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CHAPTER 7

Late Antiquity: 350–600

Instructional Objectives

After reading and studying this chapter, students should be able to discuss the foundations of the Byzantine Empire. Students should also be able to describe the growth of the Christian church, the evolution of early Christian thought, the importance of the development of monasticism, and the nature of Christian missionary activity. Finally, they should be able to explain the evolution of Germanic states and assess the importance of Germanic culture for the development of Europe.

Chapter Outline

I. The Byzantine Empire

A. Origins

1. Despite the efforts of Constantine and Justinian, the unity of the Roman Empire could not be maintained.

2. Byzantium endured assaults by the Germanic tribes, the Persians, the nomadic Huns, Bulgars, and Avars, and the Arabs.

B. Sources of Byzantine Strength

1. Strong military leadership

2. The strong fortifications of Constantinople

C. The Law Code of Justinian

1. The Legal Code of Justinian was a significant contribution to the early Middle Ages.

2. The corpus juris civilis, consisting of the Code, the Digest, and the Institutes, is the foundation of European law.

D. Byzantine Intellectual Life

1. Byzantine intellectual life was a stimulant for the West.

2. The Byzantines kept learning alive in the East.

3. They passed Greco-Roman culture on to the Arabs.

E. Byzantine Science and Medicine

1. In mathematics and geometry, the Byzantines discovered little that was new, making advances in science only when science could be put to military uses.

2. Byzantine medicine was far more advanced than that of the medieval West. It was based largely on the classical and Hellenistic physicians' writings.

3. Greek medical science was not equal to the challenge of the “Justinian plague” that afflicted the empire between 542 and 560.

4. By the ninth or tenth century, most major Greek cities had hospitals.

II. The Growth of the Christian Church

A. The Idea of a Church

1. After the legalization of Christianity by the Emperor Constantine, the words “Christian church” originally applied to the officials who ministered to Christians.

2. In early Christian communities, local people elected their leaders, called bishops.

3. The bishops of Rome used the Petrine Doctrine to support the case for their authority over other Christian bishops.

B. The Church and the Roman Emperors

1. Constantine legalized Christianity in a.d. 312.

2. He embarked on an extensive church-building project.

3. In 380, Theodosius made Christianity the religion of the state.

4. The Arian Heresy challenged the foundation of the church.

5. The Council of Nicaea was held in 325 to combat the Arians.

6. The council produced the Nicene Creed—the doctrine that Christ was of the same substance as God.

7. The Nicene Creed became Christian orthodoxy.

8. Bishop Ambrose formulated the theory that the church was separate from and superior to the state.

9. Byzantine emperors played an active role in church affairs.

10. The Orthodox Church was less independent of secular control than the western Christian church.

C. Bishops and the Pope

1. Leadership in the early church was creative and inspirational.

2. Many talented Romans, such as Ambrose, became leaders in the early church.

3. The church adopted Rome’s diocesan system.

4. Bishops presided over the various dioceses.

5. The bishops of Rome claimed to speak and act as the source of unity for all Christians.

6. In the fifth century, the bishops of Rome began to stress their supremacy over other Christian communities.

D. The Development of Christian Monasticism

1. St. Anthony, an ascetic monk who disdained communal, urban existence, personified the early eremitical life in the Egyptian desert.

2. Saint Basil opposed the eremitical life and encouraged, instead, coenobitic monasticism.

E. Western and Eastern Monasticism

1. Monasticism in the West tended to be communal or coenobitic.

2. St. Benedict of Nursia developed the guide for all Christian monastic life.

3. The Rule of St. Benedict was influenced by earlier monastic codes.

4. Benedict’s rule outlined a life of discipline and moderation.

5. Monks made a vow of stability, conversion of manners, and obedience.

6. Benedictine monasticism succeeded because of its emphasis on the balanced life and because it suited the social circumstances of the early Middle Ages.

7. St. Basil composed a set of regulations called The Long Rules that were for communities of economically self-sufficient monks and nuns.

8. Monasteries spread throughout the Byzantine Empire. Financial assistance from the Emperor Justinian (527–565) helped.

9. Orthodox monasticism came to differ from Western monasticism.

a) St. Benedict's rules came to dominate in the West, but in Greek Orthodoxy each monastery had its own rules.

b) While Western monks generally stayed at one monastery, Orthodox monks frequently moved from one to another.

c) In the West monasteries provided education, while those in the Orthodox world generally did not.

III. Christian Ideas and Practices

A. Christianity and Classical Culture

1. The early Christians were hostile to pagan culture.

2. Saint Jerome incorporated pagan thought into Christianity.

B. Christian Notions of Gender and Sexuality

1. Despite Jesus’ treatment of women more or less as equals to men, Christianity absorbed the classical world's disdain for women.

2. Women took an active role in the spread of early Christianity.

3. The Church came to consider sex and sexual desire to be evil.

C. Saint Augustine on Human Nature, Will, and Sin

1. Augustine of Hippo (a.d. 354–430) had a tremendous impact on early Christianity.

2. He was the most important leader of early medieval Christianity.

a) His Confessions delineated the pre-Christian struggles of the author.

b) His City of God established the historical/philosophical base of a new Christian worldview.

IV. Christian Missionaries and Conversion

A. Missionaries on the Continent

1. Early medieval Christianity conducted extensive missionary work.

2. Martin of Tours brought Christianity to Gaul.

3. In Eastern Europe, missionaries traveled far beyond the boundaries of the Byzantine Empire.

B. Christianity in the British Isles

1. St. Patrick took Christianity to Ireland.

2. Pope Gregory I sent Augustine to convert the Britons.

3. The Roman brand of Christianity won out over its Celtic rival at the Synod of Whitby in 664.

C. Conversion and Assimilation

1. Germanic assimilation into Christianity was slow as the moral code of Christianity made little sense to Germanic warriors who valued physical strength and battlefield courage.

2. Priests used manuals called penitentials to teach people Christian virtues. The rite of private confession was part of this process.

3. In many areas the Church practiced assimilation of local cultures, seeking to turn pagan temples into churches and to substitute Christian festivals for pagan festivals that occurred at about the same time of year.

V. Migrating Peoples

A. The Idea of the Barbarian

1. The Greeks and the Romans invented the idea of the barbarian. For the Romans these were peoples living outside the Empire's frontiers, peoples “without history.”

2. Some Germanic peoples' identities were shaped by a militarily successful family.

3. Central Asian steppe peoples such as the Huns and the Avars were loose confederations of steppe warriors.

4. The Alamanni and the Slavs were loosely organized, short-lived bands of peoples who lacked central leadership.

B. Celts, Germans, and Huns

1. Both Celts and Germans practiced three-field crop rotation and used the wheeled plow.

2. The Celts were accomplished ironworkers, as were the Germans.

3. The Germans consisted of a number of different groups, none numbering more than 100,000.

4. German migrations and pressure on the Rhine-Danube frontier of the Roman Empire may have been due simply to constant warfare, or to the opportunities for service and work for pay around Roman camps.

5. One significant factor in Germanic migration was pressure from nomadic steppe peoples from central Asia, most prominently the Huns.

C. Germanic Kingdoms

1. Between 450 and 565, the Germans established a number of short-lived kingdoms.

2. The kingdom of the Franks proved the most powerful and enduring of all the barbarian kingdoms.

D. Anglo-Saxon England

1. The Anglo-Saxons achieved a model Germanic state.

2. After Roman withdrawal from Britannium, Germanic invaders (Angles, Saxons, and Jutes) drove the native (Celtic) Britons west to Wales and Brittany and north to Scotland.

3. The legends of King Arthur and his court represent the Celtic resistance to the Anglo-Saxons.

4. By the seventh and eighth centuries, there were seven Germanic kingdoms known as the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy.

5. They were united under Alfred the Great in the ninth century.

VI. Barbarian Society

A. Kinship, Custom, and Class

1. Members of a German folk or tribe believed that they were all descended from a common ancestor.

2. Each tribe had its own laws and customs, passed down by word of mouth.

3. The war chieftain led the tribe.

4. The comitatus (warband) that fought with the chief gradually become a warrior nobility.

B. Law

1. In the late sixth century German kings, encouraged by Christian missionaries, began to have their laws written down.

2. Germanic law was a system of fines paid by the perpetrator to the victim’s family, and was designed to control violence, not achieve justice.

C. Social and Economic Structures

1. The Germanic tribes lived in small villages.

2. Warfare was endemic in this kind of society.

3. Males engaged in animal husbandry and women grew grain.

4. Widows inherited their husbands’ rights, and some royal women exercised considerable political control.

5. Germanic society was patriarchal.

Lecture Suggestions

1. “Church and State in the Byzantine Empire.” What was the relationship between secular and spiritual authority in Byzantium? What were the consequences of this relationship for the Orthodox Church? Sources: J.J. Norwich, Byzantium: The Early Centuries (1989); T. George, A History of Byzantium, 306–1453 (2005); S. Runciman, Byzantine Civilization (1956).

2. “The Clash of Cultures in the Early Middle Ages.” How were the Christian, German, and Roman elements assimilated in the fourth and fifth centuries? What happened to pagan literature? What was the role of the early church in the assimilation process? Sources: J. Herrin, The Formation of Christendom (1987); P. Brown, The World of Late Antiquity, rev. ed. (1989); M. Mullin, Called to Be Saints: Christian Living in First Century Rome (1992).

3. “The Impact of Monasticism.” How did monasticism influence the development of medieval civilization? What role did monks and nuns play in the revitalization of literature and culture? Why was Benedictine monasticism such a success? Sources: C. H. Lawrence, Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages (1988); T. Fry et al., The Rule of St. Benedict in Latin and English with Notes (1981); J. K. McNamara, Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns Through Two Millennia (1996).

4. “Women in Germanic Society.” What was the role of women in the early Germanic societies? Did they share equally with men? Was their position better than that of their Roman counterparts? Sources: S. Stuard, Women in Medieval Society (1977); V. Bullough, The Subordinate Sex (1973); R. Bridenthal and C. Koonz, eds., Becoming Visible: Women in European History (1987); S. Wemple, Women in Frankish Society, Marriage, and the Cloister (1981).

Classroom Activities

I. Classroom Discussion Suggestions

A. What was the significance of the Arian heresy and the final solution of the controversy?

B. Why is the term “Dark Ages” no longer deemed appropriate to describe the early Middle Ages?

C. How did Christian attitudes toward pagan culture change over time? Why?

D. Why did Roman Catholicism finally win out over Celtic Catholicism?

II. Doing History

A. Have students read selections from Tacitus’s Germania and take notes on the descriptions of food, clothing, marital customs, sports, and pastimes. Use the collected data as the basis for a class discussion of early Germanic social history.

B. Have students read selections from Procopius’s Secret History. Lead a discussion about his depictions of Theodora and Justinian. What do his descriptions tell us about Byzantine attitudes towards women and power?

C. When did Rome fall and when did the Middle Ages begin? Fifty years ago, most teachers taught that the empire fell in a.d. 476 when the last Roman emperor in the west, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed by the Germanic king Odoacer. More recent scholars have pushed the date back earlier. Is there a plausible argument for a later date? Students reading the following sources should come to the conclusion that historical interpretations change over time and from one scholar to another. Sources: B. Lyon, The Origins of the Middle Ages: Pirenne’s Challenge to Gibbon (1972); F. Lot, The End of the Ancient World (1965).

III. Cooperative Learning Activities

A. The Foundations of the Middle Ages: Christian, Byzantine, Roman, Germanic Influences.

Organize the class into four teams. Charge each team with learning about one of the above foundations of the Middle Ages. After research is completed, allow each team to present its findings in class. Discuss the contributions of each.

B. Medieval in the Modern

Organize the class into teams of six each. Assign each team the task of looking into medieval society’s influence on modern institutions: 1) literature, 2) law, 3) love, 4) science fiction, 5) education. Have teams make presentations on their findings and insights. Have students make lists of the medieval influences on modern society.

Map Activities

1. Using Map 7.1 (The Byzantine Empire, ca 600) as a reference, answer the following questions.

a. What geographical advantages did the Byzantine Empire enjoy?

b. Why were the Byzantines so interested in acquiring territories in Italy? What challenges did they face in holding on to these territories?

c. What were the most important military threats to the Byzantine Empire? How was the security of the empire affected by the rise of Islam?

d. Was the Byzantine Empire oriented to the West or to the East? Why?

2. Using the map in the text for consultation, have students list the following on an outline map of Europe.

a. Canterbury

b. Cologne

c. Paris

d. Reims

e. Toledo

f. Hippo Regius

g. Milan

h. Rome

i. Alexandria

j. Constantinople

k. Athens

l. Ephesus

m. Antioch

n. Jerusalem

Audiovisual Bibliography

1. The City of God. (39 min. Color. Films for the Humanities and Sciences.)

2. The Birth of the Middle Ages. (43 min. Color. Films for the Humanities and Sciences.)

3. Medieval Manuscripts. (30 min. Color. Films for the Humanities and Sciences.)

4. Byzantium: From Splendor to Ruin. (Videodisc. Color. 43 min. Films for the Humanities and Sciences.)

5. From the Mists of the North, the Germanic Tribes. (52 min. Color. Films for the Humanities and Sciences.)

6. Furor Teutonicus, Pax Romana. (52 min. Color. Films for the Humanities and Sciences.)

7. Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Glory of Byzantium (explore/Byzantium/byzhome.html)

8. Metropolitan Museum of Art: Byzantium: Faith and Power (explore/byzantium_III/index.html)

9. Medieval and Early Christian Art ()

internet resources

1. Germanic Migrations in Western Europe (campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/WestEurope/GermanicMigration.Chron.html)

2. Map: Germanic Kingdoms and Later Germanic Migrations (faculty.cua.edu/pennington/ChurchHistory220/lectureone/GermanicKingdoms450.htm)

3. Art and Architecture: Rome, Late Antiquity, Early Medieval (ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/firsteuro/culture.html)

4. Musée National du Moyen Age (musee-moyenage.fr)

5. Augustine of Hippo (ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/augustine.html)

6. Online Tour of the Vatican Museums (mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/MV_Visite.html)

7. “Gregory of Tours on Clovis” (fordham.edu/halsall/source/gregtours1.html)

8. The German Historical Museum of Berlin (dhm.de/ENGLISH/index.html)

suggested reading

There are several excellent overviews of this period. P. Brown, The World of Late Antiquity, a.d. 150–750, rev. ed. (1989), stresses social and cultural change, is lavishly illustrated, and has lucidly written introductions to the entire period. A. Cameron, The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity, a.d. 395–600 (1993) focuses especially on political and economic changes. G. W. Bowerstock et al, eds., Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World, (1999), includes essays on many topics, and an A–Z encyclopedia of brief entries on hundreds more. G. Clark, Women in Late Antiquity: Pagan and Christian Lifestyles (1994) explores law, marriage, and religious life. J. Pelikan, The Excellent Empire: The Fall of Rome and the Triumph of the Church (1987), describes how interpretations of the fall of Rome have influenced our understanding of Western culture.

For Byzantium, see J. J. Norwich, Byzantium: The Early Centuries (1989), an elegantly written sketch; E. Patlagean, “Byzantium in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries,” in A History of Private Life, vol. 1, From Pagan Rome to Byzantium (1987); T. George, A History of Byzantium, 306–1453 (2005); S. Runciman, Byzantine Civilization (1956); R. Cormack, Byzantine Art (2000). A. Harvey, Economic Expansion in the Byzantine Empire, 900–1200 (1989), should prove useful for research on social and economic change. There are two new biographies of the Empress Theodora, both providing balanced and thorough treatments: J.A. Evans, The Empress Theodora: Partner of Justinian (2003) is briefer and more accessible, while P. Cesaretti, Theodora: Empress of Byzantium (2004) is more detailed, but also very readable.

J. Herrin, The Formation of Christendom (1987), is the best synthesis of the development of the Christian church from the third to the ninth centuries. P. Brown, The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity (1982), describes the significance of the saints in popular religion. R. Macmullen, Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries (1998), explores the influences of Christianity and paganism on each other. Students seeking to understand early Christian attitudes on sexuality and how they replaced Roman ones should consult the magisterial work of P. Brown, The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity (1988). For information on the penitentials and the development of Christian courts, see. J. Brundage, Law, Sex, and Christian Soicety in Medieval Europe (1990). J. Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century (1980) remains extremely influential. The best biography of Saint Augustine is P. Brown, Augustine of Hippo, rev. ed. (2000), which treats him as a symbol of change.

Students seeking information on a range of topics in the early Christian church will find sound material in the following reference works: J. F. Kelly, The Concise Dictionary of Early Christianity (1992); J. McManners, ed., The Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity (1990); and A. P. Kazhdan, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (1991).

For analyses of conversion to Christianity, see the superbly written R. Fletcher, The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity (1998) and D. Reff, Plague, Priests and Demons: Sacred Narratives and the Rise of Christianity in the Old World and the New (2004), which compares late antique Europe and colonial Mexico. C. H. Lawrence, Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages, 3d ed. (2000), provides a good general sketch and a helpful glossary of terms, while M. Dunn, The Emergence of Monasticism: From the Desert Fathers to the Early Middle Ages (2003) focuses on the beginnings of monasticism. For women in monastic life, see S. F. Wemple, Women in Frankish Society: Marriage and the Cloister, 500–900 (1981), an important book with a good bibliography; and the magisterial achievement of J. K. McNamara, Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns Through Two Millennia (1996).

For the barbarian tribes, see, in addition to the titles by Geary, Goffart, Wolfart, James, and Wood cited in the Notes, T. Burns, Rome and the Barbarians, 100 b.c.–400 a.d. (2003) and H. Wolfram, The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples (2005), both of which argue that Germanic and Roman culture assimilated more than they conflicted. P. Wells, The Barbarians Speak: How the Conquered Peoples Shaped Roman Europe (1999) presents extensive evidence of Celtic and Germanic social and technical development. Cunliffe, The Ancient Celts (2000) and P. B. Ellis, Celt and Roman: The Celts in Italy (1998) both focus on the Celtic peoples, E.A. Thompson, The Huns (1999) on the Huns, and M. Todd, The Early Germans, 2d ed. (2004) on various Germanic tribes.

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