5-17

• After Rome: 500-700 AD
• Germanic Kingdoms:
• Barbarian warlords and their families who assimilated intom Roman culture became the "nobles" or aristocrats of medieval Europe
• Germanic tribes who ruled former Roman lands sought to conquer and assimilate other barbarian peoples who lived beyond the frontiers and were still pagans
• The angles and Saxons invaded Britain and assimilated the native Britons
• Most of the Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity in the 7th century
• The most powerful Germanic tribe was the Franks
• the real power lay with the "mayors of the palace" who were royal officials and nobles themselves
• Eastern Empire:
• The Eastern Roman Empire continued on while the west was now divided up by the barbarian tribes
• When the emperor Justinian came to power in 527, he decided to reunite the entire Roman Empire by re-conquering the western territories
• Justinian successes for a time, but the land he re-took was soon conquered by a new barbarian tribe and a massive plague depopulated much of the west
• Greek Byzantine emperors saw themselves as Roman emperors and the heads of the Christian Church
• Byzantines preserved Greco-Roman art, architecture, philosophy and writings despite much of it being non-Christian
• Justinian built the massive domeed Hagia Sophia ("Holy Wisdom") in Constantinople, considered to be the most glorious church on earth at the time