Early Middle Ages
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- Chief of Staff of all Roman forces; there was one in East and West, or a supreme one when the empire was united.
- Who was Master of soldiers
- Agreement between Roman government and tribes on other side of border to work as auxiliaries in army, in return for payments. From 390s, began applying to tribes, Goths, etc., migrating to the Roman side of border, and living in internal territories.
- What is a foederati
- Originally Roman legal measure allowing Roman troops to be quartered on civilian countryside farms during the winter. From the 420s, was applied to Barbarian federates allowing them to access a certain proportion--1/3 to 2/3--of the agricultural produce
- What is hospitalitas
- Christian heresy from 320s, holding that instead of a human-divine nature in Christ, the divine, being more powerful, pushed out and superceded the human in Christ. Blasted as heresy in the West and later in the East, it was the form of Christianity firs
- What is Arianism
- Heresy in Church, dating from 430s. Held that the human and divine in Christ were inseparable and totally intermingled. The idea was One Nature in One Person. Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, first articulated the belief in opposition to Nestorianism; more e
- What is Monophysitism
- A codification of Roman law going back to second century, accomplished under Justinian in mid 500s. Consisted of a digest, a handbook, and a case law section, was relevant and of guidance to lawyers for the next millennium.
- What is Corpus Juris Civilis
- Military outposts set up by Maurice in 580s in Italy and Carthage to protect remains of Justinian's conquests.
- What is Exarchates
- Regions demarcated first in Anatolia, then in Thrace, to provide for military defense. Governors were generals with wide civil-military powers, and their armies were made up of land-granted small-holding peasants, often Balkan Slav transplants.
- What Themes
- Military commander of a Theme and the themes army.
- Who are strategos
- Compromise theology in response to Monophysitism, proposed by Heraclius through Patriarch Sergius: Christ was of two natures, and did not have a single energy, but possessed a single will. All Eastern Patriarchs agreed, but Western Pope John IV condemned
- What is Monotheletism
- Rains eroded the terrace system of agricultural cultivation in Italy, Balkans and Thrace in the 550-650 period, as peasants had fled and did not maintain them. Alluvial deposits were washed into these areas: youngerfill.
- What is Youngerfill
- First babarian king of Italy. A German warrior, he entered Italy around 470 with his tribe and joined the Roman army; when Julius Nepos was overthrown by the Roman general Orestes, Odovacar led his tribesmen in a revolt. His troops proclaimed him king in
- Who is Odovacar
- Emperor in Constantinople, 474-491. Isaurian war chief from Cappadocia and Taurus mountain areas, cultivated by Leo I, he faced continual palace intrigue from Leo's offspring and was forced to fall back on Isaurian support. After Ostrogoths and other Bar
- Who is Zeno
- One of the two main branches of Goths (westerners are Visigoths); subjugated by Huns around 370s, broke free in 460s, raided in Eastern Roman Danube areas from 470s. Under Theodoric, sent West by Zeno, where they unseated Odovacar and set up a Gothic-Rom
- Who were the Ostrogoths
- The western Goths, they settled north of Thrace and east of the Adriatic Balkans. Coming into Roman lands initially with imperial agreement in 375, th$ soon rebelled against the Roman's negligent treatment and defeated Valens $ 378, then moved westward f
- Who were the Visigoths
- By the late 470s, gained prominence as an Ostrogothic leader. Alternately supporting Pope Leo II against rebels and revolting in search of food and better office in the Roman system, spent the greater part of the 480s marching up and down the Balkans rai
- Who was Theodoric
- Dynasty of kings that ruled the Franks, a Germanic tribe, from 481 to 751. The kings were descendants of the chief of the Salian Franks, Merovech or Merowig, who ruled from 448 to 458, and took their name from him. The first Merovingian ruler was Clovis
- What is Merovingian
- Also known as Pepin the Short. First king of the Frankish Carolingian dynasty and the father of Charlemagne. A son of Charles Martel, Pepin became sole de facto ruler of the Franks in 747 and then, on the deposition of Childeric III in 751, king of the F
- Who was Pepin III
- Turco-Altaic tribal hordes from Central Asia, begin pushing Germanic tribes West to Rhine and Danube from 350s. The Huns defeated and subjugated Gepids and Ostrogoths in 360s, sending other tribes over the rivers into Roman lands. Begin raiding East Rome
- Who were the Huns
- East Roman Emperor to 474 and mentor of Zeno.
- Who was Leo I
- Muhammad's relative and companion. Fourth Caliph, deposed in the civil war with Muawiya. Focus of Shi'ite beliefs.
- Who was Ali
- Name for emigrants with Muhammad to Mecca in 622.
- Who were the muhajirun
- Term applied by Islam to Jews, Christians, and those receiving revealed scriptures. Zoroastrians were included in the classification for pragmatic reasons.
- What is People of the Book
- Word for 'Islamic world': all Muslims, and area of Muslim control.
- What is umma
- Ali's son, martyred by Muawiya's son at Karbala in 686.
- Husayn
- State set up in Tunisia, reaching Egypt by 969. Based on a sub-sect of Shi'ism venerating descendents of Fatima, Muhammad's daughter.
- What is the Fatimid dynasty
- First Islamic state of Turkish ethnicity, in Eastern Iran, from 940s.
- What is Ghaznavids under Mahmud
- Small Christian state in Iberia from 850s; holds on in north from Oveido.
- What is Kingdom of Asturias
- Spanish Christian king, got along well with Muslims; by 1034, incorporated Aragon, Sobrarbe, Barcelona, as well as Asturian Leon and Castile into his kingdom.
- Who was Sancho the Great
- The last Roman (though German) general in Northern Gaul, made himself the political leader of the area's Romans. Cut off from Italy by Burgundians, Visigoths, and others, he relied for warriors on Franks. On two occasions he hired a Frankish chieftain na
- What was Aegidius
- Frankish war chieftain who died in 481. Increased Frankish raiding and territorial possessions. Died as most popular Frank, with palace at Tournai. Father of Clovis.
- Who was Childeric I
- Youngest son of Clovis, ruled all Frankish lands after his brothers' deaths (558-62). At his death, another four-fold division occurred among the leading members of the Frankish Merovingian family.
- What was Clothar I
- Ancient Frankish lands straddling the Rhine.
- What is Austrasia
- Carolingian monarch, ruled 768-806. Conquered Saxony, Frisia, pushed Chrtistianization East, patronized Church in his own realms, tried to spur on classical learning, established border marches in Pyrenees, took Lombard Italy, rescued Pope, became Roman
- Who was Charlemagne
- Pope who implored Charlemagne to come south and punish the Lombard kings pressuring Rome.
- Who was Hadrian I (772-795)
- Scandinavian pagan raiders who began an onslaught against Europe from 790s, beginning with Britain. Hit mainland in 820s, menacing France and Germany to the 920s. Went East to Russia as well.
- Who were the Vikings
- Tribes, perhaps Turkish, pushed to Hungary in late 700s. Raided in Austrasia and Italy from 820s. Finally stopped in 930s-955. Converted to Christianity, stayed in Hungary.
- Who were the Magyars
- Henry the Fowler's son, became king in 937, ruled to 970s. Defeated Magyars at Lechfeld (955), punished noble rebels, intervened in Italy taking lands and appointing popes. Starts the Ottonian dynasty of Saxon kings in Germany.
- Who was King Otto I
- Held off Vikings in England, defeating them at Edington (878), as well as in renewed attacks in 890s, before coming to a truce. United Wessex and Mercia through marriage. Strengthened the army and territorial fortifications.
- Who was Alfred the Great (r. 871-899)
- Very powerful Byzantine Emperor. Known as Bulgar Slayer, removed this people as an offensive threat to the Empire. Also was successful in eastern campaigns, and reformed army as well as administration. Ruled at the apogee of Byzantium.
- Who was Basil II (r. 976-1025)
- Viking leader given lands at the mouth of the Seine by Charles the Simple in 911. Soon enlarged to include Normandy. The eventual Normans also accepted Christianity and nominal vassalage to the French King. Defending the region from other Vikings, they w
- Who was Rollo
- Son of Louis the Pious. After Fontenoy in 843, received the western regions from forty miles east of Paris to the southwestern Marches and stretching from the English Channel to the Mediterranean.
- Who was Charles the Bald
- Progenitor of French noble clan called Capets, got his start when Charles the Bald appointed him missus in the Loire to hold off the Vikings. In the next thirty years, his family expanded to include the counties of Angers, Tours, Blois, Orleans, and most
- Who was Robert the Strong
- French noble family descending from Robert the Strong of 870s, based in Paris region. When the last West Frankish Carolingian, Louis V, died in 987, France's great men elected Hugh Capet (987-996) as 'Duke of France.' He soon had his son elected as assoc
- Who were the Capetians
- Rather than a Carolingian, in 887 French feudal lords chose him, the marquis of Neustria and son of Robert the Strong, as king.
- Who was
- Church father supporting Papal predominance in Christendom. Wrote in 380s.
- Who was Damasus
- Church father, theologian in 420s-430s. Bishop near Carthage, wrote City of God, exonerating Christianity of Rome's fall. Encouraged an inward-looking spirituality.
- Who was Augustine
- Left Egypt for Constantinople, settling in Marseilles as a refugee from Church disputes in the 410s. Up until this time individual monasteries had been following their own rules. On the request of a local bishop, John wrote a rule- book entitled Institut
- Who was John Cassian
- The founder of organized monasticism in the Eastern Church.
- Who was Basil of Caesarea (370s)
- Living in Italy during Byzantine- Ostrogothic warfare, he wanted to create a rule of life for personal spiritual improvement within a corporate, communal framework. Unlike his Egyptian predecessors, essential to the Benedictine Rule was "nothing har
- Who was St. Benedict
- Possibly born among the Christianized west Britons, he was carried off to Ireland as a slave at a young age, after which he escaped to Gaul and spent twenty years in its burgeoning monastic centers. At this point (432), he undertook a further exile (a pa
- Who was St. Patrick
- Practicing exile, this Irish monk set up a monastery on the Scottish coastal island Iona, and from the 560s traveled through Scotland converting Picts.
- Who was St. Columba
- Byzantine final defeat of Goths. Narses led Romans, and Totila led Goths.
- What is Busta Gallorum
- Battle in Poitiers in 732, where Charles Martel stopped Muslim penetration into France.
- What is the Battle of Tours
- · Decrees sent out by Charlemagne to regions, meant to apply to all subjects equally.
- What were the Capitularies
- Areas in Britain allotted to Vikings.
- What was the Danelaw
- The sale of church offices to the highest bidder. Poor quality churchmen resulted
- What was Simony