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 hadconveyed 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
Near East.Chapter Summary
The period fromthe 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 RomanCatholic 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
themonksandnunswholedthewayinconvertingtheGer-
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 7Late Antiquity and the Emergence of the Medieval WorldCopyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
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