The Dark Ages - Part 2 - The Waning Empire

At its height in the second century A.D., the Roman Empire was the beacon of learning, power, and prosperity in the western world. But the once-powerful Rome - rotten to the core by the fifth century - lay open to barbarian warriors who came in wave after wave of invasion, slaughtering, stealing, and ultimately, settling. As chaos replaced culture, Europe was beset by famine, plague, persecutions, and a state of war that was so persistent it was only rarely interrupted by peace. THE DARK AGES profiles those who battled to shape the future, from the warlords whose armies threatened to cause the demise of European society, such as Alaric, Charles the Hammer, and Clovis; to the men and women who valiantly tended the flames of justice, knowledge, and innovation including Charlemagne, St. Benedict, Empress Theodora, and other brave souls who fought for peace and enlightenment. It was in the shadows of this turbulent millennium that the seeds of modern civilization were sown.

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[ADZ01982]

@gamesbok I ment no unifying government in Western Europe. Under peace and prosperity countries and people prosper There was still progress during the Dark ages.Carolingian Renaissance. Bedes Lunar cycle Bedes study of tides Ididore of Seville.



[gamesbok]

@ADZ01982 There was a unifying government, in Revenna and in Constantinople. What's important was the collapse of intelectual life, and Justinians war on intellectualism caused the Dark Ages. You caan't blame it on Alaric, because a Christian takeover of a Christian city won't do it, you can't blame it on Odacer, because he was a Roman to his fingertips. Justinians war on intellectual freedom most definately can.

[ADZ01982]

@gamesbok It was simply the fact that there was not a unifying government. If law and order and the government fell, there would be warfare and poverty for many years.

[dekippiesip]

@Immortal4Aday I think you can compare this with the rise of radical Islam in Afghanistan and Somalia in some sense. Society brakes apart and warlords fight for control over areas. In such situation civilians are not safe to walk over the street. They prefer a highly repressive regime and order rather than the huge disorder. In situations like that extreme religious groups like al-qaida and medieval christianity can flurish.

[dekippiesip]

@whereisumar They were civilised in the sense that they had more tech, philosophers schools of thaught, a central government, a middle class, architecture, art, etc. While the so called barbarians didn't have all this at that level. In terms of atrocities they where the same(They still are human after all). Nazis where in some sense one of  the most civilised in the 40's but from a moral point of view one of the most uncivilised.

[Immortal4Aday]

@gamesbok why am i not surprised that the christians seem to thrive in an era on ignorance, and need

[gamesbok]

What Petrach identified as the Dark Ages was a period of ignorance, a want of learning, and this can be very specifically be layed at the door of Justinian, and his war against anything not specifically orthodox Christian. Justinian closed schools, burnt libraries and persicuted philosophers. The Dark Ages started 9:00 AM, 13 January 529, when Justinian closed the Academy in Athens.

[zolaga]

@whereisumar Rome wasn't civil by today's standards. But Rome WAS civil when you compare it to the Dark Ages.

[Kelly14UK]

@whereisumar It sickens me that even though they'd been Christian for the past 30 - 100 years, they still did this. If they've got they're facts right here that is.

[whereisumar]

it's incredible how they consider rome to be "civilized", and how they consider it a "downward spiral" for rome to have fallen, when watching people being murdered was the national past time of romans! (I'm talking, of course, about the gladiatorial arenas.