This was a one-lecture week because of Rosh Hashanah, and I spent the time on the barbarians—the third part of the medieval sunthesis. It did not go all that well, but here’s what I tried:
INTRODUCTION: I began by linking barbarian settlement to what we had seen last week in terms of longing for glorious ancestors (Aeneas and all that). In other words, I talked about how modern Europeans often have wanted to tie their “Frenchness” or “Englisness” or whatever to barbarian settlers who somehow legitimize their nationhood. I told them this was dangerous and bad history.
THE “REAL” STORY. I then proceeded to tell them how the changes that came over the old Western empire were long and messy and complicated. I laid out Celtic, Germanic, and Slavic language groups; I talked about how varied they were; I talked about Rome’s changing and varied contacts with these groups; and then I used the example of fourth- and fifth-century Italy to describe how muddled and mingled it all was.
FOUR POINTS TO REMEMBER. Next, I set out four things in particular for them to ponder and remember:
• Arianism.
• Social Organization (esp. the comitatus).
• Law (wergild, compurgation, trial by ordeal).
• The historical power of the barbarian legacy (here I got back—as a wrap up—to ties with modern nationalism.
That’s it. We are done with the medieval synthesis. Onward!
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