The Middle Ages: An Introduction Flashcards
The term medieval refers to what?
Anything concerned with the Middle Ages
What is Comitatus?
- In Germanic system, the relation ship between a leader/king and his warriors/lord
- king would provide the needs of the members in return for loyalty
What is a Witan?
Council of a German King
What are the ways in which the dates for the beginning and end of the Middle Ages were disputed?
- Renaissance scholars say it begin at the fall of the Roman Empire, ended when Renaissance began
- Historians disagree on the date of the fall of the Western Empire
- some date it at AD 376 when barbarians moved into Roman land
- others say it gradually declined till AD 800
What dates of the Middle Ages will we consider for this topic?
AD 500 to 1500
What caused the invasion in the 4th century?
- another migration of people
- Huns in Asia were moving toward the West and attacked the Ostrogoths
- Visigoths and Ostrogoths got permission to settle in Rome
- But Rome didn’t pinky swear so the Visigoths did what they had to do
What happened in the invasion in the 4th century?
- 378
- Visigoths defeated Romans and killed emperor Valens
What was the result of the invasion in the 4th century?
The Roman empire could not stop the Germanic Tribe tourists such as the Franks, Vandals, and Burgundians
Who was Attila?
- Hun
- ‘The Scourge of God’
- defeated by Romans and Germans
Who was Theodosius I?
Made peace with the Visigoths
Who was Odoacer?
- commander of the Roman army
- deposed the last Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus
- became first Germanic ruler of Rome
Who was Theodoric?
- king of the Ostrogoths
- deposed Odoacer
- Ravenna was his Capital
Who were the Vandals?
- migrated the farthest of all tribes
- Arian Christians and persecuted Christians who were not Arians
- destroyed by the Byzantines
How did the Germanic tribes contribute to the fall of the Roman Empire?
- 4th century invasion
- Odoacer deposing Romulus Augustulus
What are the four similarities between the Germanic kingdoms?
- king took titles such as Caesar/Augustus
- Pagan background but allied with Christians
- Many were Arian Christians
- King had a Witan and Comitatus
