EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

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POLITICAL SITUATION IN 451 A.D.

By the middle of the fifth century the larger part of the Roman Empire in
the West had come under barbarian control. The Germans ruled in Africa,
Spain, Britain, and parts of Gaul. But now the new Germanic kingdoms,
together with what remained of the old empire, were threatened by a common
foe--the terrible Huns.

85. INROADS OF THE HUNS

THE HUNS

We know very little about the Huns, except that they were not related to
the Germans or to any other European people. Some scholars believe them to
have belonged to the Mongolian race. But the Huns, to the excited
imagination of Roman writers, were demons rather than men. Their olive
skins, little, turned-up noses, and black, beady eyes must have given them
a very frightful appearance. They spent most of their time on horseback,
sweeping over the country like a whirlwind and leaving destruction and
death in their wake.

ATTILA THE HUN

The Huns did not become dangerous to Rome for more than half a century
after their first appearance in Europe. [14] During this time they moved
into the Danube region and settled in the lands now known as Austria and
Hungary. At last the Huns found a national leader in Attila, "a man born
into the world to agitate the nations, the fear of all lands," [15] one
whose boast it was that the grass never grew again where his horse's hoofs
had trod. He quickly built up a great military power obeyed by many
barbarous nations from the Caspian to the Rhine.

INVASION OF GAUL BY ATTILA

Attila, from his capital on the Danube, could threaten both the East and
the West. The emperors at Constantinople bought him off with lavish gifts,
and so the robber-ruler turned to the western provinces for his prey. In
451 A.D. he led his motley host, said to number half a million men, across
the Rhine. Many a noble municipality with its still active Roman life was
visited by the Huns with fire and sword. Paris, it is worthy of note,
escaped destruction. That now famous city was then only a little village
on an island in the Seine.

BATTLE OF CHALONS, 451 A.D.

In this hour of danger Romans and Germans gave up quarreling and united
against the common foe. Visigoths under their native king hastened from
Spain; Burgundians and Franks joined their ranks; to these forces a German
general, named Aetius, added the last Roman army in the West. Opposed to
them Attila had his Huns, the conquered Ostrogoths, and many other
barbarian peoples. The battle of Chalons has well been called a struggle
of the nations. It was one of the fiercest conflicts recorded in history.
On both sides thousands perished, but so many more of Attila's men fell
that he dared not risk a fresh encounter on the following day. He drew his
shattered forces together and retreated beyond the Rhine.

ATTILA INVADES ITALY, 452 A.D.

In spite of this setback Attila did not abandon the hope of conquest. The
next year he led his still formidable army over the Julian Alps and burned
or plundered many towns of northern Italy. A few trembling fugitives
sought shelter on the islands at the head of the Adriatic. Out of their
rude huts grew up in the Middle Ages splendid and famous Venice, a city
that in later centuries was to help defend Europe against those kinsmen of
the Huns, the Turks.

DEATH OF ATTILA, 453 A.D.

The fiery Hun did not long survive this Italian expedition. Within a year
he was dead, dying suddenly, it was said, in a drunken sleep. The great
confederacy which he had formed broke up after his death. The German
subjects gained their freedom, and the Huns themselves either withdrew to
their Asiatic wilds or mingled with the peoples they had conquered. Europe
breathed again; the nightmare was over.

86. END OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST, 476 A.D.

VANDAL PIRATES

Rome escaped a visitation by the Huns only to fall a victim, three years
later, to the Vandals. After the capture of Carthage,[16] these barbarians
made that city the seat of a pirate empire. Putting out in their long,
light vessels, they swept the seas and raided many a populous city on the
Mediterranean coast. So terrible were their inroads that the word
"vandalism" has come to mean the wanton destruction of property.

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.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST, 455-476 A.D.

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. He was, in
fact, the real ruler of Italy at this time. After his death Orestes,
another German general, went a step beyond Ricimer's policy and placed his
own son on the throne of the Caesars. 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.

[Illustration: Map, EUROPE at the Deposition of Romulus Augustulus 476
A.D.]

POLITICAL SITUATION IN 476 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. The emperors who reigned at Constantinople did
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

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GERMANIC INVASIONS

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 in manners, were very ignorant, and had little 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.

RETROGRESSIVE FORCES

The Germans in many ways did injury to classical civilization. They
sometimes destroyed Roman cities and killed or 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.

PROGRESSIVE FORCES

But in closing our survey of the Germanic invasions we need to dwell on
the forces that made for progress, rather than on those that made for
decline. Classical civilization, we have already found reason to believe,
[17] 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 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
Graeco-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 Chalons; 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 Cannae 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 Chalons 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?

FOOTNOTES

[1] Webster, _Readings in Ancient History_, chapter xxiii, "The Germans as
Described by Tacitus."

[2] Tacitus, _Germania_, 19.

[3] See pages 224-226.

[4] See page 219.

[5] See page 223.

[6] See page 98.

[7] See page 178.

[8] See page 153.

[9] See page 303.

[10] See page 378.

[11] See page 303.

[12] See page 330.

[13] The invasion of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons was followed by the
migration across the Channel of large numbers of the defeated islanders.
The district in France where they settled is called after them, Brittany.

[14] See page 241.

[15] Jordanes, _De rebus Geticis_, 35.

[16] See page 225.

[17] See page 224.

CHAPTER XII

CLASSICAL CIVILIZATION [1]

88. THE CLASSICAL CITY

THE CENTER OF CLASSICAL LIFE

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.

ORIGIN OF THE CITY

A Greek or a Roman city usually grew up about a hill of refuge
(_acropolis, capitolium_), to which the people of the surrounding 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.

GENERAL APPEARANCE OF AN ANCIENT CITY

The largest and most beautiful buildings in an ancient city were always
the temples, colonnades, and other public structures. The houses of
private individuals, for the most part, had few pretensions to beauty.
They 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.

LIFE IN THE CITY

To the free-born inhabitant of Athens or of Rome his city was at once his
country and his church, his club and his home. He shared in its
government; he took part in the stately ceremonies that honored its patron
god; 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

IMPORTANCE OF MALE 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 through the boy his old age would be cared for
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." [2] 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 kind-hearted 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. [3]

NAMES

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 intimate friend. The Romans at first seem
to have used only the one name, then two were given; and later we have the
familiar three-fold name, representing the individual, the clan, and the
family. [4]

GREEK EDUCATION

Greek education consisted of three main branches, known as gymnastics,
music, and grammar. By gymnastics the Greeks meant the physical training
in the palestra, an open stretch of ground on the outskirts of the city.
Here a private teacher gave instruction in the various athletic sports
which were so popular at the national games. The training in music was
intended to improve the moral nature of young men and to fit them for
pleasant social intercourse. They were taught to play a stringed
instrument, called the lyre, and at the same time to sing to their own
accompaniment. Grammar, the third branch of education, included
instruction in writing and the reading of the national literature. After a
boy had learned to write and to read, the schoolmaster took up with him
the works of the epic poets, especially Homer, besides _Aesop's Fables_
and other popular compositions. The student learned by heart much of the
poetry and at so early an age that he always remembered it. Not a few
Athenians, it is said, could recite the entire _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_.

[Illustration: AN ATHENIAN SCHOOL (Royal Museum, Berlin)
A painting by Duris on a drinking-cup, or cylix. The picture is divided by
the two handles. In the upper half, beginning at the left: a youth playing
the double flute as a lesson to the boy before him; a teacher holding a
tablet and stylus and correcting a composition; a slave (_paedagogus_),
who accompanied the children to and from school. In the lower half: a
master teaching his pupil to play the lyre; a teacher holding a half-
opened roll, listening to a recitation by the student before him; a
bearded _paedagogus_. The inner picture, badly damaged, represents a youth
in a bath.]

ROMAN EDUCATION

A Roman boy began his school days at about the age of seven. He learned to
read, to write with a stylus on wax tablets, and to cipher by means of the
reckoning board, or abacus. He received a little instruction in singing
and memorized all sorts of proverbs and maxims, besides the laws of the
Twelve Tables. [5] His studying went on under the watchful eyes of a harsh
schoolmaster, who did not hesitate to use the rod. After Rome began to
come into close contact with Greece, the curriculum was enlarged by the
study of literature. The Romans were the first people who made the
learning of a foreign tongue an essential part of education. Schools now
arose in which the Greek language and literature formed the chief subject
of instruction. As Latin literature came into being, its productions,
especially the orations of Cicero and the poems of Vergil and Horace, were
also used as texts for study.

[Illustration: A ROMAN SCHOOL SCENE
Wall painting, Herculaneum.]

[Illustration: YOUTH READING A PAPYRUS ROLL
Relief on a sarcophagus. The papyrus roll was sometimes very long. The
entire _Iliad_ or _Odyssey_ might be contained in a single manuscript
measuring one hundred and fifty feet in length. In the third century A.D.
the unwieldy roll began to give way to the tablet, composed of a number of
leaves held together by a ring. About this time, also, the use of vellum,
or parchment made of sheepskin, became common.]

TRAVEL AND STUDY ABROAD

Persons of wealth or noble birth might follow their school training by a
university course at a Greek city, such as Athens, Alexandria, or Rhodes.
Here the Roman youth would listen to lectures on philosophy, delivered by
the deep thinkers whom Greece still produced, and would profit by the
treasures of art and science preserved in these ancient capitals. Many
famous Romans thus passed several years abroad in graduate study. During
the imperial age, as we have already seen, [6] schools of grammar and
rhetoric arose in the West, particularly in Gaul and Spain, and attracted
students from all parts of the empire.

90. MARRIAGE AND THE POSITION OF WOMEN

ENGAGEMENTS

A young man in Athens or in Rome did not, as a rule, marry immediately on
coming of age. He might remain a bachelor for several years, sometimes
till he was thirty or over. The young man's father had most to do with the
selection of a wife. He tried to secure for his son some daughter of a
friend who possessed rank and property equal to his own. The parents of
the two parties would then enter into a contract which, among other
things, usually stated how large a dowry the bride's father was to settle
on his daughter. An engagement was usually very little a matter of romance
and very much a matter of business.

WEDDING CUSTOMS

The wedding customs of the Greeks and Romans presented many likenesses.
Marriage, among both peoples, was a religious ceremony. On the appointed
day the principals and their guests, dressed in holiday attire, met at the
house of the bride. In the case of a Roman wedding the auspices [7] were
then taken, and the words of the nuptial contract were pronounced in the
presence of witnesses. After a solemn sacrifice to the gods of marriage,
the guests partook of the wedding banquet. When night came on, the husband
brought his wife to her new abode, escorted by a procession of
torchbearers, musicians, and friends, who sang the happy wedding song.

POSITION OF WOMEN

An Athenian wife, during her younger years, always remained more or less a
prisoner. She could not go out except by permission. She took no part in
the banquets and entertainments which her husband gave. She lived a life
of confinement in that quarter of the house assigned to the women for
their special abode. Married women at Rome enjoyed a far more honorable
position. Although early custom placed the wife, together with her
children, in the power of the husband, [8] still she possessed many
privileges. She did not remain all the time at home, but mingled freely in
society. She was the friend and confidante of her husband, as well as his
housekeeper. During the great days of Roman history the women showed
themselves virtuous and dignified, loving wives and excellent companions.

91. THE HOME AND PRIVATE LIFE

CLOTHING

There were no great differences between the dress of the two classical
peoples. Both wore the long, loosely flowing robes that contrast so
sharply with our tight-fitting garments. [9] Athenian male attire
consisted of but two articles, the tunic and the mantle. The tunic was an
undergarment of wool or linen, without sleeves. Over this was thrown a
large woolen mantle, so wrapped about the figure as to leave free only the
right shoulder and head. In the house a man wore only his tunic; out of
doors and on the street he usually wore the mantle over it. Very similar
to the two main articles of Greek clothing were the Roman _tunica_ and
_toga_. [10]

COVERING FOR THE HEAD AND FEET

On a journey or out in the country broad-brimmed hats were used to shield
the head from the sun. In rainy weather the mantle, pulled up over the
head, furnished protection. Sandals, merely flat soles of wood or leather
fastened by thongs, were worn indoors, but even these were laid aside at a
dinner party. Outside the house leather shoes of various shapes and colors
were used. They cannot have been very comfortable, since stockings were
not known in antiquity.

EXTERIOR OF THE HOUSE

The ancient house lay close to the street line. The exterior was plain and
simple to an extreme. The owner was satisfied if his mansion shut out the
noise and dust of the highway. He built it, therefore, round one or more
open courts, which took the place of windows supplying light and air.
Except for the doorway the front of the house presented a bare, blank
surface, only relieved by narrow slits or lattices in the wall of the
upper story. The street side of the house wall received a coating of
whitewash or of fine marble stucco. The roof of the house was covered with
clay tiles. This style of domestic architecture is still common in eastern
lands.

[Illustration: HOUSE OF THE VETTII AT POMPEII (RESTORED)
Notice the large area of blank wall both on the front and on the side. The
front windows are very small and evidently of less importance for
admitting light than the openings of the two _atria_. At the back is seen
the large, well-lighted peristyle.]

[Illustration: ATRIUM OF POMPEIAN HOUSE
The view shows the _atrium_ with the basin for rainwater, in the center
the _tabinum_ with its wall paintings, and the peristyle at the rear.]

INTERIOR OF THE HOUSE

In contrast with its unpretentious exterior a classical dwelling indoors
had a most attractive appearance. We cannot exactly determine just what
were the arrangements of a Greek interior. But the better class of Roman
houses, such as some of those excavated at Pompeii, [11] followed Greek
designs in many respects. The Pompeian remains, therefore, will give some
idea of the sort of residence occupied by a well-to-do citizen of Athens
or Rome.

[Illustration: POMPEIAN FLOOR MOSAIC]

THE ATRIUM

The visitor at one of these ancient houses first entered a small
vestibule, from which a narrow passage led to the heavy oaken door. A dog
was sometimes kept chained in this hallway; in Pompeii there is a picture
of one worked in mosaic on the floor with the warning beneath it, "Beware
of the dog." Having made known his presence by using the knocker, the
guest was ushered into the reception room, or _atrium_. This was a large
apartment covered with a roof, except for a hole in the center admitting
light and air. A marble basin directly underneath caught the rain water
which came through the opening. The _atrium_ represents the single room of
the primitive Roman house without windows or chimney. [12]

THE PERISTYLE

A corridor from the _atrium_ led into the _peristyle_, the second of the
two main sections of a Roman house. It was a spacious court, open to the
sky and inclosed by a colonnade or portico. This delightful spot, rather
than the formal _atrium_, served as the center of family life. About it
were grouped the bedchambers, bathrooms, dining rooms, kitchen, and other
apartments of a comfortable mansion. Still other rooms occupied the upper
stories of the dwelling.

BUSINESS OF THE FORENOON

The ancient Athenian was no sluggard. At sunrise, or even before, he rose
from his couch, washed his face and hands, put on his scanty garments, and
was soon ready for the street. Before leaving the house, he broke his fast
with a meal as simple as the European "rolls and coffee"--in this case
merely a few mouthfuls of bread dipped in wine. After breakfast he might
call on his friends or perhaps ride into the country and visit his
estates. About ten o'clock (which the Athenians called "full market"), he
would be pretty sure to find his way to the Agora. The shops at this time
were crowded with purchasers, and every sociable citizen of Athens was to
be found in them or in the neighboring colonnades which lined the market
place.