The End of the Western Empire in Italy

The End of the Western Empire in Italy

Odoacer* leads the Huns in sacking Rome one last time in 476. He does not, however, sack, plunder and run. This time he, and his barbarian horde, stay, and start trying to become more like those people they just conquered. Odoacer* calls himself the King of Italy and moves his capital from the now rather dilapidated Rome, to Ravenna. When Odoacer* dies, the "kingdom" has very little to hold it together and Italy begins to split apart into principalities.

A quit different barbarian, an Ostergoth, Theodoric* (500 ff.), becomes ruler of Rome. His main claim to fame is a scholar he appoints as consul in Ravenna*. This scholar, Boethius*, translates Aristotle* into Latin and writes The Consolation of Philosophy*. This is an extensive work of commentaries and original treaties on logic, arithmetic, music and theology. It becomes another useful addition to knowledge for the monastery libraries. The disintegration of Italy continues and it will not be reunited until the nineteenth century. Many of the Italian localities simply pull in their locals and survive as small city-states. Such places, like Bologna, will save some of the Roman sense of civilization for a later time. So much for the Italian part of the West.

The western world, organized, civilized, educated and, having learned extensive skills under Roman tutelage, disappears under the weight of continuing barbarian invasions. The magnificent network of roads, urban centers and efficient management of resources and trade erodes. The primeval forests, so laboriously cleared for cultivation, gradually, but irrevocably return. The West sinks into confusion and disarray with a population that is made up primarily of illiterate, unskilled tribes moving into the neighborhoods.

Literacy and knowledge retreat into monasteries. The Augustinian world-view that the real world of disaster and suffering exists only so that we may contemplate the values of the hereafter prevails. The West becomes culturally comatose and subsistence survival is the rule of the day.

In a few places, such as Ireland, civilization and commerce avoids the barbarian devastation, but in most of the West, darkness falls. The fabulous Roman roads fall victim to the encroaching woods since no one wants (or dares try) to go from one place to another. Tiny clusters of huts are the only breaks to be found in the great stretches of forests, wild beasts and wilder men spreading over Europe. In the disintegration of the Empire we need to consider what happens to the Roman* legacy in the West. There are several threads to follow which will lead us into the emerging Middle Ages*.

Language - The first thread is the Latin language. Latin continues to be spoken by all the scattered and stranded Roman citizens. It provides the foundation for all the Romance* languages. Under the Franks in Gaul it begins to become French. In Italy, under the Lombards and Goths it evolves into Italian and Italian dialects. In Spain and Portugal, under the Language - The first thread is the Latin language. Latin continues to be spoken by all the scattered and stranded Roman citizens. It provides the foundation for all the Romance* languages. Under the Franks in Gaul it begins to become French. In Italy, under the Lombards and Goths it evolves into Italian and Italian dialects. In Spain and Portugal, under the

Law - The second thread is the Roman Law. Owing a great deal to Greek ideas, much of the western scheme of equality, justice and fair dealing depends on Roman law. It provides a sense of a world brought together by unbreakable bonds of rights and obligations. Throughout the Church, Roman jurisprudence becomes the basis of Church canon law. And, through the Church, the law and its applications spread everywhere the Church is to be found.

The Church - The third thread is the main one through which the Roman legacy is passed in the West. The Church preserves and adapts Roman organization, gradually acquiring many of the qualities of the old imperial order so condemned by St. Augustine*. Roman organization gives shape to Church institutions and Roman political imagination gives strength to the idea of a Church universal. Even the Roman obsession with Divine Missionaries becomes a Church obsession. The doctrine that all spiritual power is vested in the Pope and that earthly power should receive sanction of the spiritual, in effect turns the Pope into a Caesar, a Pontifex maximus* (the Roman head of the state religion, remember?).