FALL OF ROME VOCAB

Châlons

451 AD. An epic battle between the Romans and the Huns fought in what is now France. The Roman army was commanded by Flavius Aetius and included Visigoths under Theodoric I, who was killed by an Ostrogoth during the battle. The Hunnic army was led by Attila, who was rampaging through Gaul. The battle ended with a victory for the Roman Visigothic alliance, which stopped the Huns' advance into Gaul. The next year, Attila invaded Italy; however, in 453, Attila died and his empire broke up shortly after.

ostrogoths

A Germanic tribe that attacked Rome in 476 AD. The Leader was Odoacar, who kicked out the last Roman Emperor.

visigoths

A member of the western Goths that invaded the Roman Empire in the fourth century A.D. and settled in France and Spain, establishing a monarchy that lasted until the early eighth century.

germans

the Huns began pushing these people into the Roman lands

Theodosius I

Made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire in 380 AD

Edward Gibbon

(1737 - 1794) Author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, published in 1776, one of the first modern histories that attempted to explain the past as a guide to the future.

Boethius

(480-525) A Roman scholar who devoted himself to the study of Plato and Aristotle and is most famous for his Neoplatonic text "The Consolation of Philosophy." He prepared a translation of Aristotelian logical texts known as the "Organon".

goths

An array of Germanic peoples, pushed further westward by nomads from central Asia. They in turn migrated west into Rome, upsetting the rough balance of power that existed between Rome and these people.

Honorius

Emperor of the west. Moved capital to Ravenna. Had to deal with the Germans and Goths pushing down past frontiers by the expansion of the HUNS. Eventually the Visogoths capture Rome, but Honorius refuses to meet demands and Visogoths sack Rome.

Romulus Augustus

He was the last emperor of western Rome who transported his insignia and office to the east upon his defeat by the Ostrogoths

Sack of Rome

In 410 AD, Alaric led an army of Visigoths in performing this action, which St. Jerome identified as the effective end of the Empire.

Theodoric

King of the Ostrogoths after the fall of Rome who used separate systems of government for Romans and Ostrogoths

Arian Christianity

Religion which believed that Christ was only a mortal man begotten of God and reduced his role to the lesser demigod. The Goths, Egyptian Christians, and barbaric Christians of Europe practiced this. Attacked by Justin, which united the east and the west.

Alaric

The leader of the Visigoths who sacked Rome in 410 C.E. was

Angles and Saxons

Two groups that combined together and became the Anglo-Saxons. Conquered Southeastern Britain and were originally from Germany and Denmark; the group that ruled Britain after the Romans

valens

Valens was the Eastern Roman Emperor from 364 to 378. He came to power after the death of Jovian in 364. He confronted Procopius with his army and put him to death in 366. He waged war against the Visigoths and devastated their lands but when the Visigoths were driven back by the Huns, they were allowed to settle south of the Danube. Eventually they rose against the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople and Valens was defeated and killed in 378.

battle of adrianople

Visigoths defeated the Roman Army in 378. Considered the start of the final collapse of the Western Roman Empire.

huns

Warlike people who migrated from Eastern Europe into territory controlled by Germanic tribes, forcing them to move into areas controlled by Rome

Pope Leo I

Who crowned Charlemagne King of the Western Empire?

Valentinian III

Who was the Western Roman emperor, who officially recognized Pope Leo I as supreme over the church

Odovacar

Who was the barbarian chieftain who deposed Romulus Augustus (the last Roman emperor)?

"The Scourge of God"

attila the huun quote

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

book by Edward Gibbon, which stated that Christianity rose because of natural causes and not piety

Vandals

east Germanic people who invaded the Roman Empire in 406; their destructiveness gave rise to the common term for willful; destruction or defacement

Arcadius

eldest son of Theodosius I, Eastern emperor of Rome form 395-408

barbarus

foreigner, barbarian

Attila

leader of the Huns who put pressure on the Roman Empire's borders during the 5th century

Cassiodorus

scholar who placed all secular knowledge into the categories of the seven liberal arts, divided into the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, and logic) and quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music).Wrote Divine and Human Readings

barbarians

the name given to outsiders by the ancient Greeks; also used by the ancient Romans

Hagiographies

the stylized lives of Christian saints, often based more on pious legends that on fact.

Visigothic Sack of Rome

under king alaric, the visigoths make their way to italy, romans withdraw from britain, alaric sacks rome in 3 days 410 A.D.