Plans Of Roman Diplomats And Germanic Kings example essay topic

During the third and fourth centuries, there were large migrations of land-hungry Germans southward and westward onto the Rhine-Danube Frontier. The basic Germanic political structure was the tribe, headed by a chief who was elected for his ability as a war leader. It was these tribes that resulted in Rome's losing control of the great frontier. The Roman and Germanic cultures greatly clashed.

The Germanic religion was polytheistic, their society was a warrior aristocracy, and finally their societal structure was a mobile one. By 370 A.D., the tribe had become nations led by a warrior king. It was at this time that the Huns swept out of central Asia westward in which they encountered two Germanic nations of Visigoths and Ostrogoths. This was the spark of many years of invasions and warfare that provoked the downfall of the Roman controlled frontier. The following information describes some of the Germanic tribes such as Franks, Visigoths, Burgundians, Angles, Saxons, Ostrogoths, Vandals and Lombards. Originating in central Asia, the Huns were a Mongolian tribe who invaded southeastern Europe c.

AD 370 and managed to build a remarkable empire. In their nomadic endeavors, the Huns crossed paths with the Ostrogoths and Visigoths and were able to maintain their dominance, especially at the Danubian frontier of the Roman empire. This clan of Asiatic warriors invaded Gaul in 451, which became the unofficial center of their civilization. Although the Huns were seemingly primitive pastoralists, they did maintain a distinct, multifaceted society. The frontier along the Danube became the site for trade, where the Huns obtained silk and wine through annual fairs. Slaves captured in battle helped to define this civilization by bolstering the economy, whether it be through the strong output of their menial labor or through the slave market in Rome.

Hunnic art added an interesting dimension to the culture as well. Art was expressed in the forms of bronze cauldrons and vessels. Hunnic women donned the latest in necklaces and bracelets, the jewels being anything from coral, carnelian, mother-of-pearl, quartz, pyrite, lapis and even Egyptian paste, which may have been obtained through their nomadic travels. It is unquestionable, however, that although the Huns made noteworthy achievements in both the arts and economics, their unparalleled warring strategies remain most remembered. Armed with their signature bow and arrow, the Huns fought the Germans under King Rug lia, whose successors (Atilla and Bled a) ruled together. However, Atilla's aggressive foreign policies (including having issued an ultimatum to the Eastern Roman empire demanding monetary tribute) led to a series of wars that had mixed results.

About 445, Atilla assassinated his brother and took upon himself the challenge of suppressing the Roman advances. There were series of attacks made by both parties. While the Huns were not exactly successful, the expeditions did introduce wealth (through the acquisition of gold), which consequently brought structure to a previously ambiguous governmental system. Now, Atilla adopted autocratic methods and even declared when his people would enter war and remain in peace. Also, the leader had an administration whom he chose (comparable to a political cabinet) and commenced a system of collecting food and tribute from his subjects. Atilla continued his military undertakings in Gaul (present day France) but was finally defeated at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains by concerted Roman and Visigothic forces.

Yet surprisingly, that was his only defeat. In 452 the tribe sacked several Italian cities; however, they left due to the lack of resources needed to feed his people. They were even routed in 455 by a combination of tribes (including the Gepidae, Ostrogoths, Her uli, and others) in a great battle on the river Neda o and were ultimately ostracized by the Eastern Roman empire. From that point on, the Huns remained voiceless in the changing face of history.

The Franks, as they are known today, were a Germanic tribe who eventually became the French. They came to inhabit the former wealthy Roman provinces of Gaul and became the most powerful of the Germanic tribes. It was the Franks who created the strongest and most stable barbarian kingdom in the days after the Western Roman Empire had collapsed. The name 'Frank' is closely related to the word that means 'fierce' or 'free' in the Frankish language. From a linguistic point of view, the most direct descendants of the Franks are the Dutch and the Flemish-speakers of Belgium. The early Franks were a loose confederation of tribes who shared a similar culture.

Tribal loyalty came before loyalty to the confederation and because of this the confederation was extremely weak. The concept of the Franks as a people was first realized under the reign of the Merovingian dynasty. The Merovingians took their name from the chief of the tribe, Merovech (Me rowen), who was one of the leaders (regula) of the Salian Franks. Merovich and his successor, Childeric, (d. 481), extended Frankish dominion as far south as the Somme River. Childeric was the father of Clovis (481-511), the first ruler of the Merovingian dynasty.

Clovis was a ruthless warrior and he and his immediate successors destroyed all resistance within their empire. He drove the Gallic Visigoths into Spain and absorbed much of the Burgundian kingdom as well as much of the territory of the Alemanni into his kingdom. In addition, Clovis also converted to Orthodox Christianity, an act which made him king of the Franks in the eyes of the pope. After AD 700, the Merovingian gradually lost control of the Frankish kingdom to the Carolingian, a family of ambitious landowners who served as court advisors to the Merovingians. Frankish troops secured the fate of Christian Europe in the Battle of Tours, in which the Muslim forces were defeated by the Carolingian general Charles Martel (Charles the Hammer). Pepin the Short, son of Charles Martel, became king with the votes of the Frankish nobles and papal approval.

In return for this ecclesiastic recognition, Pepin crushed the Lombards of Italy and gave the newly conquered lands to the pope. These territories later became the Papal states and this agreement is known as the Donation of Pepin. However, the most notable of all the Frankish rulers was Charlemagne (Charles the Great). He built up a capable bureaucracy, a fair judicial system, and revived the arts. he was also the ruler of a vast domain that was gained by his military exploits.

Charlemagne followed up his victories in these areas by converting most of the people to Christianity and he was justly honored for his military and religious activities. On Christmas day of the year AD 800, Pope Leo (795-816) crowned Charlemagne 'Charles Augustus, Emperor of the Romans,' and made him the first Holy Roman Emperor. The end of the Carolingian era began in 843 when Charlemagne's grandsons divided the empire into three parts, and thus hastened the splintering of Western Europe into smaller kingdoms. The Visigoths, also known as the Goths, were a barbaric tribe. Living on the delta of the Danube River, their kingdom was inherited by Alaric I. They were pushed west by attacks from the Huns. In 382, Theodosius, Roman ruler at the time, under a treaty made the Visigoths the first independent barbarian nation within the Roman Empire.

Visigoths allied with Rome in 394, and Alaric I led the Visigoths in the Roman army against the Huns. Theodosius, before his death, spilt the empire between his sons Honorius and Ac radius. The empire was now permanently split into eastern and western empires. In 395, when Theodosius died, the Visigoths relinquished their allegiance with Rome. In 401, Alaric decided to invade Italy, but was defeated by the Roman general Flavius Stilicho, and the Visigoths were forced to withdraw from Italy.

Alaric's huge loss did not prevent him from attacking again, as he did. The second invasion also ended in defeat, but this time Alaric constrained the Senate at Rome to pay a large endowment to the Visigoths. An anti-barbarian party took over Rome after Stilicho's death and ordered that wives and children of the tribesmen who served in the Roman army be killed. The tribal soldiers then returned to serve under Alaric, increasing his military strength. Even though Alaric was eager for peace, the western emperor Honorius, refused to recognize Alaric's needs for supplies and land. This led Alaric to attack Rome once more and the Senate ended up paying an endowment to Alaric and granted Alaric the right to go and negotiate with Honorius.

Honorius, close-minded, paid no attention to what Alaric wanted and refused to set up a meeting for the negotiations to take place. In 409, Alaric surrounded Rome. Honorius lifted his blockade and appointed Attalus as western emperor. Alaric soon deposed Attalus and besieged Rome for the third time. Allies that were in the city opened the gates for Alaric and for three days his troops occupied Rome. While in Rome Alaric and his troops took everything with them and burned things that were in their way.

Soon after this Alaric died and the Visigoths moved northward towards Spain. After Alaric's death the Visigoths roamed and were vulnerable to attacks The Burgundians, East German tribesmen, were great allies of Rome. In the Battle of Chalons (451 AD), they fought on the side of Aet ius, a Roman war hero, the Visigoths, and other Germanic peoples against Attila and the Huns. So much the Roman allies, the Burgundian kings were given the title of Master of the Soldiers.

Burgundians sought their place in history through military alliances. The rise of the Franks under Clovis committed the Burgundians as allies to the Franks in which they helped Clovis to defeat the Visigoths in 507 ADIt was twice that the Burgundians faced destruction, the second time being fatal. The Huns attacked in 456 AD; with the aid of Aet us, the Burgundians narrowly escaped destruction. The few survivors fled to the territory surrounding Lake Geneva in Switzerland.

Later, after repeated invasions, they moved to the valley of the Rhine River where they occupied eastern Gaul. Lyon became the capital of the Burgundian Kingdom. They gave their name to the region that still remains today as the region Burgundy. But latter in 554 AD, the Burgundians were attacked by the Franks, their former allies, and their kingdom was annexed. The greatest of the Burgundian kings was Gund obad, who reigned from 473 to 517 AD, his greatest contribution being Burgundian law.

In 484, he formulated a law code for his Burgundian subjects, the Lex Gundobada, or Lex Burgundionum. Years later, he sponsored a more significant law code, the Lex Romana Burgundinum, this time benefit of his Roman subjects, ' [w] high applied also to cases in which both Romans and Burgundians were involved,' (Jones, p. 22). Finally, the Burgundians, like many other Germanic tribesmen, were Arian Christians. However, in 493 AD, Clotilde, the Burgundian princess, married Clovis, and having embraced the Roman Rite herself, helped convert Clovis to Roman Christianity. The period between 406 and 572 saw the Germanic barbarians complete their migrations into the West.

It is undoubtedly one of history's most hectic and confusing periods of time. As the Roman world collapsed, many tribes reached a peak of brief glory, others were destroyed in a series of little-known wars. To the Germanic people, this was considered to be the "heroic age" which was a time of adventure and great displays of power. The Vandals were a Germanic tribe of Jutland (now in Denmark), who migrated to the valley of the Odra (Oder) River about the 5th century BC. During the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD they settled along the Danube River. This is approximately when they began their conquests over Rome.

Today's usage of the word 'vandal' reflects the dread and hostility the tribe precipitated in other people, especially the Romans, by their looting and pillaging of the many villages they conquered. In the 420's, much of Spain was the playground of the ferocious Vandal tribes, who had arrived there in 409 after crossing the Rhine in 406. The Vandals, under pressure from the local Romans and the expanding Visigoths, decided to move on to the rich provinces of Roman North Africa; they elected as their king a crippled son of a slave, Gaiseric. This proud, ruthless king was a gifted conspirator and a genius of political maneuver. For 50 years, Gaiseric's web of entangling treaties foiled the plans of Roman diplomats and Germanic kings, always to the Vandals' advantage.

In 429, Gaiseric ferried all of his people across the Strait of Gibraltar and led them east along the African coast. One by one, the gleaming Roman cities with their abundant granaries fell to the hungry Vandals. The people of Hippo were rallied to the defense of their town by their bishop, Augustine. St. Augustine died in his city during the 14-month-long Vandal siege. In the end, Hippo, too, passed into the barbarian hands. The Vandal conquest of North Africa took a decade to complete.

Cleaning up operations were still going on when Gaiseric turned restlessly to a new project: he built a swift fleet and launched himself on a lucrative career of piracy in the Mediterranean Sea. The Vandals carved out big estates and made their homes among the Romans. They left administrative chores to Roman bureaucrats. But the relations of the Arian Vandals with the Catholic inhabitants were never better than strained.

Gaiseric barely managed to hold animosities in check, and under his successors prejudice erupted into violence. The Vandals persecuted the Roman majority. They martyred scores of Catholic and provided medieval hagiographers with many grim tales for their lives of the saints. Gratuitous cruelty was only one symptom of the Vandals's wife degeneration after Gaiseric's reign.

The warriors, seduced by the luxuries that their rich land supplied, grew weak, corrupt, and disorganized. They succumbed quickly when their kingdom was invaded by an army from the Eastern Roman Empire in 533. Soon afterward, the Vandals disappeared as a distinct people. They melted in with the highly mixed local population and tried to continue to live non-distinct lives. They left little behind but lingering bitterness, anger, and a new desire for justice. The Lombards, or Langobards, were a Germanic tribe that began in southern Sweden and worked their way down into Italy.

They became Italians in the process and gave their name to the northern Italian region of Lombardia. This movement from Sweden to Italy was gradual: it took four centuries. When the Lombards -- whose original name, Langobards, refers to their long beards -- descended on Italy in the 6th century, they had to deal with several earlier waves of German invaders (particularly the Goths) as well as the resurgent Eastern Romans (who were a power in Italy into the 8th century). However, twenty years after the last of the Eastern Romans were expelled from Italy (751 AD. ), the Lombards were stomped by the better organized Franks. This was, technically, the end of the Lombard kingdom in Italy. But unlike earlier Germans, they had not maintained the ancient Roman forms of government during their domination of the Peninsula, nor did the Lombard duchies which survived the Frankish onslaught in the South.

The political landscape in Italy was given a German overlay by the Lombards, where eventually they spoke Italian and became Catholic. Basically, Italy became another Germanic area. Perhaps most importantly, the Lombards got involved in political arguments with the Pope, and this was what caused the papacy to call upon the Franks for aid. The papacy was a prize every Medieval magnate wanted to possess.

But the popes knew that they could not survive long if they were the creators of one king or emperor. The Moslems had conveniently removed the authority of the Eastern Roman emperor from Italy (with a little help from the Lombards), but someone was needed to keep the Germans in Italy (and elsewhere) from controlling the papacy. For several centuries the protector of the papacy became the Franks (and later the French). Out of all of this came a papacy that became an arbiter of Medieval Politics. While the papacy controlled extensive lands in central Italy, the pope was never temporal power. The papacy created a balance of power between the various German kings that provided the Church an independence it would never had if there were an effective Roman, or Holy Roman, emperor.