Sack of Rome by the Vandals, 455 A.D. In 455 A.D. the ships of the Vandals, led by their king, Gaiseric, appeared at the mouth of the Tiber. The Romans could offer no resistance. Only the noble bishop Leo went out with his clergy to meet the invader and intercede for the city. Gaiseric promised to spare the lives of the inhabitants and not to destroy the public buildings. These were the best terms he would grant. The Vandals spent fourteen days stripping Rome of her wealth. Besides shiploads of booty the Vandals took away thousands of Romans as slaves, including the widow and two daughters of an emperor. After the Vandal sack of Rome the imperial throne became the mere plaything of the army and its leaders. A German commander, named Ricimer, set up and deposed four puppet emperors within five years. in fact, the real ruler of Italy at this time. After his death Orestes, another German general, went a step beyond Riçimer's policy and placed his own son on the throne of the Cæsars. By a curious coincidence, this lad bore the name of Romulus, legendary founder of Rome, and the nickname of Augustulus ("the little Augustus"). The boy emperor reigned less than a year. The German troops clamored for a third of the lands of Italy and, when their demand was refused, proclaimed Odoacer king. The poor little emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was sent to a villa near Naples, where he disappears from history. He was, The Roman Empire in the 476 A.D. A.D. There was now no emperor in the West. To the men of that time it seemed that East and West had been once more joined under a single ruler, as in the days of Constantine. Political sitThe emperors who reigned at Constantinople did uation in 476 not relinquish their claims to be regarded as the rightful sovereigns in Italy and Rome. Nevertheless, as an actual fact, Roman rule in the West was now all but extinct. Odoacer, the head of the barbarians in Italy, ruled a kingdom as independent as that of the Vandals in Africa or that of the Visigoths in Spain and Gaul. The date 476 A.D. may therefore be chosen as marking, better than any other, the overthrow of the Roman Empire in the West by the Germans. 87. Germanic Influence on Society Classical civilization suffered a great shock when the Germans descended on the empire and from its provinces carved out their kingdoms. These barbarians were rude Significance of the Germanic in manners, were very ignorant, and had little invasions taste for anything except fighting and bodily enjoyments. They were unlike the Romans in dress and habits of life. They lived under different laws, spoke different languages, obeyed different rulers. Their invasions naturally ushered in a long period of confusion and disorder, during which the new race slowly raised itself to a level of culture somewhat approaching that which the Greeks and the Romans had attained. forces The Germans in many ways did injury to classical civilization. They sometimes destroyed Roman cities and killed or Retrogressive enslaved the inhabitants. Even when the invaders settled peaceably in the empire, they took possession of the land and set up their own tribal governments in place of the Roman. They allowed aqueducts, bridges, and roads to go without repairs, and theaters, baths, and other public buildings to sink into ruins. Having no appreciation of education, the Germans failed to keep up the schools, universities, and libraries. Being devoted chiefly to agriculture, they had no need for foreign wares or costly articles of luxury, and hence they permitted industry and commerce to languish. In short, large parts of western Europe, particularly Gaul, Spain, and Britain, fell backward into a condition of ignorance, superstition, and even barbarism. forces But in closing our survey of the Germanic invasions we need to dwell on the forces that made for progress, rather than on Progressive those that made for decline. Classical civilization, we have already found reason to believe,1 had begun to decay long before the Germans broke up the empire. The Germans came, as Christianity had come, only to hasten the process of decay. Each of these influences, in turn, worked 1 See page 224. to build up the fabric of a new society on the ruins of the old. First Christianity infused the pagan world with its quickening spirit and gave a new religion to mankind. Later followed the Germans, who accepted Christianity, who adopted much of Græco-Roman culture, and then contributed their fresh blood and youthful minds and their own vigorous life. Studies 1. On an outline map indicate the extent of Germany in the time of Tacitus. 2. Make a list of all the Germanic nations mentioned in this chapter, and give a short account of each. 3. Give dates for the following: battle of Châlons; sack of Rome by Alaric; battle of Adrianople; and end of the Roman Empire in the West. 4. What resemblances existed between the culture of the Germans and that of the early Greeks? 5. Why did the Germans progress more slowly in civilization than the Greeks and the Romans? 6. Comment on this statement: "The Germans had stolen their way into the very citadel of the empire long before its distant outworks were stormed." 7. Why is modern civilization, unlike that of antiquity, in little danger from barbarians? 8. Why has the battle of Adrianople been called "the Cannæ of the fourth century"? 9. Why has Alaric been styled "the Moses of the Visigoths"? 10. What is the origin of the geographical names Andalusia, Burgundy, England, and France? 11. Why was Attila called the "scourge of God"? 12. Can you suggest a reason why some historians do not regard Châlons as one of the world's decisive battles? 13. In what sense does the date, 476 A.D., mark the "fall" of the Roman Empire? The center of classical CHAPTER XII CLASSICAL CIVILIZATION1 88. The Classical City THE history of the Greeks and Romans ought not to be studied only in their political development and the biographies of their great statesmen and warriors. We must also know something of ancient literature, philosophy, and art. Especially do we need to learn about the private life of the classical peoples-their manners, customs, occupations, and amusements. This life centered in the city. life city A Greek or a Roman city usually grew up about a hill of refuge (acropolis, capitolium), to which the people of the surOrigin of the rounding district could flee in time of danger. The hill would be crowned with a fortress and the temples of the gods. Not far away was the market place (agora, forum), where the people gathered to conduct their business and to enjoy social intercourse. About the citadel and market place were grouped the narrow streets and low houses of the town. The largest and most beautiful buildings in an ancient city were always the temples, colonnades, and other public strucGeneral aptures. The houses of private individuals, for the pearance of an most part, had few pretensions to beauty. They ancient city were insignificant in appearance and were often built with only one story. From a distance, however, their whitewashed walls and red-tiled roofs, shining brightly under the warm sun, must have made an attractive picture. To the free-born inhabitant of Athens or of Rome his city 1 Webster, Readings in Ancient History, chapter xxi, "Roman Life as Seen in Pliny's Letters"; chapter xxii, "A Satirist of Roman Society." was at once his country and his church, his club and his home. He shared in its government; he took part in the Life in stately ceremonies that honored its patron god; the city in the city he could indulge his taste for talking and for politics; here he found both safety and society. No wonder that an Athenian or a Roman learned, from early childhood, to love his city with passionate devotion. 89. Education and the Condition of Children children The coming of a child, to parents in antiquity as to parents now, was usually a very happy event. Especially welcome was the birth of a son. The father felt assured that Importance through the boy his old age would be cared for of male and that the family name and the worship of the family ancestors would be kept up after his own death. "Male children," said an ancient poet, "are the pillars of the house." 1 The city, as well, had an interest in the matter, for a male child meant another citizen able to take the father's place in the army and the public assembly. To have no children was regarded as one of the greatest calamities that could befall a Greek or a Roman. Infanticide The ancient attitude toward children was in one respect very unlike our own. The law allowed a father to do whatever he pleased with a newly born child. If he was very poor, or if his child was deformed, he could expose it in some desert spot, where it soon died. An infant was sometimes placed secretly in a temple, where possibly some kindhearted person might rescue it. The child, in this case, became the slave of its adopter. This custom of exposure, an inheritance from prehistoric savagery, tended to grow less common with advancing culture. The complete abolition of infanticide was due to the spread of Christian teachings about the sacredness of human life.2 A Greek boy generally had but one name. The favorite name for the eldest son was that of his paternal grandfather. A father, however, might give him his own name or that of an 1 Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris, 57. 2 See page 237. |