The Fall of the Roman Empire: Germanic Invasions and the Rise of New Kingdoms

Early Middle Ages

The Break-up of the Roman Empire

In AD 324, the emperor Constantine I founded the city of Constantinople on the site of Ancient Byzantium.

All people living beyond Roman borders were considered Barbarians.

• The Huns were nomadic animal herders who traveled across the Asian steppe. They attacked Germanic people.
• The Germanic peoples lived in the north and east of Europe. Many eastern tribes were nomadic. They were organized into tribes, each tribe had an assembly that elected a chieftain.

Romans built fortifications along the Rhine and Danube rivers.

Germanic tribes became a real threat in the 3rd century AD, when the Roman Empire suffered a serious economic and social crisis.

Some Germanic tribes carried out violent attacks on Roman towns.

Other tribes established settlements on the Roman side of the frontier where they lived peacefully alongside the local population.

The Division of the Roman Empire

In AD 395, the emperor Theodosius I divided the Roman Empire into two parts:

• The Western Roman Empire, whose capital was Rome.
• The Eastern Roman Empire, whose capital was Constantinople.

The Invasions and Fall of Rome

Under their ruler Attila, the Huns repeatedly attacked the Roman Empire.

The Huns advanced into Gaul (modern France) where they were defeated in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (451). Germanic people already controlled most of the territory of the Western Roman Empire.

The Western Roman Empire ended in AD 476 when a Germanic chieftain, Odoacer, deposed the last Western Emperor, Romulus Augustus.

The Germanic Kingdoms (The Emergence of the Germanic Kingdoms)

The Western Empire broke up into smaller kingdoms in the 5th and 7th centuries:

• The Franks established a kingdom in Gaul (France)
• The Visigoths and Suevi controlled much of the Iberian Peninsula.
• The Ostrogoths (and later the Lombards) in Italy.
• The Angles and the Saxons settled in Britain.

Each kingdom was ruled by a king, who had a council to help him. Over time, the monarchy became hereditary.

Military power was held by dukes. Counts and bishops held great power in cities.

The Germanic tribes followed unwritten laws.