A Short History of the Middle Ages Fourth Edition

Plate 1.7: Decorated Coffer from Jerusalem (1st cent.?). The human figure was of no interest to the carver of this stone chest, ...

the “sky boxes” inhabited by the emperor and his retinue. The folds of the drapery are graceful but stylized. The hairstyles are ...

Plate 1.9: Orant Fresco (2nd half of 4th cent.). In a private house located in a posh neighborhood in Rome, an imposing figure c ...

Although this style of art was not initially Christian, it was quickly adopted by Christians. It was suited to a religion that s ...

Plate 1.10: Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus (359). Like the Meleager relief (Plate 1.4), the figures on this sarcophagus, carved ne ...

been recruited into the Roman army, some of their members settling peacefully within the imperial borders. The Burgundian experi ...

language, clothing, hairstyle, behaviors, and all the other elements that go into a sense of identity. Germanic ethnicities were ...

[The Goths] crossed the Danube and settled Dacia Ripensis, Moesia and Thrace by permission of the emperor. Soon famine and want ...

(from one of the lesser tribes, the Sciri) leading Roman troops. Odoacer promptly had himself declared king of Italy and, in a b ...

The New Order What was new about the “new order” of the sixth century was less the rise of barbarian kingdoms than it was, in th ...

wrote letters on behalf of Theodoric in the guise of a pious lawgiver. “As it is my desire, when petitioned, to give a lawful co ...

Map 1.4: Tours, c.600 The cities, most of them walled since the time of the crisis of the third century, were no longer thriving ...

of a fortification built c.400. (See Map 1.4.) Although it still functioned as an institution of religion and government, almost ...

columns hold up the imposing structure; from the top you can see boats gliding by on the surface of the river in summertime.... ...

his sister, the “abbess” (head) of a monastery of women. He wrote another for his nephew, the “abbot” of a male monastery. In It ...

of the Holy Cross and other precious relics for her nuns. As one of her hagiographers, Baudonivia, wrote, “She got what she had ...

Plate 1.11: Reliquary of Theuderic (late 7th cent.). Shaped like a miniature sarcophagus, this reliquary is inscribed on the bac ...

Map 1.5: Europe and the Eastern Roman Empire, c.600 THE RETRENCHMENT OF THE EAST ...

After 476 there was a “new order” in the East as well, but at first it was less obvious. For one thing, there was still an emper ...

Plate 1.12: Mosaic from San Vitale, Ravenna (c.545–c.550). Flanked on one side by churchmen (holding a cross and a Bible) and on ...