated many 13:47.000 --> 13:50.970 geographical regions and were frightening, because they 13:50.967 --> 13:56.597 moved to around to people who liked order and familiarity. 13:56.600 --> 13:58.570 They didn't live in cities, whether they 13:58.567 --> 14:00.297 were nomadic or not. 14:00.300 --> 14:01.730 Barbarians were illiterate. 14:01.733 --> 14:06.903 This is the Greek idea of barbarians. 14:06.900 --> 14:12.030 In the case of Rome, there is no single definition of 14:12.033 --> 14:15.433 barbarian society. 14:15.433 --> 14:22.173 We can say that Rome was overthrown by a war-like, but 14:22.167 --> 14:26.897 not very fierce, group of enemies. 14:26.900 --> 14:29.770 And I use enemies in a very mild sense. 14:29.767 --> 14:33.167 The Romans perceived them as enemies; the barbarians 14:33.167 --> 14:36.797 perceived Rome as simply a nicer place to live. 14:39.767 --> 14:47.567 But there is no Mongol horde kind of event here. 14:47.567 --> 14:49.097 They're not that frightening. 14:49.100 --> 14:53.800 The Romans had known them for centuries. 14:53.800 --> 14:57.000 Most of them were even Christians Heretical 14:57.000 --> 14:58.030 Christians, OK. 14:58.033 --> 15:04.403 They're Arians, A-R-I-A-N-S, I remind you, but they're not 15:04.400 --> 15:06.470 unfamiliar, again, even in their religion. 15:09.033 --> 15:12.033 They've been at the borders of the Roman empire forever. 15:16.300 --> 15:20.730 Like most empires, Rome was at the one hand, very aggressive, 15:20.733 --> 15:24.333 and on the other hand thought of itself is peace-loving. 15:24.333 --> 15:27.733 It maintained the Danube-Rhine frontier as a kind of natural 15:27.733 --> 15:30.433 frontier, every so often crossing those rivers to 15:30.433 --> 15:34.073 punish German tribes who were probing the 15:34.067 --> 15:35.297 frontiers of the empire. 15:35.300 --> 15:38.770 But generally speaking, the Romans were not interested in 15:38.767 --> 15:42.027 what they perceived, somewhat inaccurately, as endless 15:42.033 --> 15:44.933 forests inhabited by primitive people. 15:49.467 --> 15:52.327 The continuists argue, with some justice, that between 250 15:52.333 --> 15:56.073 and 600 what changed was not that primitive warriors 15:56.067 --> 15:59.027 conquered a civilized state, in the way that say, the 15:59.033 --> 16:04.833 Mongols conquered China in the thirteenth century, but that 16:04.833 --> 16:08.773 the ancient world became the medieval world. 16:08.767 --> 16:13.497 That is, an urban culture became more rural. 16:13.500 --> 16:18.130 A Latin culture became amalgamated to a German one. 16:18.133 --> 16:21.603 Pagan society became Christian. 16:21.600 --> 16:24.770 Having said this, it's nevertheless true that the 16:24.767 --> 16:27.497 most dramatic event to the fifth century is that people 16:27.500 --> 16:31.930 who had been outside the empire were now in it. 16:31.933 --> 16:37.073 If we ask why the Western Empire collapsed, the simple, 16:37.067 --> 16:40.367 most immediate answer is it was taken over by German 16:40.367 --> 16:44.027 confederations, tribes. 16:44.033 --> 16:46.533 They came not so much as conquerors as military 16:46.533 --> 16:52.603 recruits, or as allies, or as refugees. 16:52.600 --> 16:57.730 So rather than as guys with knives in their teeth hacking 16:57.733 --> 17:03.503 and slashing and burning, they came as pathetic refugees, 17:03.500 --> 17:08.400 maybe doing some hacking, slashing, and burning; as 17:08.400 --> 17:12.130 military recruits; and as military allies. 17:12.133 --> 17:18.903 Again, not without a certain amount of H. S. B.: hacking 17:18.900 --> 17:20.400 and slashing and burning. 17:20.400 --> 17:24.200 But not a cataclysmic amount. 17:24.200 --> 17:27.600 They admired Rome. 17:27.600 --> 17:30.030 They wanted to continue its institutions. 17:30.033 --> 17:33.573 They regarded Rome as a rich and as civilized. 17:33.567 --> 17:38.097 The last thing they wanted was to still live in little huts 17:38.100 --> 17:41.330 in the forest. 17:41.333 --> 17:44.533 They were not the bringers of a revolution. 17:44.533 --> 17:48.673 They were not even that numerous, amounting to some 17:48.667 --> 17:49.927 tens of thousands. 17:55.267 --> 17:59.527 Nevertheless, they ended Roman government, accelerated the 17:59.533 --> 18:01.533 changes we've already described towards 18:01.533 --> 18:04.073 depopulation, decentralization, 18:04.067 --> 18:05.297 ruralization-- 18:10.967 --> 18:14.797 a less cultivated, less literate, less Mediterranean- 18:14.800 --> 18:17.900 centered society. 18:17.900 --> 18:21.170 So I want to begin the description of this process by 18:21.167 --> 18:23.567 the changes in the Roman army. 18:23.567 --> 18:29.097 We saw that Diocletian, around 300 AD, militarizes Roman 18:29.100 --> 18:33.770 government, pays for the, perhaps, doubling of the 18:33.767 --> 18:39.527 military presence of the Roman army by changing 18:39.533 --> 18:40.703 the taxation system. 18:40.700 --> 18:43.830 So the twin pillars of the empire in the fourth century 18:43.833 --> 18:48.903 are army and taxation, the latter requiring a civilian 18:48.900 --> 18:50.130 governmental apparatus. 18:53.133 --> 18:55.303 The army was a problem in terms of the 18:55.300 --> 18:58.370 recruiting of soldiers. 18:58.367 --> 19:01.397 This may have to do with the population; it may have to do 19:01.400 --> 19:04.200 with the unattractive nature of military life, but 19:04.200 --> 19:08.100 nevertheless there was already, in the fourth 19:08.100 --> 19:15.300 century, a tendency to get the more familiar barbarians into 19:15.300 --> 19:17.900 the army as Roman soldiers. 19:17.900 --> 19:23.400 Because they were available, they were near the frontiers-- 19:23.400 --> 19:26.030 this may seem odd. 19:26.033 --> 19:32.403 Why hire your potential enemy to be soldiers? 19:32.400 --> 19:35.130 But there's a lot of precedent. 19:35.133 --> 19:39.303 Very often, empires don't really want to supply their 19:39.300 --> 19:42.430 own manpower. 19:42.433 --> 19:46.273 And the people who are the best soldiers are also the 19:46.267 --> 19:49.767 people who may, in the future, be most threatening. 19:49.767 --> 19:54.267 I don't want to pursue this simile, but the Afghan 19:54.267 --> 19:59.397 Mujahidiee were trained by Americans, because at one time 19:59.400 --> 20:02.430 they were opposed to the Russian occupation of 20:02.433 --> 20:03.533 Afghanistan. 20:03.533 --> 20:06.373 As it happened, in retrospect, that had some bad 20:06.367 --> 20:07.597 consequences. 20:07.600 --> 20:12.430 But at the time, it seemed like a good idea. 20:12.433 --> 20:19.303 So in the 370s a group called the Visigoths asks to be 20:19.300 --> 20:23.330 admitted to the Roman Empire as an allied army. 20:23.333 --> 20:32.603 In other words, the whole group will be federated with 20:32.600 --> 20:33.270 the Romans. 20:33.267 --> 20:39.897 And federati is the term given for barbarian troops serving 20:39.900 --> 20:41.230 under the Roman Empire. 20:45.200 --> 20:46.770 Why were they on the move? 20:46.767 --> 20:50.267 These are not really nomadic people. 20:50.267 --> 20:56.427 They don't live in yurts or travel across Central Asia. 20:56.433 --> 20:59.403 They tend to be settled in villages. 20:59.400 --> 21:04.100 They have dairy cattle rather than have some kind of nomadic 21:04.100 --> 21:06.030 sheep, or something like. 21:06.033 --> 21:08.303 They're pretty settled. 21:08.300 --> 21:12.530 Nevertheless, in 378, they were on the move. 21:12.533 --> 21:17.703 And we don't know why. 21:17.700 --> 21:20.700 Some enemy pushing them across the Danube 21:20.700 --> 21:22.030 into what's now Romania? 21:26.200 --> 21:29.100 It may be the weakness of the Empire. 21:29.100 --> 21:32.170 They may have seen that the empire was not so strong and 21:32.167 --> 21:36.197 made a proposition, kind of like a takeover. 21:36.200 --> 21:43.370 You don't seem to be doing so well in your stock or your 21:43.367 --> 21:48.567 finances, so we're going to infuse some capital into you, 21:48.567 --> 21:50.597 i.e., our soldiers. 21:50.600 --> 21:52.730 They also may have been hungry. 21:52.733 --> 21:55.473 Certainly, once they crossed the frontier, the Romans were 21:55.467 --> 21:58.597 rather inept in feeding them, in supplying them, and the 21:58.600 --> 22:01.800 Visigoths rebelled. 22:01.800 --> 22:04.930 Thus far, nothing incredibly new. 22:04.933 --> 22:09.733 What really was new was that the emperor came with an army 22:09.733 --> 22:11.403 to suppress them. 22:11.400 --> 22:14.430 And rather to his surprise and everybody else's, the emperor 22:14.433 --> 22:23.203 Valens was defeated at the battle of Adrianopole. 22:23.200 --> 22:24.670 Defeated by the barbarians. 22:28.000 --> 22:28.730 Yeah. 22:28.733 --> 22:31.773 STUDENT: So, being involved in this federati, what did they 22:31.767 --> 22:33.697 get from the Roman Empire? 22:33.700 --> 22:35.930 Did they agree to fight for them and then they'd get land? 22:35.933 --> 22:37.533 PROFESSOR: They agreed to fight for them and 22:37.533 --> 22:41.103 they got a combination of land, or supposed to get land 22:41.100 --> 22:45.230 or territory, and some kind of maintenance 22:45.233 --> 22:47.933 in kind and or money. 22:47.933 --> 22:51.933 The question was about what the Visigoths, as federati, 22:51.933 --> 22:53.873 got out of this deal. 22:53.867 --> 22:55.227 Or were supposed to get. 23:01.067 --> 23:05.227 The defeat at Valens was not immediately cataclysmic, 23:05.233 --> 23:09.103 because, even though he was killed at this battle, even 23:09.100 --> 23:12.600 though it sent shock waves throughout the empire, in 23:12.600 --> 23:15.230 fact, it would not be this area that succumbed to the 23:15.233 --> 23:21.703 barbarians--, the East. Romania, or the Balkans would 23:21.700 --> 23:24.900 be part of the Eastern Empire. 23:24.900 --> 23:28.170 And indeed, both Adrianople the city, and Constantinople, 23:28.167 --> 23:32.297 the even greater city, would withstand Visigothic attempts 23:32.300 --> 23:34.130 to take them. 23:34.133 --> 23:37.103 In 382, the Visigoths were officially recognized, and 23:37.100 --> 23:40.200 they were allowed to settle in the Balkans as federati. 23:40.200 --> 23:43.130 And in fact, they were reasonably useful troops to 23:43.133 --> 23:49.433 the Roman Empire in the 380s and 390s. 23:49.433 --> 23:51.803 What this does show, however, is the 23:51.800 --> 23:53.470 barbarization of the army. 23:53.467 --> 23:57.597 And another aspect of that is that the army tended to be 23:57.600 --> 24:01.200 commanded now more and more by barbarian generals. 24:03.700 --> 24:08.170 These barbarian generals, at the top, bore the title 24:08.167 --> 24:10.897 magister militum-- 24:10.900 --> 24:13.800 master of the soldiers. 24:13.800 --> 24:18.470 So I'm using the term "general" as an anachronistic 24:18.467 --> 24:22.397 one, since that's what we're familiar with. 24:22.400 --> 24:29.670 These magistri were powerful leaders, charismatic leaders, 24:29.667 --> 24:39.397 of German or other tribal groups, who then ruled in the 24:39.400 --> 24:43.670 name of, or behind the throne of the emperor. 24:43.667 --> 24:47.897 They couldn't be emperors themselves, at least in these 24:47.900 --> 24:52.800 years, it was impossible to envisage a barbarian emperor. 24:52.800 --> 24:56.070 But they held more power than the emperors. 24:59.600 --> 25:06.770 Two of these generals, war leaders, magistri, Stilicho 25:06.767 --> 25:07.727 and Alaric. 25:07.733 --> 25:13.133 Stilicho was a Vandal Alaric was a Visigoth. 25:13.133 --> 25:19.073 Alaric wanted territory, food, treasure from Rome. 25:19.067 --> 25:24.027 The Visigoths were moving from the Balkans into Greece, 25:24.033 --> 25:27.603 eventually into Italy. 25:27.600 --> 25:31.530 Stilicho played a kind of game with Alaric, trying to keep 25:31.533 --> 25:35.033 him in check in the name of the Western emperor, but also 25:35.033 --> 25:36.503 negotiating with him. 25:40.133 --> 25:45.073 The emperors moved from Milan in the north to Ravenna, a 25:45.067 --> 25:48.497 little bit to the east. Ravenna, then, was in the 25:48.500 --> 25:53.730 marshes and impossible for a barbarian army to take. 25:53.733 --> 25:58.673 This is the last capital of the Western Roman Empire. 25:58.667 --> 26:03.867 Kind of romantic and mysterious, but strange as a 26:03.867 --> 26:05.467 place to end up. 26:10.300 --> 26:13.200 These are the Visigoths then, who are on the move in the 26:13.200 --> 26:16.400 390s and the 400s. 26:16.400 --> 26:22.500 Eventually, Stilicho would be executed by the Roman emperor 26:22.500 --> 26:26.870 of the West and Alaric would invade and 26:26.867 --> 26:29.297 plunder Rome in 410. 26:29.300 --> 26:33.870 It was the Visigoths who engineered the so-called Sack 26:33.867 --> 26:38.067 of Rome that so shocked Augustine and his 26:38.067 --> 26:39.327 contemporaries. 26:45.500 --> 26:48.230 Where, you might be asking in all of this, 26:48.233 --> 26:51.133 was the Roman army? 26:51.133 --> 26:55.403 Alaric was wandering around the Balkans and Italy for two 26:55.400 --> 26:58.000 decades before he sacked Rome. 27:01.233 --> 27:05.373 The army, which had consumed so much of the resources of 27:05.367 --> 27:11.197 the Roman Empire, is curiously absent in the history of the 27:11.200 --> 27:13.130 fifth century. 27:13.133 --> 27:19.333 This is not the Eastern Front in World War II. 27:19.333 --> 27:23.003 This is something altogether different: the collapse of an 27:23.000 --> 27:26.900 empire that expended huge amounts of 27:26.900 --> 27:28.430 treasure on its army. 27:28.433 --> 27:33.203 Its army seems to be invisible and supports, to some extent, 27:33.200 --> 27:36.030 or that fact supports to some extent--, the argument that 27:36.033 --> 27:40.403 the Roman Empire collapsed of its own internal disorders, 27:40.400 --> 27:43.630 since we don't see it losing pitched battles to outside 27:43.633 --> 27:44.903 barbarians. 27:48.033 --> 27:50.103 Or maybe the army doesn't disappear, it becomes 27:50.100 --> 27:52.530 indistinguishable from the invaders. 27:52.533 --> 27:54.203 The army is the invaders. 27:56.833 --> 27:59.603 Creepier. 27:59.600 --> 28:02.730 Now within this, there are some real barbarians-- 28:02.733 --> 28:05.103 the Huns. 28:05.100 --> 28:07.970 The Huns are kind of nomadic. 28:07.967 --> 28:11.497 OK, they didn't actually cook their meat by holding it 28:11.500 --> 28:15.700 between their thigh and the horse hide, and the sweat and 28:15.700 --> 28:17.700 heat of the horse heated up the meat. 28:17.700 --> 28:20.670 This is a widespread myth of nomadic peoples. 28:20.667 --> 28:24.127 The Chinese say this about the Mongols, the 28:24.133 --> 28:25.433 Romans about Huns. 28:25.433 --> 28:29.433 But they were pretty mean. 28:29.433 --> 28:30.703 They were interested in the Roman 28:30.700 --> 28:32.670 Empire mostly for plunder. 28:32.667 --> 28:37.667 And they didn't care if that destroyed the economic base, 28:37.667 --> 28:41.197 because they weren't thinking in such terms. And indeed, 28:41.200 --> 28:46.470 they may have frightened the rather nice German tribes that 28:46.467 --> 28:48.767 stood between them and the Roman Empire. 28:48.767 --> 28:51.597 In the 450s the Huns were united under the 28:51.600 --> 28:53.170 leadership of Attila. 28:56.500 --> 29:08.270 And Attila certainly threatened the Eastern Empire 29:08.267 --> 29:11.897 first, but the Eastern emperor defeated the Huns, 29:11.900 --> 29:16.370 discontinued tribute to them, and in a pattern that we'll 29:16.367 --> 29:20.527 see repeated again and again, the Huns decided that 29:20.533 --> 29:23.203 Constantinople was too tough. 29:23.200 --> 29:26.830 That the Eastern Empire as a whole, access to which was 29:26.833 --> 29:29.733 more or less controlled by Constantinople, 29:29.733 --> 29:32.173 was too well guarded. 29:32.167 --> 29:35.267 And they turned to the west instead. 29:35.267 --> 29:39.227 Not as rich maybe, but much easier pickings. 29:39.233 --> 29:42.533 They show up in Gaul in 450. 29:42.533 --> 29:45.203 They were defeated by an army of 29:45.200 --> 29:48.470 Visigoths allied with Romans. 29:51.533 --> 29:53.003 They then went to Italy. 29:53.000 --> 29:57.800 They went into the heart of the Empire, sacked cities in 29:57.800 --> 30:02.400 the northeast of Italy, and there's no army. 30:02.400 --> 30:04.430 The emperor is holed up in Ravenna. 30:04.433 --> 30:07.433 basically shuts the door, gets under the bed, and waits for 30:07.433 --> 30:08.973 it to go away. 30:08.967 --> 30:16.267 The one power of Italy willing to try to deal with Attila is 30:16.267 --> 30:20.327 the Bishop of Rome, whom we haven't heard of yet, but 30:20.333 --> 30:22.703 we're going to be hearing about him a lot. 30:22.700 --> 30:26.100 And indeed, in the course that follows this, even more. 30:26.100 --> 30:28.530 The Bishop of Rome-- the pope. 30:28.533 --> 30:35.233 Pope Leo I, along with two senators from the Roman 30:35.233 --> 30:40.673 senate, goes up to northern Italy to remonstrate with 30:40.667 --> 30:47.027 Attila, to visit the leader of this barbarian tribe in 453 to 30:47.033 --> 30:51.933 try to get him to stop plundering Italy. 30:51.933 --> 30:54.033 Whether they were successful or not doesn't much matter, 30:54.033 --> 30:56.933 because Attila died shortly thereafter of a brain 30:56.933 --> 30:58.103 hemorrhage. 30:58.100 --> 31:02.000 And with his charismatic leadership, the Huns came to 31:02.000 --> 31:04.800 an end as a military force. 31:04.800 --> 31:09.530 That is, with the end of his leadership, the Huns no longer 31:09.533 --> 31:13.203 had as imposing a military force and quickly 31:13.200 --> 31:14.430 disintegrated. 31:16.267 --> 31:19.597 What's significant is that it's the pope who is taking 31:19.600 --> 31:22.600 over what we would think of as the Roman imperial 31:22.600 --> 31:23.900 responsibilities. 31:23.900 --> 31:26.600 And this will be a pattern, not only in the assertion of 31:26.600 --> 31:30.870 papal power, but in the way in which the Church starts to 31:30.867 --> 31:36.667 take over many of the roles abandoned by the empire. 31:45.800 --> 31:48.200 After this, the barbarian generals, in 31:48.200 --> 31:50.030 effect, take charge. 31:50.033 --> 31:53.203 The Huns are defeated, but the other groups now 31:53.200 --> 31:56.930 pour into the empire. 31:56.933 --> 32:00.303 The Vandals have taken over North Africa by this time, by 32:00.300 --> 32:06.500 430, cutting off the grain supply to Rome. 32:06.500 --> 32:09.630 They are unusual among the barbarian groups in that they 32:09.633 --> 32:10.703 have a navy. 32:10.700 --> 32:13.030 They know how to use boats, and indeed, they plunder the 32:13.033 --> 32:17.033 city of Rome in 455 in a sack that might have been worse 32:17.033 --> 32:22.303 than that of 410. 32:22.300 --> 32:26.400 By 470, the Visigoths control southern Gaul, what's now 32:26.400 --> 32:34.430 southern France; a group called the Suevi are in Spain; 32:34.433 --> 32:40.503 the Vandals in North Africa; a group called the Ostrogoths in 32:40.500 --> 32:53.130 what's now Hungary; the Angles and the Saxons in Britain. 32:56.000 --> 32:58.530 All that effectively remained of the Western empire when 32:58.533 --> 33:02.703 Odovacer overthrew Romulus Augustulus was Italy. 33:02.700 --> 33:07.900 And in 476, that's it. 33:07.900 --> 33:09.230 A little coda, however. 33:09.233 --> 33:14.133 In 493, the Eastern emperor in Constantinople convinced the 33:14.133 --> 33:22.303 Ostrogoths to get out of Hungary, stop threatening the 33:22.300 --> 33:27.030 Eastern Empire, and take Italy from Odovacer. 33:27.033 --> 33:31.303 Once again, the Eastern Empire is capable of deflecting 33:31.300 --> 33:36.430 barbarians into the west, because they're too strong. 33:36.433 --> 33:43.033 So in 493, our friend Odovacer was overthrown by the 33:43.033 --> 33:47.033 Ostrogoths and their leader Theoderic. 33:53.500 --> 33:56.870 So what's the impact of all of this? 33:56.867 --> 34:02.097 On the ground, if you were looking around in 480s 490s, 34:02.100 --> 34:05.130 you would see a kind of accommodation. 34:05.133 --> 34:09.903 The Roman elite accommodated themselves to, compromised 34:09.900 --> 34:14.900 with, negotiated with, their new rulers. 34:14.900 --> 34:27.000 So, for example, a member of a very wealthy Roman family, a 34:27.000 --> 34:40.630 man named Sidonius Apollinaris in southern France, was a 34:40.633 --> 34:43.973 bishop and a great landowner. 34:43.967 --> 34:46.567 And we have a lot of letters of his that tell us about his 34:46.567 --> 34:51.067 negotiations with the Visigothic king Euric. 34:51.067 --> 34:57.367 He found the Vsigoths uncouth, hard to deal with, not 34:57.367 --> 35:02.267 knowledgeable of the Latin classics, but not very 35:02.267 --> 35:05.297 frightening, either. 35:05.300 --> 35:07.700 Not particularly formidable. 35:07.700 --> 35:11.870 So accommodation, improvisation. 35:14.800 --> 35:20.300 We have a saint's life that is a biography of a 35:20.300 --> 35:22.670 saint, a man named-- 35:22.667 --> 35:25.267 I'm sorry that I'm writing on the board so much today. 35:25.267 --> 35:30.097 Usually, as you know, I'm a little more in control. 35:30.100 --> 35:31.200 But these are great names. 35:31.200 --> 35:34.730 And some of them are good cats names or dog names, too. 35:34.733 --> 35:37.373 Severinus of Noricum. 35:37.367 --> 35:39.697 You know, "Stop scratching the furniture, Severinus." That 35:39.700 --> 35:40.900 kind of thing. 35:40.900 --> 35:42.330 Severinus of Noricum. 35:42.333 --> 35:45.403 A saint in what's now, more or less, Austria. 35:48.333 --> 35:56.703 His life tells us that he learned of the end of the 35:56.700 --> 35:59.400 Roman Empire this way: 35:59.400 --> 36:03.630 "At the time when the Roman Empire was still in existence, 36:03.633 --> 36:06.633 the soldiers of many towns were supported by public money 36:06.633 --> 36:08.533 to guard the frontier. 36:08.533 --> 36:12.073 When this arrangement ceased, the military formations were 36:12.067 --> 36:14.827 dissolved, and the frontier vanished. 36:14.833 --> 36:18.673 The garrison of Passau, which is still a town in modern 36:18.667 --> 36:24.997 Bavaria, the garrison of Passau, 36:25.000 --> 36:26.670 however, still held out. 36:26.667 --> 36:31.097 Some of the men had gone to Italy to fetch for their 36:31.100 --> 36:34.270 comrades their last payment." 36:34.267 --> 36:36.327 This resembles a corporation-- 36:36.333 --> 36:37.973 somebody, actually, was telling me yesterday they 36:37.967 --> 36:41.027 worked for Eastern Airlines, a company that went out of 36:41.033 --> 36:42.833 business in 1990. 36:42.833 --> 36:45.773 And so sudden was the collapse of Eastern, even though it had 36:45.767 --> 36:50.067 been predicted, that she was a flight attendant and had to 36:50.067 --> 36:53.567 get on another airline in order to get home. 36:53.567 --> 36:57.467 She lived in New York; she was in Florida; Eastern ceased to 36:57.467 --> 36:59.927 exist. So these soldiers are in the same position. 36:59.933 --> 37:03.273 They want to get their last paycheck. 37:03.267 --> 37:05.267 They were never heard from again. 37:05.267 --> 37:07.697 Nobody knew that they, in fact, were killed by 37:07.700 --> 37:10.200 barbarians on the way. 37:10.200 --> 37:14.200 "One day, when Saint Severinus was reading in his cell, he 37:14.200 --> 37:17.670 suddenly closed the book and began to sigh. 37:17.667 --> 37:20.967 The river, he said, was now red with human blood. 37:20.967 --> 37:23.597 At that moment the news arrived that the soldiers had 37:23.600 --> 37:27.300 been washed ashore by the current." 37:27.300 --> 37:29.730 Interestingly enough, he doesn't just stay in 37:29.733 --> 37:31.873 his cell and pray. 37:31.867 --> 37:35.967 He starts to organize this society. 37:35.967 --> 37:41.167 He is active, although some of it involves some miracles, in 37:41.167 --> 37:43.027 poor relief. 37:43.033 --> 37:46.973 He deals with the local barbarian king, the king of 37:46.967 --> 37:55.827 the Alamanni, remonstrates with him. 37:55.833 --> 38:00.173 He helps in diverting Odovacer into Italy. 38:03.200 --> 38:07.270 Again, like Pope Leo, we have a member of the church, and in 38:07.267 --> 38:10.427 this case somebody that you would think was a recluse, 38:10.433 --> 38:15.073 indeed had been living like a recluse, nevertheless taking 38:15.067 --> 38:21.327 over the responsibilities for a population abandoned by its 38:21.333 --> 38:24.003 civilian government. 38:24.000 --> 38:29.200 That is then one of the forms of accommodation. 38:29.200 --> 38:32.930 Another aspect of this era, however, is decline. 38:36.167 --> 38:39.797 The urban population declines. 38:39.800 --> 38:43.070 The society and economy experienced what Wickham 38:43.067 --> 38:46.497 euphemistically calls, "a radical material 38:46.500 --> 38:50.330 simplification." The term he uses, I believe, 38:50.333 --> 38:52.633 on page 95 and 105. 38:52.633 --> 38:56.433 "Radical material simplification" means that 38:56.433 --> 39:00.273 your standard of living plummets. 39:00.267 --> 39:01.597 Cruder ceramics. 39:01.600 --> 39:05.430 Instead of that nice, north African red slip ware, you've 39:05.433 --> 39:08.873 got mud that you baked at home. 39:08.867 --> 39:14.397 Fewer imports, no pepper. 39:14.400 --> 39:19.630 More homemade, crude building materials. 39:19.633 --> 39:20.903 Fewer luxury goods. 39:24.367 --> 39:27.997 The Vandal control of North Africa meant the end of the 39:28.000 --> 39:29.970 Roman wheat supply. 39:33.033 --> 39:36.533 The countryside of Rome had not grown enough wheat to feed 39:36.533 --> 39:41.203 the city since 200 BC. 39:41.200 --> 39:46.930 So for 600 years, minimum, Rome was dependent on other 39:46.933 --> 39:48.333 sources of supply. 39:48.333 --> 39:52.103 Southern Italy, Sicily, North Africa. 39:52.100 --> 39:58.470 The moment the Vandals cut the supply, the city could no 39:58.467 --> 40:02.967 longer support its massive population, 40:02.967 --> 40:05.867 could not feed everybody. 40:05.867 --> 40:09.167 When you multiply this phenomenon, it's not a 40:09.167 --> 40:12.827 surprise that the city's decline in population, and 40:12.833 --> 40:17.473 that the society becomes more rural, more agricultural, more 40:17.467 --> 40:18.397 subsistent 40:18.400 --> 40:22.200 And here's where I think Collins is naive to speak of 40:22.200 --> 40:25.870 merely a political decline. 40:25.867 --> 40:30.127 Without a government and military structure, trade 40:30.133 --> 40:33.333 could not take place on the scale it had before. 40:33.333 --> 40:36.533 And without that trade, cities could not survive. 40:39.067 --> 40:43.227 There is no denying a decline in culture, economy, and 40:43.233 --> 40:44.473 population. 40:47.433 --> 40:53.503 Let's just look at Roman population figures, based on 40:53.500 --> 40:57.270 things like pork supply figures, public-- well, I 40:57.267 --> 40:58.927 mean, nobody took a census in Rome. 40:58.933 --> 41:02.273 We don't really know exactly how many people lived there at 41:02.267 --> 41:03.897 any given time. 41:03.900 --> 41:06.470 But historians and archaeologists looking at 41:06.467 --> 41:11.297 things like food supply, public welfare payments, water 41:11.300 --> 41:15.470 delivery figures, for aqueducts, and the abandonment 41:15.467 --> 41:18.367 of houses and of building sites. 41:18.367 --> 41:26.397 Probably in 5 BC, the Roman population was 800,000. 41:26.400 --> 41:28.600 That would be a fairly conservative estimate. 41:28.600 --> 41:33.400 Maybe as much as a million, but definitely 800,000. 41:33.400 --> 41:34.130 5 BC. 41:34.133 --> 41:35.003 Yeah? 41:35.000 --> 41:36.200 STUDENT: This is just the city of Rome? 41:36.200 --> 41:37.300 PROFESSOR: Just the city of Rome. 41:37.300 --> 41:38.900 Yes, just the city of Rome. 41:42.600 --> 41:45.500 At the time of Constantine, sort of where we begin the 41:45.500 --> 41:51.130 course, more or less, in the early fourth century, the 41:51.133 --> 41:57.533 population had declined probably to 600,000. 41:57.533 --> 42:06.533 After the sack of Rome in 419, probably 300,000 to 500,000. 42:06.533 --> 42:09.033 Obviously, these are very rough figures. 42:09.033 --> 42:12.733 But after the sack of Rome, more than half of the 42:12.733 --> 42:19.133 population that had existed in 5 BC is gone. 42:19.133 --> 42:23.533 With the end of grain shipments from North Africa, 42:23.533 --> 42:25.873 we don't really know immediately. 42:30.633 --> 42:35.773 We can estimate that by 590, there could not have been more 42:35.767 --> 42:39.867 than 150,000 people in Rome. 42:39.867 --> 42:43.797 This is after not only the Vandals, but after a 42:43.800 --> 42:47.470 catastrophic war in Italy launched by the Byzantine 42:47.467 --> 42:50.427 Emperor Justinian, who we'll be talking about next week. 42:53.533 --> 42:58.303 In 800, on Christmas Day, Charlemagne was crowned in 42:58.300 --> 43:03.100 Saint Peter's in Rome as Roman Emperor by the pope, an act 43:03.100 --> 43:05.470 whose implications we will be exploring towards 43:05.467 --> 43:06.967 the end of the class. 43:06.967 --> 43:14.227 On that day, Rome must've had maximum, maximum, most 43:14.233 --> 43:21.203 optimistic estimate, 30,000 people. 43:21.200 --> 43:25.700 This does not necessarily mean that they were primitive, but 43:25.700 --> 43:28.400 they were living in the Coliseum, for example. 43:28.400 --> 43:30.500 People built houses in there. 43:30.500 --> 43:33.900 They used the walls of the Coliseum as a fort. 43:33.900 --> 43:37.030 There is a certain Planet of the Apes quality, in fact. 43:37.033 --> 43:41.533 Rome, still to this day, is filled with picturesque ruins, 43:41.533 --> 43:44.503 even though it is a city of two and a half, 43:44.500 --> 43:45.730 three million people. 43:48.867 --> 43:51.467 As I said, people were not necessarily 43:51.467 --> 43:53.427 aware of this change. 43:53.433 --> 43:56.533 For example, lots of churches were built at this time, and 43:56.533 --> 44:00.533 some of them have mosaic pavements that have mottos 44:00.533 --> 44:04.003 about the grandeur of the Roman name, and the usual 44:04.000 --> 44:05.230 classical kind of mottos. 44:07.967 --> 44:10.367 But then again, people often aren't aware of what's 44:10.367 --> 44:11.297 happening to them. 44:11.300 --> 44:14.470 I mean, what if somebody in the future points to the fact 44:14.467 --> 44:20.067 that New Haven, in 1920, had far more people living in it 44:20.067 --> 44:22.867 than it does now? 44:22.867 --> 44:25.427 New Haven lost a third of its population 44:25.433 --> 44:29.003 between 1950 and 1980. 44:29.000 --> 44:33.000 What if some future historian is scandalized at the fact 44:33.000 --> 44:36.730 that in order to get into Yale a hundred years ago you had to 44:36.733 --> 44:39.273 know Greek and Latin. 44:39.267 --> 44:45.097 If you look at what those gentlemen C Students had to 44:45.100 --> 44:50.900 study, or were responsible for, in say, 1925, it's 44:50.900 --> 44:52.000 extraordinary. 44:52.000 --> 44:55.370 It's not very impressive in the sciences, but the decline 44:55.367 --> 44:59.527 of the humanities, if by decline we mean things like 44:59.533 --> 45:03.103 knowledge of classical literature, is stunning. 45:03.100 --> 45:07.870 Somebody may decide in a few hundred years that the Dark 45:07.867 --> 45:12.267 Ages began in about 1950. 45:12.267 --> 45:20.297 And that those pathetic people in, say, 2011, impressed with 45:20.300 --> 45:22.600 their little technological toys, 45:22.600 --> 45:25.770 nonetheless didn't know anything. 45:25.767 --> 45:27.997 Now I don't actually believe that. 45:28.000 --> 45:29.200 There are some people who do. 45:29.200 --> 45:33.200 There's a philosopher at Notre Dame named Alasdair MacIntyre 45:33.200 --> 45:36.870 who really believes that the Dark Ages began a long time 45:36.867 --> 45:38.927 ago, and we simply don't know. 45:38.933 --> 45:41.673 We simply refuse to recognize this. 45:41.667 --> 45:44.997 I was impressed by an obituary for a man named Patrick Leigh 45:45.000 --> 45:52.530 Fermor, who died at the age of 96 earlier this year. 45:52.533 --> 45:57.433 This is the last of the great British characters of the 45:57.433 --> 45:58.873 twentieth century. 45:58.867 --> 46:02.997 He not only was classically trained, wrote a lot about 46:03.000 --> 46:10.770 Greece, lived in Greece, he, in World World II, disguised 46:10.767 --> 46:15.927 himself as a Greek shepherd in Crete, engineered the capture 46:15.933 --> 46:19.533 of a German general, and the delivery of that general after 46:19.533 --> 46:22.073 three weeks of hiking through the mountains of Crete to a 46:22.067 --> 46:24.127 British destroyer. 46:24.133 --> 46:28.533 It's in a movie called Ill Met By Moonlight, if you ever want 46:28.533 --> 46:30.133 to check this out. 46:30.133 --> 46:31.533 Not a great movie, but-- 46:31.533 --> 46:34.173 Patrick Leigh Fermor also wrote two books out of a 46:34.167 --> 46:39.127 projected three about walking from Holland to Constantinople 46:39.133 --> 46:44.103 or, Baghdad actually, I think, in the 1930s. 46:44.100 --> 46:52.200 But the obituary describes a conversation he had with this 46:52.200 --> 46:58.030 German general, whom he is trying to get across Crete. 46:58.033 --> 47:00.903 And the general at one point, over some fire in the 47:00.900 --> 47:06.530 wilderness, quotes a line from Horace, the Roman poet, that 47:06.533 --> 47:09.103 then Patrick Leigh Fermor finishes is for him, and 47:09.100 --> 47:13.900 indeed, quotes the next two stanzas. 47:13.900 --> 47:16.670 Well, that world is over. 47:16.667 --> 47:18.327 That world is over. 47:18.333 --> 47:21.803 I don't pretend to be part of that world, either. 47:24.800 --> 47:28.770 And that's a world that would have existed in the time of 47:28.767 --> 47:32.667 Horace, or the years after Horace, who lives at the time 47:32.667 --> 47:34.627 of Augustus. 47:34.633 --> 47:38.503 This would have existed in 300 A D. It would have existed, at 47:38.500 --> 47:41.070 least, in a few monasteries in 800 AD. 47:41.067 --> 47:44.227 It would have flourished in the Britain of the eighteenth 47:44.233 --> 47:48.533 and nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 47:48.533 --> 47:55.633 So again, I don't think that civilization came to an end. 47:58.133 --> 48:02.573 What came to an end was a civilization, a certain kind 48:02.567 --> 48:03.827 of society. 48:05.867 --> 48:11.797 It has some heirs, however, like all dead entities. 48:11.800 --> 48:14.430 There are four heirs to the Roman Empire. 48:14.433 --> 48:22.773 One is the Byzantine Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire, 48:22.767 --> 48:24.727 which calls itself the Roman Empire. 48:24.733 --> 48:27.073 It doesn't call itself the Eastern, doesn't call itself 48:27.067 --> 48:29.767 the Byzantine, it calls itself the Roman Empire, even though 48:29.767 --> 48:32.697 it does so in Greek. 48:32.700 --> 48:36.130 The second heir are the barbarian kings. 48:36.133 --> 48:37.773 We'll be talking about them on Wednesday. 48:37.767 --> 48:44.327 They are attempting to prop up the remnants of Roman culture, 48:44.333 --> 48:47.533 civilization, and material society. 48:50.300 --> 48:55.700 The third heir in some ways, is Islam, which we meet in the 48:55.700 --> 48:58.270 seventh century, the century of its invention. 49:01.267 --> 49:02.767 And the fourth heir is the Church. 49:05.400 --> 49:08.270 Even though the Church grew up in opposition to the Roman 49:08.267 --> 49:14.827 Empire, it will preserve Latin, cities, learning, 49:14.833 --> 49:18.003 classical civilization. 49:18.000 --> 49:18.430 OK. 49:18.433 --> 49:20.133 So barbarians on Wednesday.