The Middle Ages past middle age

Rob James

October 7, 2025

I never systematically studied the period in world history from Rome to the Renaissance, so must start afresh beyond middle age. It seems that a good way to organize my belated boning up is to work in the framework of Edward Gibbon’s massive work Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1789). (Full disclaimer: I have only skimmed the 300-page abridgement by Moses Hadas of the huge work (six folio volumes in the original—eight volumes in my Folio Society edition), and I have read a couple of chapters of the original so far, en route to more.) Using Gibbon’s 72 chapters for better or worse as an organizing structure, I am quoting and summarizing him as I go, and I am adding to my Gibbon-notes snippets of things I learn from other sources, especially John Julius Norwich’s A Short History of Byzantium and works on the Crusades and the so-called barbarians by Monty Python’s Terry Jones of all people. Gibbon is obviously a product of his times, with his personal prejudices laid on top of those of his age, and all his writings like all of ours are subject to later discoveries and rethinkings on the complex complex of subjects. This is more than most of my posts a work in progress.

To recap, the Roman Empire formally begins with Augustus (27 bce-14 ce). There follow Tiberius (14-37), Caligula (37-41), Claudius (41-54), Nero (54-68), four emperors ending in Vespasian (69-74), Titus (79-81), and Domitian (81-96). I will cover all of these in a post on Classical Rome.

96 is where Gibbon starts, so I will too.

Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1789).

Foreword by Moses Hadas. Gibbon’s is a chronicle of the disintegration of an old, rich and apparently indestructible civilization. A work of art more than a currently valid scholarly history. Gibbon’s special virtue (and special shortcoming) is that he is concerned with illustrating the universal based on his examination of the particular.

1.        Mankind’s happy period according to Gibbon was 96-180, during the reigns of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the “Antonines” Antonius Pius and Marcus Aurelius. The wisdom of Augustus’s moderation of the urge to conquer was largely “adopted by the fears and vices of his successors.” But “the thirst of military glory will ever be the vice of the most exalted characters.” Borders were largely reached under the Republic, expanded a bit by Trajan, and started to recede with Hadrian 117. The military policy increasingly took on a defensive and retaliatory posture, “as little disposed to endure as to offer an injury.”

2.       Internal prosperity. Polytheism made it easy to assimilate conquered peoples and provinces; bring your god or gods along with you (“deities of a thousand groves and a thousand streams”). Privileges of Roman citizenship extended to freedmen. Latin was the lingua franca. Great achievements in communication, transportation, agriculture and manufacture (this sounds like a scene from The Life of Brian). No real scientific culture.

3.       Constitution of the Empire an “absolute monarchy disguised by the forms of a commonwealth.” Fairly austere, except for deification of the emperor himself—spurred by the obeisance local populations in Asia paid his proconsuls. Emperors were concerned about succession; far from launching competitive teams of rivals, they tended to select an heir early on (often a natural or adopted son) and vest him with sufficient perks to minimize the risk of a coup or worse

4.       Commodus (180-192) and his cruelty. Marcus Aurelius made the mistake of prematurely raising his position too young so that he matured “above reason and authority.” The gladiator stories are real—he was “immersed in blood and luxury.”

5.       Praetorian Guards begin to dictate succession (already started with Claudius). Five emperors ending in Severus (193-211). Guards loyal to an Emperor rather than the Empire are “always necessary but often fatal to the throne of despotism.”

6.       His son Caracalla (211-217) had a quick reign but did extend Roman citizenship to the provinces, Weird interlude with Elagabalus (218-222), a Sun priest who donned an elaborate tiara and dressed in drag and makeup. “Around the altar a chorus of Syrian damsels performed their lascivious dances to the sound of barbarian music.”

7.       Gordian and civil wars (222-244).

8.       Persia.

9.       Germany.

10.    Valerian (253-260). A group of leaders was called “the Thirty Tyrants” harkening to the Thirty Tyrants of Athens.

11.     Aurelian (265-270) and Zenobia (“most lovely and most heroic of her sex”).

12.    Carus and sons.

13.    Diocletian (289-305) and Maximian co-Augustuses (Galerius and Constantius co-Caesars). Assumed pomp of Asian royalty in full, grand titles for civil servants.  

14.    Elevation of Constantine and Maxentius, Licinus and Maximin; war with Macentius ended with victory of Constantine at Milvian Bridge 312 beneath what he perceived as the sign of the cross. Reunification of the emperorship.

15.    How did Christianity succeed? “The theologian may indulge the pleasing task of describing Religion as she descended from heaven, arrayed in her native purity. A more melancholy duty is imposed on the historian. He must discover the inevitable mixture of error and corruption which she contracted in a long residence upon earth, among a weak and degenerate race of beings.” The success of Christianity arose (Gibbon says prudently) primarily from “the convincing evidence of the doctrine itself, and the ruling providence of its great Author.” The secondary causes, in which Gibbon is more interested, include (1)  the intolerant zeal of the Christians and their outreach to Gentiles; (2) the promise of future life anticipated to come in the near future; (3) the miraculous powers ascribed to the primitive church; (4) the outwardly pure and austere morals of the Christians; and (5) the union and discipline of the organized Christian Church, which ultimately functioned as a republic within the heart of the Empire.

16.    How did the Roman government respond to the Christians? Christianity’s monotheism was a problem for the polytheism of the national religion. The concern was that Christians would turn inward and renounce their family and country. Persecutions raged under Nero, Diocletian and others, but overall they inspired empathy more than hatred. Eventually Constantine made it legal in the Edict of Milan 313 and Theodosius made it the state religion 395. Even with all the martyrdoms, “it must still be acknowledged that the Christians, in the course of their intestine dissensions, have inflicted far greater severities on each other than they had experienced from the zeal of infidels.”

17.    Constantine the Emperor (306-337). Transformation of Byzantium into Constantinople (paradoxically, considered the start of the Byzantine Empire). At this time the Empire is divided into 13 dioceses and 116 provinces, with comes (count) civilian and dux (duke) military titles. Barbarians entered the ranks of the Roman army every day, becoming “more universal, more necessary, and more fatal.”

18.    Gothic war, death of Constantine, rise of Constantius.

19.    Constantius started as a war hero, but became a “cruel and dissolute monarch.”

20.   Rise of the universal hence Catholic Church under Constantine. Council of Nicaea 325 (245 Eastern bishops, 5 Western ones) rejected Arianism, but Constantine was baptized by an Arian.

21.    Heresies: Donatists (not accepting ordinations by bishops who bent during persecutions), Montanists (opposed to the state), Arians (Christ of similar substance as the Father, because made by the Father), Marcianism (Christ is not the God of the Old Testament), Nestorians (two separate persons in Christ), Gnostics (harborers of secret knowledge). Roman toleration of paganism. [Other sources: Christianity had antecedents beyond the Torah and the Jewish Messiah. For example, the Egyptian cult of Isis features her consort Serapis who is ritually killed but rises three days later. Paul’s modus operandi was to come to a new town, speak at a synagogue until they kicked him out, then preach to the Gentiles. The basic formula of the mainstream Trinity was fixed by the Council of Chalcedon—God is three persons (Christ having two natures (both divine and human)) but collectively having one essence?]

22.   Julian (361-363) professed a “devout and since attachment for the gods of Greece and Rome.” Not clear he was originally Christian, so the “Apostate” label might not be correct.

23.   Julian’s apostacy. He enacted general policies of toleration of religion—Gibbon claims “the only hardship he inflicted on Christians was to deprive them of the power of tormenting their fellow-subjects.” (But John Julius Norwich says Julian did prohibit Christians from teaching classics. “No wild beasts are so dangerous to man as Christians are to each other.”)

24.   Julian against the Persians, death; rise of Jovian.

25.   Valentinian.

26.   Huns from near China through Russia to press the Visigoths into crossing the Danube 376; Goths (Visigoths and Ostrogoths). Gratian invests Theodosius in the East.

27.   Gratian dies. Theodosius heads west, civil war ensues. Theodosius makes Christianity the state religion 395.

28.   Final destruction of paganism. Instead, worship of relics and holy men (saints) crept into Christianity—another case where in Horace’s terms “the victors were subdued by arts of their vanquished rivals.” Influence of Ambrose (bishop of Milan from 374) on Gratian and Theodosius.

29.   Final division of the Roman Empire between the sons of Theodosius, Arcadius (East) and Honoris (West).

30.   Goths under Alaric plunder Greece, Italy, repelled by Stilicho 408. Germanic tribes take Gaul.

31.    Alaric thrice besieges Rome and sacks it 410; in response, Augustine (who had tried Manichaeism, skepticism and Neoplatonism before Christianity) contrasts the worldly city with The City of God. Barbarians take Gaul and Spain. Britain independent 407.

32.   Meanwhile, Arcadius in East. Persecution of St. John Chrysostom, Persian war.

33.   Vandals take north Africa, Vandals, Alans and Suevis take South Gaul and Spain. Franks move into northern Gaul.

34.   Attila, King of the Huns. 500,000 or 700,000 troops? Marcian in East.

35.   Attila in Gaul and Italy, repulsed by Aëtius and Visigoths.

36.   Sack of Rome by Vandals. The last western emperor is the teenage Romulus Augustulus, exiled in comfort. Collapse in West 476. Odoacer the Ostrogoth first barbarian king of Italy.

37.   Monasticism. Conversion of barbarians to Christianity—the Arian variety. Arianism grows extinct.

38.   Clovis, Frankish monarchy in Gaul. Visigoths in Spain. Saxons in Britain.

39.   In East, Theodoric the Visigoth (also called Dietrich, senator Boethius.

40.   Justinian (527-565) and Theodora. “In the exercise of supreme power, the first act of Justinian was to divide it with the woman whom he loved, the famous Theodora, whose strange elevation cannot be applauded as the triumph of female virtue. From her early youth she had served the public and private pleasures of the Byzantine people. Her beauty was the subject of flattering praise, and the source of exquisite delight. But this beauty was degraded by the facility with which it was exposed to the public eye, and prostituted to licentious desire. Her venal charms were abandoned to a promiscuous crowd of citizens and strangers, of every rank and of every profession: the fortunate lover who had been promised a night of enjoyment was often driven from her bed by a stronger or more wealthy favorite; and when she passed through the streets, her presence was avoided by all who wished to escape either the scandal or the temptation. The satirical historian has not blushed to describe the naked scenes which Theodora was not ashamed to exhibit in the theatre. After exhausting the arts of sensual pleasure, she most ungratefully murmured against the parsimony of Nature; but her murmurs, her pleasures, and her arts, must be veiled in the obscurity of a learned language.” (If you think that takedown is savage, Procopius in The Secret History uses even more venomous language with which to excoriate Theodora.)

41.    Nika night of rioting by the Greens and Blues 532. Campaigns of Justinian in the west. General Belisarius achieved many victories. Rivals for fame and glory. (Norwich: “every victory that Belisarius won incurred Justinian’s jealousy.”) A Council of Constantinople 553 had only Eastern bishops. Justinian trusts Belisarius even when Belisarius’s own troops don’t. (Compare their complicated relationship to a similar emperor-general pairing in Isaac Asimov’s original Foundation trilogy.)

42.   Other obscure barbarians.

43.   African and Italian campaigns. Deaths of both Belisarius and Justinian.

44.   Roman law. Laws of Kings, the Twelve Tables, and then the Decrees of the Senate and of magistrates. In the sixth century the Civilian texts: the Code, the Pandects, the Novels, and the Institutes of Justinian.

45.   Lombards into Italy. Pope Gregory I.

46.   Persian civil wars, assaults on Constantinople.

47.   Theological history. “The principle of discord was always in their bosom, and they were more solicitous to explore the nature, than to practice the laws, of their founder.” From debates over the nature of the Trinity to the situation of Christ Incarnate. Both human and divine natures. Patriarchs against popes. Council of Ephesus. Fourth General Council of Chalcedon. Intolerance of Justinian.  Nestorians, Jacobites, Maronites, Armenians, Copts and Abyssinians.

48.   We are now 500 years in with 800 more to go until 1453! Gibbon says his last two volumes go more rapidly through the Eastern Roman Empire. Byzantines, Franks, Arabs or Saracens, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Russians, Normans, Latins, Greeks, Mongols, Tartars, Turks.

49.   Icons in seventh and eighth centuries inspired a 120-year period of iconoclasm (ended 787). Revelation of mythical “Donation of Constantine” supposedly ceding authority over the West to the pontifex maximus, hence now the pope. Another church council 843. Franks take Italy. Charles Martel, Pepin, Charlemagne. Gibbon shorthands it “The Restoration and Decay of the Roman Empire in the West.” Italy and Germany develop separately.

50.   Arabia. Mohammed. Mecca and Medina. Disputes over succession by ‘Ali or others. (Shia means Shiat’ Ali, the party of Mohammed’s son-in-law Ali and the caliphs who succeeded Ali, not successors of the other guy as respected by the Sunnis. Of such fine disagreements are religious wars and persecutions made.)

51.    Arabs or Saracens take Persia, Syria, Egypt, north Africa, and Spain. Caliphs. Life for Christians and Jews under the Caliphs.

52.   Arabs besiege Constantinople twice. Arabs invade France, repulsed by Pepin the Frank’s father and Charlemagne’s grandfather Charles Martel at Tours/Poitiers 732. Learning of the Arabs, and opulence of the Caliphs. Decay and division of the caliphates. Greek emperors victories and defeats. Charlemagne crowed by pope 800.

53.   Eastern Empire in 900s. Loss of Latin tongue. “Studies and solitude of the Greeks.”

54.    Paulicians, an obscure Gnostic sect that Gibbon thinks somehow foreshadowed the Reformation.

55.   Bulgarians, Croats, and Hungarians in Danube valley; Rusian monarchy. Conversions to Christianity.

56.   The “three great nations if the world,” the Saracens, Franks and Greeks, clash in the theatre of Italy. Normans take Naples and Sicily and eventually leave to become vassals of the Franks (e.g., Normandy).

57.    Seljuk Turks (1037-1308). Gain independence from Caliph, take Persia. Conquer Asia Minor and Syria. Pilgrimages to the Holy Sepulchre. The Caliph of Baghdad had bottle-stopped the steppe peoples (Germans, Huns, Alans, Vandals) but when the Seljuks took Baghdad 1055 the buffer was gone. Gregory VII from Cluny a powerful pope; he went eyeball to eyeball with HRE Emperor Henry IV 1075 until Henry pled barefoot in the snow for forgiveness at Canossa 1077.

58.   [My review of the Crusades in 58 and 59 is based not so much on Gibbon but on Monty Python member Terry Jones’s excellent book on the subject (1997).] Urban II, another Clunyite and a Frank  (“Deus volt” 1095). First Crusade 1096-1099. Conquest of Nicaea, Antioch and Jerusalem. Godfrey of Bouillon, first King of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (held until Saladin 1187). (The First Crusade was “a resounding, if undeserved, success” (Norwich).) “The holy war against the infidels was proposed and adopted with enthusiasm. The Pope proclaimed a plenary indulgence to those who would enlist under the banner of the cross; the absolution of all their sins, and a full receipt for all that might be due of canonical penance. The cold philosophy of modern times is incapable of feeling the impression that was made on a sinful and fanatic world. At the voice of their pastor, the robber, the incendiary, the homicide, arose by thousands to redeem their souls by repeating on the infidels the same deeds which they had exercised against their Christian brethren; and the terms of atonement were eagerly embraced by offenders of every rank and position. None were pure; none were exempt from the guilt and penalty of sin; and those who were the least amenable to the justice of God and the church were the best entitled to the temporal and eternal recompense of their pious courage. If they fell, the spirit of the Latin clergy did not hesitate to adorn their tomb with the crown of martyrdom; and should they survive, they could expect without impatience the delay and increase of their heavenly reward.”

59.   [More Terry Jones, mainly.] Arabs take Edessa 1144.  Second Crusade (Germans under King Frederick, French under Louis VII, first husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine). Debacle at Damascus 1148. Arabs unify under Saladin 1168 (kind of a Price Hal, relinquished earlier pleasures). Europe was changing: fairs and trade replaced the other routes, Venice and Genoa emerged as naval powers. The English Henry II fragmented France—the West for him, Aquitaine through Eleanor, Burgundy, and the Franks in the Holy Roamn Empire. Third Crusade 1189 with Frederick Barbarossa, fizzles. Henry II’s son Richard Lion-Heart (who ridiculed England “I would sell London if I could find a buyer”). Richard retakes Jerusalem and Saladin and he both die around 1199. St. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux. Richard I, Innocent III and Fourth Crusade (Venice drove hard bargains, was out to defeat Constantinople not defend it!). Innocent turns heat inwards to Cathars and other heretics in West. Fifth Crusade. Emperor Frederick II, King Louis IX. Was there really a children’s crusade? Sixth Crusade and Seventh Crusade. Franks retake Jerusalem 1239. Lateran Council 1215 (reinforces papal authority, condemns heresies, grants absolution of sins even to those who just supply the troops. Innocent’s crusaders only killed Christians! Eventual expulsion of the Franks and Latins by the Mamelukes (an army of Christian slaves raised to power in Turkey). Crusades over by 1291.

60.   The beginnings of the filoque schism between the Greeks and Latins, percolating ever since late 500s when priests in Toledo began adding “and from the Son” to the creed. Revolt of the Bulgarians. Sieges and final conquest of the city of Constantinople 1204 by the Latins, who were supposed to be there fighting the infidels. (Scholasticism with Thomas Aquinas: it is impossible for humans to prove the Trinity of the Divine Persons through natural reason alone because it is a mystery beyond human comprehension.)

61.    Partition of the Western Empire by French and Venetians. Weakness of Latin Empire. 1261, Greeks retake Constantinople. General impacts of the Crusades. Avignon Captivity of popes 1307-1377.

62.   Greek emperors of Nicaea (in Bithynia) and Constantinople.

63.   More eastern wars and intrigues.

64.   Genghis Khan and the Mongols 1250s from China to Poland. Escape of Constantinople. Ottoman Turks in Bithynia. Othman, Orchan. Constantinople exposed.

65.   Timur the Lame (Tamerlane) (1336-1400s) in Samarkand, Persia, Georgia, Tartary, Russia, India, Syria and Anatolia. Defeat of Bajazet. Siege of Constantinople. Ominous deployment of gunpowder from China or Europe, such that city walls are no longer secure. “If we contrast the rapid progress of this mischievous discovery with the slow and laborious advances of reason, science, and the arts of peace, a philosopher, according to his temper, will laugh or weep at the folly of mankind.”

66.   Latin and Greek church affairs.

67.   The final break associated with the Schism. Last emperor of the East is Constantine Palaeologus.

68.   The Ottoman Conqueror Mehmet (Mohammed) II besieges, assaults and finally conquers Constantinople 1453. Preserves St. Sophia’s but turns it into a mosque. Extinction of Roman Empire in the East. Consternation in Europe. Death of Mehmet II.

69.   City of Rome from 1100. Temporal dominion of the popes. Restoration of a republic with Rienzi, the last of the Roman tribunes.

70.   Petrarch. Rienzi restores freedom but is expelled and dies. Popes return from their Babylonian captivity in Avignon. Reunion of the Latin Church. Statutes of Rome.

71.    The architectural ruins of Rome, leveled by (1) injuries of time and nature, (2) attacks by barbarians and Christians, (3) use and abuse of materials, and (4) Roman internal fighting (Guelphs (pro-pope)/Ghibellines (pro-HRE) (1100s-1200s), Colonna/Orsini family papal battles 1500s). “In the preceding volumes of this History I have described the triumph of barbarism and religion… In simple truth, the northern conquerors were neither sufficiently savage, nor sufficiently refined, to entertain such aspiring ideas of destruction and revenge.” “The attention will be excited by a History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; the greatest, perhaps, and most awful scene in the history of mankind. The various causes and progressive effects are connected with many of the events most interesting and human annals: the artful policy of the Caesars, who long maintained the name and image of a free republic; the disorders of military despotism; the rise, establishment, and sects of Christianity; the foundation of Constantinople; the division of the monarchy; the invasion and settlements of the barbarians of Germany and Scythia; the institutions of the civil law; the character and religion of Mohammed; the temporal sovereignty of the popes; the restoration and decay of the Western empire of Charlemagne; the crusades of the Latins in the East; the conquests of the Saracens and Turks; the ruin of the Greek empire; the state and revolutions of Rome in the middle ages. The historian may applaud the importance and variety of his subject; but, while he is conscious of his own imperfections, he must often accuse the deficiency of his materials. It was among the ruins of the Capitol that I first conceived the idea of a work which has amused and exercised near twenty years of my life, and which, however inadequate to my own wishes, I finally deliver to the curiosity and candour of the public.”

(Norwich: The period does not deserve Gibbon’s bitter and biting appraisal. The so-called Dark Ages were not dark at all (or let’s say not entirely dark). They include (among many instances of insane violence) religious and literary movements, great art, developments in agriculture, and the preservation and advancement of science especially in enclaves of the Islam world. The Byzantine Empire itself was characerized by a Roman body, a Greek mind, and an “oriental mystical soul” (his words, not mine).)