Page 208 - Western Civilization A Brief History, Volume I To 1715 9th - Jackson J. Spielvogel

The Arab advance had finally come to an end, but not before the southern and eastern Mediterranean parts of the old Roman Empire had been conquered. Islam had become heir to much of the old Roman Empire. The Umayyad dynasty at Damascus now ruled an enormous empire. While expansion had
conveyed untold wealth and new ethnic groups into the fold of Islam, it also brought contact with Byzan- tine and Persian civilization. As a result, the new Arab empire would be influenced by Greek culture as well as by the older civilizations of the ancient NearEast.
Chapter Summary
The period from the mid-third century to the mid-eighth century was both chaotic and creative. During late antiquity, the Roman world of the Mediterranean was gradually transformed. Diocletian and Constantine restored an aura of stability to the late empire by increasing the size of the bureaucracy and the army, establishing price controls, raising taxes, and making occu-
pations hereditary. Nevertheless, even their efforts proved ultimately to be in vain as the empire stumbled along. With fewer resources and little resolve, the government was less able to repel the German migrants who moved into the Western part of the empire. In 476, the last Roman emperor in the West was deposed.
As the Western part of the Roman Empire disintegrated, a new civilization slowly emerged, formed by the coalescence of three major elements: the Germanic peoples who moved into the Western part of the empire and established new kingdoms, the continuing attraction of the Greco-Roman cultural legacy, and the Christian church. Politically, the Roman Empire in the West was replaced by a new series of Germanic kingdoms, including the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy, the Visigothic kingdom in Spain, several Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in Britain, and a Frankish kingdom in Gaul. Each of these kingdoms fused Roman and Ger- manic elements to create a new society.
In the fourth century, Christianity had become the official religion of the Roman Empire. The Christian church (or Roman
Catholic Church, as it came to be
called in the West) played a crucial
role in the growth of a new civiliza-
tion. The church developed an
organized government under the
leadership of the bishop of Rome,
who became known as the pope.
One of the most significant popes
was Gregory I the Great, who established claims to both reli- gious and political power. The church also assimilated the classi- cal tradition and through its clergy brought Christianized civilization to the Germanic tribes. Especially important were the monks and nuns who led the way in converting the Ger- manic peoples in Europe to Christianity.
But the Germanic kingdoms were not the only heir to Roman civilization. In the East, Greek and Eastern elements of late an- tiquity were of more consequence as the Eastern Roman Empire was transformed into the Byzantine Empire. Although the Ger- manic kingdoms of the West and the Byzantine civilization of the East came to share a common bond in Christianity, it proved incapable of keeping them in harmony politically as the two civi- lizations continued to move apart. The rise of Islam, Rome’s third heir, resulted in the loss of the southern and eastern Medi- terranean portions of the old Roman Empire to a religious power that was neither Roman nor Christian. The new Islamic empire forced Europe proper back upon itself, and slowly, a new civiliza- tion emerged that became the heart of what we know as Western civilization.
170 Chapter 7 Late Antiquity and the Emergence of the Medieval World
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