Tag: History

The 7th century AD and its quickening pace of change in the Roman East

Emperor Maurice’s self-sworn avenger Heraclius had overthrown Phocas in 610, and assumed responsibility as emperor for the defense of the empire and the faith, and the
expulsion of the Persians. Although the Persians had overrun Syria and Palestine and threatened to occupy all of Asia Minor and even approached Constantinople, it was Heraclius who, after reconstituting his armies, had brought the war to the heart of the Sassanian Empire in early 628. The overthrow and death of Chosroes ensued. Continue reading “The 7th century AD and its quickening pace of change in the Roman East” →

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Post-Roman Europe: The barbarian kingdoms

The barbarian states which arose on the ruins of the Western Empire were founded under widely different circumstances of time and place, by tribes and federations of tribes drawn from every part of Germany. We expect to find, and we do find, infinite varieties of detail in their laws, their social distinctions, their methods of government. But from a broader point of view they may be grouped in two classes, not according to affinities of race, but according to their relations with the social order which they had invaded. Continue reading “Post-Roman Europe: The barbarian kingdoms” →

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The fall of the Western part of the Roman Empire

Medieval history begins with the dissolution of the Western Empire, with the abandonment of the Latin world to German conquerors. Of the provinces affected by the catastrophe the youngest was Britain; and even Britain had then been Roman soil for more than three hundred years. For Italy, Spain, and Gaul, the change of masters meant the atrophy of institutions which, at first reluctantly accepted, had come by lapse of time to be accepted as part of the natural order. Continue reading “The fall of the Western part of the Roman Empire” →

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Evidence of violence and martial readiness in Minoan Crete

Just how peace loving were the Minoans? Why did they not leave behind images of wars, battles and walls despite their contacts with other eastern peoples who were their contemporaries and who used such representations? Were the inhabitants of Minoan Crete perhaps ‟flower children” living among the lilies and passing their time with bullfights and festivities in meadows and olive groves? Continue reading “Evidence of violence and martial readiness in Minoan Crete” →

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Transition to the Middle Ages – Ostrogoths, Lombards, Franks

We are not to suppose that the settlement of Germans within the Roman Empire ended with the deposition of Romulus Augustulus, near the close of the fifth century. The following centuries witnessed fresh invasions and the establishment of new Germanic states. The study of these troubled times leads us from the classical world to the world of medieval Europe, from the history of antiquity to the history of the Middle Ages. Continue reading “Transition to the Middle Ages – Ostrogoths, Lombards, Franks” →

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