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Odovacar
First babarian king of Italy. A German warrior, he entered Italy around 470 CE 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 476 (generally considered to be the end of the Western Roman Empire). Although the Eastern emperor Zeno thought of Julius Nepos as Western emperor, Odovacar refused to recognize this man’s authority, as did the Senate at Rome.
Zeno
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 Barbarians raided Balkans and Thrace, he sent Theodoric the Ostrogoth to unseat Odovacar in West.
Theodoric
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 raiding. In 488, Zeno offered Theodoric the position of Master of Soldiers in Italy, in return for unseating Odovacar. Passing through Pannonia, he acquired Rugian and Gepid troops through 489, then moved into Northern Italy, attracting Burgundians and Visigoths to the fight. He quickly reduced Odovacar; then, beginning 493, he established the first post- Roman kingdom in the West. By the 510s his lands included all of Italy, stretching past Milan in the north to the Alpine regions, where the kingdom abutted the Franks as well as the Burgundians in the northwest. Provence was also included in southeastern France, after Frankish defeats of the Visigoths in the region. Pannonian and Dalmatian lands along the Adriatic were incorporated into Ostrogothic dominions. Legally, he presented himself to Italian Latins as the Emperor Zeno's Master of Soldiers for the region. and to the Germanics as a king. He instituted Roman law, practice, religion (Catholicism), taxes, and language for the indigenous Italians, while providing Germanic kingship, tribal Ostrogothic (as well as Rugian) law, Arianism, and military duties for the German newcomers.
Pepin III
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 Franks.
Leo I
East Roman Emperor to 474 and mentor of Zeno.
Illus
Isaurian general. At times allied to Zeno, the latter's opponents tried to lure Illus away with offers of power. Finally revolted in earnest in 483 and was put down by Ostrogoths acting on Zeno's behalf.
Cassiodorus
Scion of Roman senatorial family. Served Theodoric.
Boethius
Scion of Roman senatorial family. Served Theodoric. Executed for supposed treasonous contact with Constantinople. The last Classical philosopher of early medieval Europe, he wrote Consolation of Philosophy.
Anastasia
Eastern Emperor, 491-518. Faced Bulgar raids. Was Monophysite, causing schism with Rome.
Clovis
Son of Childeric I, Frankish war leader from 486-511. First Merovingian king; achieved conquests in central and southern Gaul. Becomes Catholic, defeats Visigoths, pressures Ostrogoths, Eastern Rome recognizes him as “consul.”
Justin
Eastern Emperor 518-527. Ends schism with Rome, grooms Justinian for rule.
Athalric
Theodoric’s grandson, child-king. Died 534.
Amalasuntha
Athalric’s mother, a powerful regent. Still Romanist in intent, elevated Cassiodorus to Praetorian Prefect. Athalric died in 534, but Ostrogothic nobles were unprepared to tolerate female rule. Imprisoned by Theodehad.
Theodehad
Theodoric’s nephew, Ostrogothic king, imprisoned and murdered Amalasuntha. She had been assured by Justinian of imperial protection, and after her murder in 535, the emperor had come close to effecting Theodehad’s abdication. A preemptive Gothic strike into Dalmatia ended negotiations.
Justinian
Roman Emperor, 527-565. Latin, Thracian. After Fighting off an early insurrection, he reconquered N. Africa, Italy, and southern Spain. The Persian wars restarted under his rule, and an epidemic blew up in Mediterranean cities.
Belisarius
Justinian’s most successful general. He led armies in North Africa, Italy, and Persia.
Wittigis
Gothic king from 537, besiege the Byzantine commander in Rome. A second Byzantine cut off Wittigis’s communications with his capital in Ravenna. A year later, Belisarius besieged him. Sought truce in 539-40. Just prior to defeat, Wittigis appealed to the Persian Sassanian shah for help in the form of opening a second front along Byzantium’s eastern borders.
Chosroes II
Son of Persian shah Hormisdas. Latter was murdered so Chosroes II fled to Greek territory. Maurice granted his request for aid; new shah had promised Maurice a peace treaty along with restoration to Byzantium of Armenia and eastern Mesopotamia. Kept his promise until 603.
Totila
Wittigis's nephew, made the Italian war very hard for Romans past 540.
Narses
Chief eunuch of Justinian, from Armenia, protected Justinian during Nika riots. Defeated Totila at Busta Gallorum (552).
Teias
Totila’s successor, was defeated in 553 near Vesuvius.
Alboin
Lombard king crowned in Milan in 569. By 573-4, he was able to occupy Pavia, which became the Lombard capital.
Theodosius II
Eastern Emperor (408-450) when Huns begin raiding in Danube area.
Attila
Hun king from 440s; raided from Danube into Byzantium, then headed west in 451.
Marcian
East Roman Emperor from 450, refuses to increase Hun tribute. Presides over Chalcedon council condemning Monophysitism.
Eutyches
Accused of spreading the doctrine that Christ was not both human and divine in 448. He taught that Christ’s divinity had overpowered his mortality and that Christ possessed only a single nature.
Aspar
Barbarian general; a military strongman not able to usurp emperorship because of his Alan background.
Pope Leo I
Reigned from 440-61. Condemned Monophysitism, believed in Rome's supremacy, held it up as such, negotiated with Huns not to sack Rome.
Basiliscus
Leo I's brother-in-law, devoted to Monophysitism, conspired with Verina and Aspar to become emperor. Became emperor in 475-477 when Zeno fled, but was inept. The masses were alienated through harsh taxation, the Church despised him for trying to impose Monophysitism. He was undone when he made his nephew, Harmatius, Master of Soldiers.
Acacia
Zeno’s patriarch in the capital, consented to a Monophysite’s appointment to the Patriarchate of Alexandria. The Pope excommunicated Acacia, who returned the favor, beginning a schism that lasted 35 years.
Justin I
A Balkan military man and Eastern Emperor from 518-527; ended schism with Rome begun by Acacia, sent flotillas against Theodoric. Guided by Justinian.
Theodora
Justinian’s wife, very dominant empress. Was Monophysite, of very humble origins. Disliked Belisarius, believing the man to probably be a usurper.
John of Cappadocia
Justinian’s financial officer, responsible for harsh taxes that alienated the rich. Supposedly venal in private life. Nika rioters wanted his deposition and death.
Tribonian
A pagan, Justinian’s head of legal codification Corpus Juris Civilis. Nika rioters wanted his deposition in 532.
Childeric II
Vandal king from 520s; he drew closer to Constantinople, cut back on suppression of Catholics.
Gelimer
A Vandal, he overthrew Childeric in 530, giving Justinian a legal pretext for invasion.
Chosroes I
Sassanian Shah, in 540 began a major offensive into Eastern lands. Took the holy Christian city of Antioch. Though Justinian agreed to terms including more tribute, Chosroes’s armies continued; the Byzantine army was defeated in Armenia in 543. But by 550, the Sassanian forces had been fought to a standstill.
Jacob Baradaeus
Extreme Monophysite; made bishop by the exiled Alexandria Patriarch in 543. He roamed through Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Asia Minor, consecrating bishops and thousands of Monophysite priests.
Maurice
Emperor 582-603, granted Chosroes II’s request for promise of peace treaty in exchange for the restoration to Byzantium of Armenia and eastern Mesopotamia. Miraculously, Chosroes II kept his promise until 603. Maurice organized what was left of Justinian's acquisitions into exarchates as Imperial command posts. Also sent repeated expeditions against the Avars in the Danube region and beyond. Maurice tried to be as frugal as possible. He reduced military rations and declined to ransom prisoners of the Avars. This ultimately led to his downfall.
Phocas
Danube area Roman general. He mutinied, massacred Maurice’s family, and became emperor in 603: his reign brought the Empire to its lowest point. With Maurice’s assumption, Chosroes II invaded Byzantine lands. By 608, they came as far west as Chalcedon, within sight of Constantinople. During the same years, Avar-Slav incursions increased, with few troops available to stop them. Phocas’s response was a campaign to forcibly convert the Empire’s Jews. Deposed by Heraclius in 610.
Heraclius
Byzantine emperor who ruled 610-641. Deposed Phocas, fought and defeated Persians, 614-28. Recovered all lost lands. Resisted Avar sieges. Was defeated by Muslims, losing all recovered lands. Promoted Monotheletism.
Shahr-Baraz
Chosroes II's key general.
Sergius
Heraclius’s Patriarch of Constantinople. Supported emperor with Church and funds. Maintained capital’s morale during Sassanian-Avar siege.
Razates
Replacement Persian general after Shahr-Baraz was killed in 627.
Kava Siroe
After Chosroes II committed suicide, he became Shah. Was killed.
Henri Pirenne
Belgian socio-economic historian, tried to revise the view that the Barbarian migrations spelled the doom of the Antique in Europe. According to him, one had to look elsewhere, and later, for the decomposition of Mediterranean civilization based on long-distance commerce and high culture. For Pirenne, the cause of Mediterranean dissolution was the Islamic expansion, which brought a war-like band of Arabs into domination of the trade routes. Not at all inclined towards trade, they strangled the Mediterranean basin, ushering in the impoverished early Middle Ages.
Muhammad
Born 570-580. Prophet of and founder of Islam. Emigration to Medina in 622, calendar begins. Returns Mecca in triumph 630. Died 632.
Khalid
Muslim general who defeated Byzantines in 634-637. Led Muslim conquest of Syria-Palestine.
Sophronius
Patriarch of Jerusalem, opposed Sergius’s compromise doctrine that Christ had two natures, with a single motive force, or energy. Was Patriarch of Jerusalem when Muslims conquered it.
John IV
Western Pope who, in 641, condemned Monotheletism, the idea that Christ was of two natures, and did not have a single energy, but possessed a single will.
Constantine
Roman Emperor (r. 313-337)who reunited the state after years of civil war. Legalized and patronized Christianity, founded Constantinople in East. First Eastern Emperor, archetypal Christian Emperor.
Tariq
Muslim general who led 711 conquest of Spain.
Leo III
Elected to the Papacy in 796 but opposed by relatives of his predecessor. These enemies staged a coup in 799, but Charlemagne sent Leo back to the Holy See. Charlemagne came to Rome before Christmas 800, convoked a synod of Church and civil leaders. Leo took an oath his innocence. At Christmas mass Leo crowned Charlemagne as Emperor of the Romans.
Ali
Muhammad’s relative and companion. Fourth Caliph, deposed in the civil war with Muawiya. Focus of Shi'ite beliefs.
Umar
Early Muslim, convinced Abu Bakr to become Caliph. Stewarded much early Islamic conquest.
Abu Bakr
First Caliph, a compromise choice between muhajirun and ansar.
Uthman
Third Caliph, practiced nepotism, beginning of Ummayad possession of power. Murdered.
Muawiya
Muslim governor of Syria; related to Uthman, wanted to avenge his death, so revolted against the Caliph Ali. Emerged as victor in the resulting civil war, and established Ummayad Caliphate in Damascus.
Husayn
Ali's son, martyred by Muawiya's son at Karbala in 686.
Abd al-Rahman
Surviving Ummayad, escaped to Spain in 756, setting up Ummayad Caliphate of Spain centered at Cordoba.
Abd al-Rahman III
Ummayad Amir in Spain, reestablished political unity among Iberian Muslims in 960s.
Sancho the Great
Spanish Christian king, got along well with Muslims; by 1034, incorporated Aragon, Sobrarbe, Barcelona, as well as Asturian Leon and Castile into his kingdom.
Aegidius
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 named Childeric I, Clovis’s father.
Childeric I
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.
Syagrius
Aegidius’s son in Gaul, defeated by Clovis at Battle of Soissons in 486.
Alaric II
Visigoth king in southwestern Gaul, exiled Catholic bishops no longer willing to cooperate with the Arian ruler. Defeated by Clovis in 507.
Clodomir
One of Clovis’s four sons, received Western areas in 511. Died in 534, his areas divided among remaining brothers--Theuderic, Childebert, and Clothar I.
Clothar 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.
Sigibert
Merovingian family member, offspring of Clothar's generation, received Austrasia in 562.
Chilperic
Sigibert's brother, received Neustria, 562.
Guntram
Descendent of Clothar, received Burgundy in 562.
Brunhilde
Visigothic princess, wife of Sigibert of Austrasia. Chilperic married Brunhilde’s sister Galswintha, but murdered her shortly thereafter, provoking Sigibert’s ire. Became regent for Childebert and real ruler of Austrasia. Chilperic died in 595, leaving Brunhilde as sole ruler of Burgundy and Austrasia, in the name of her grandsons Theudebert and Theodoric. Austrasian counts, chafed under their Visigothic queen whose chief supporter was Theodoric. He died in 613, and Austrasian nobility refused to recognize continued Brunhildian rule.
Clothar II
Chilperic’s son, became Neustrian king in 593. Acquired Austrasia when nobles refused to recognize Brunhilde’ss rule.
Pepin of Heristal
Austrasian Mayor; he invaded the lands to the west and defeated the Neustrian- Burgundian Mayor Bercharius in 687 at Tertry, making his own king Theodoric III the nominal ruler of a re-united Gaul. Real power was left in Pepin’s hands. In 689, Pepin defeated the Frisian king Radbod to join the North Sea lands to Frankish realms. Bishops and monks were sent to the area to further Christianization.
Charles Martel
Pepin of Heristal's illegitimate son, became Major Domo in Austrasia and went on to re-acquire Neustria, Aquitaine, Alammania, and Thuringia. He made Bavaria dependent and began anti-Saxon, all the while putting the state firmly behind Christianization. In northern Gaul, he secularized Church property, appointing relatives and supporters as bishops. In 732, at the request of Aquitane’s Count Odo, he defeated Iberian Muslim forces at the Battle of Tours in Poitiers, establishing evacuated areas as border marches. On Odo’s death in 735, control of Aquitaine reverted to Charles, and his power grew in Burgundy and Provence. After the titular Merovingian king died in 737, Charles ruled alone until his own death in 741.
Charlemagne (Charles the Great)
Carolingian monarch, ruled 768-806. Conquered Saxony, Frisia, pushed Christianization 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 Emperor in 800.
Hadrian I
Pope (772-795) who implored Charlemagne to come south and punish the Lombard kings pressuring Rome.
Louis the Pious
Charlemagne’s son and successor, allotted imperial title and most of realm. Religious in inclination, did not barely prosecuted war. Faced sons’ rebellions and beginnings of Vikings. Died 840.
Widukind
Saxon King, submitted to Charlemagne in 785.
Lothair
Louis the Pious’s oldest son, slated to get the most of the realm. In 840 his two younger brothers Charles and Louis combined to fight him at the Battle of Fontenoy. Results required compromise. Charles the Bald received the western regions from forty miles east of Paris to the southwestern Marches and stretching from the English Channel to the Mediterranean. Louis the German received eastern districts from the Marches beyond the Elbe to just outside Strasbourg, and from Denmark in the north to the Adriatic in the south. Lothair’s kingdom was wedged between, stretching from the North Sea all the way past the papal States in Italy, with the Imperial capitals. Accordingly, it was he who received title of emperor.
Charles the Bald
Son of Louis the Pious. After Fontenoy in 843, received the western regions from 40 miles east of Paris to the southwestern Marches and stretching from the English Channel to the Mediterranean.
Louis the German
Son of Louis the Pious. After Fontenoy in 843, received eastern districts from the Marches beyond the Elbe to just outside Strasbourg, and from Denmark in the north to the Adriatic in the south.
King Arnulf
German king, asked Magyars to punish the Czech Kingdom of Moravia to the east of Germany and Burgundy in 892. After destroying it in the 900-910s, they turned to raiding in Germany, Italy, as well as Burgundy, France, and Provence.
Conrad of Franconia
Elected by Austrasian nobles in 911 to replace last Carolingian. Too weak to fight off Magyars.
Henry the Fowler
German king from 918-936. A Saxon, was able to defend his region from Magyars, and accommodated other nobles.
King Otto I
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.
Alfred the Great
West Saxon and then Anglo-Saxon king (r. 871-899). 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.
Sviatoslav
By the middle of the 10th century under Sviatoslav, the Varangians had been demographically swallowed by Slavs. The king led expeditions against the Khazars (965), Volga Bulgars (966) and the Lower Danube Bulgar Khanate (967), but was not able to penetrate Byzantine Balkans, and was killed in a Patzinak ambush (972).
Vladimir I
Prince of Kiev (980-1015). Officially accepted the Orthodox rite through an accord with resurgent Byzantium under Basil II (r. 976-1025) whereby he also agreed to marry the emperor’s daughter, establishing lasting cultural ties.
Basil II
Very powerful Byzantine Emperor (r. 976-1025). 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.
Emperor Charles the Fat
The last strong Frankish king in the East, was able to push Vikings off from Paris; he offered the Vikings a ransom called Danegeld, as well as unhampered plundering in Burgundy, his enemy at the time.
Rollo
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 would rise through the century from counts to dukes and become increasingly French.
Robert the Strong
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 importantly, Paris.
Odo
Rather than a Carolingian, in 887 French feudal lords chose Odo, the marquis of Neustria and son of Robert the Strong, as king (r. 888-898).
Capetians
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 associate and heir. Though supported by the church, his control did not extend far beyond his own duchy.
Damasus
Church father supporting Papal predominance in Christendom. Wrote in 380s.
St. Augustine
Church father, theologian in 420s-430s. Bishop near Carthage, wrote City of God, exonerating Christianity of Rome's fall. Encouraged an inward-looking spirituality.
John Cassian
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 Institutes, based upon Greek rules from Basil of Caesarea (370s).
Basil of Caesarea
The founder of organized monasticism in the Eastern Church in the 370s.
St. Benedict
Living in Italy during Byzantine-Ostrogothic warfare, St. Benedict of Nursia (c. 480- c. 543) wanted to create a rule of life for personal spiritual improvement within a communal framework. Unlike the monastic rules of his Egyptian predecessors, Benedictine Rule was “nothing harsh nor burdensome.” A monastery was to be a school for beginners, with monks remaining in one location—a vow of (territorial) stability. A rigorous daily schedule of prayer and work was to embody the key principles of humility, obedience (expressed through total submission to the abbot), and work in the fields, to prevent idle thoughts and laziness.
Pope Gregory I
Laid the foundations for future Papal grandeur. Born into a noble Roman family in 540. He lived through Lombard depredations, entering into imperial service and becoming he Prefect of Rome by the 570s. In 574, he left secular life to become a monk. From 579-85 he lived in Constantinople as Rome’s ambassador, returning to Rome to help in Church administration. In 590 he became Pope. The first, immense challenge facing him was the Lombard invasions. Civil administration was almost nonexistent in this period, so he assumed control of the city. During the total vacuum of imperial control, he made a truce with the invaders in 592, and then directed urban defenses when war re- ignited the following year. To provide for the Church and laity’s material survival, he reorganized Papal Estates in the south, making them turn profits from their crops. Revenues relieved famines, and endowed churches, hospitals, and schools. Gregory's next accomplishment was to enforce Papal supervision over all churches in Italy and southern Gaul through agents of the central church. Farther north was more of a problem, as Frankish Kings saw the church as their property. Upon building churches or monasteries, rulers would appoint priests, and tried to control Christian hierarchies. Gregory stood against this. Commanding priests not to marry, he hoped to end the familial alliances that produced Frankish control over clerics. Also patronized missionary efforts in England.
St. Patrick
Possibly born among the Christianized west Britons, St. Patrick (390?-461) was carried off to Ireland as a slave at a young age, after which he escaped to Gaul and spent 20 years in its burgeoning monastic centers. At this point (432), he undertook a further exile (a pattern followed by later Irish-English monks), returning to Ireland as a bishop and overseeing mass conversion there.
St. Columba
An Irish monk practicing exile, St. Columba (521-597) set up a monastery on the Scottish coastal island Iona, and from the 560s traveled through Scotland converting Picts.
St. Columbanus
In about 590, St. Columbanus (530?-615) arrived at the Merovingian Guntram’s Burgundy court. Guntram supported his foundation of monasteries in the region. Quarrels with Brunhilde and his refusal to recognize Theuderic’s illegitimate children resulted in expulsion from Frankish lands. He eventually arrived in Lombard Italy, where King Agilulf supported his founding of the Bobbio monastery in 615.
Aethelbehrt
King of Kent in 570s-580s, had married Frankish King Charibert’s daughter. Aethelbehrt had been required to allow a Frankish bishop and retinue into his kingdom. Pope Gregory, sent a monk named Augustine (d. 605) to Kent in 597, whom Aethelbehrt allowed to preach from a monastery in Canterbury. The King and his people soon converted to Roman Catholicism, and Augustine became Archbishop of Canterbury. East Saxons then converted around 604, with a bishop posted to London. Though Essex and Kent kings reverted to paganism after Aethelbehrt's 616 death, they soon returned to the faith under Kent's Eadbald and Eorcenberht (616-64).
Augustine
Pope Gregory sent a monk named Augustine (d. 605) to Kent in 597, whom Aethelbehrt allowed to preach from a monastery in Canterbury. The King and his people soon converted to Roman Catholicism, and Augustine became Archbishop of Canterbury.
Edwin
Christianization spread northward in the 620s when King Edwin of Northumbria married Eadbald’s sister and agreed to accept the new religion.
Paulinus
A Roman missionary who worked in North England in the 630s.
Oswald
In 633, King Oswald of Northumbria (604-642) defeated the Mercians, allowing Christianization to proceed in England and inviting a Celtic monk to preach.
Theodore of Tarsus
In 669 Pope Vitalian sent a new Archbishop to Canterbury, Theodore of Tarsus. The English church had been largely monastic up until then without rigid dioceses, but Theodore established these. Being from Eastern Rome, he was familiar with the original sources of classical learning.
St. Willibrord
From 690-739 Willibrod, an Anglo-Saxon missionary, engaged in conversion efforts in Frisia and among Germans east of Ripuarian Franks. He became the first Bishop of Uterecht.
St. Boniface
English Benedictine monk, Papal legate to Germans beyond the Rhine and Archbishop in eastern Germany. From 741-747 he held councils with Frankish support to Christianize the populace, reform the area church, and monasticize it. This also led to increased control from Rome.
