“The Goths had originally lived in southern Scandinavia and around the Baltic. But moving south in the second century they had split into two groups, the Ostrogoths, who had remained in southern Russia to live off the land as an army of conquerors, and the Visigoths, who drove the Romans out of Dacia.”12 With the push of the Huns into their lands, the Romans allowed members of the Visigoth tribe to cross over into the safety of Roman territory. It all started peacefully, they developed a taste for Roman luxury. Some of them even joined the Roman army. Things eventually changed, they were treated with extreme cruelty. Roman military officials who were in charge of provisions for the Visigoths were corrupt. The starving Visigoths were forced to buy dog meat from them, often exchanging their children to work as slaves.13 Eventually, the Visigoths turned on the Romans. They went from wanting to become like the Romans to wanting to destroy them. …show more content…
King Alaric, leader of the Visigoths, led an attack on the Empire on August 24th, 410 AD.14 The attack lasted for 3 days, and for the first time in nearly a millennium, the city of Rome was in the hands of someone other than the
While Rome was being ramp sacked from Germanic and other barbaric groups, the imperial power shifted to the eastern part of the Roman Empire, where the center city was Byzantium (Craig/Graham/Kagan/Ozment /Turner, 354, 2009). Between 324 and 330 BCE, Constantine the Great became emperor and rebuilt the city and renamed it after himself (Craig/Graham/Kagan/Ozment /Turner, 354, 2009). After Constantine died, power shifted to Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora in 527 BCE (Craig/Graham/Kagan/Ozment /Turner, 354, 2009).
Literature, in many cases, takes aspects of the author's/readers culture and expresses it in their writing. Class structure, politics, religion, and anything that could be thought of has probably been shown in writing one way or another since the beginning of time. In Beowulf, the medieval epic poem, the author created a group of diverse characters, who embody different classes of society. No two characters are alike. However, there is one important theme that essentially ties them all together and makes this story: vengeance. In Beowulf, the author seemingly different characters are proven to be alike in the poems perpetuated cycle of vengeance.
Have you ever wanted to avenge a wrong doing done unto you? Well, the characters in Beowulf will stop at nothing to achieve vengeance. Revenge is so immensely practiced that it is a common act to pay of a deed done by an offender. However, a payment or truce does not satisfy the desire for revenge in the Poem. Every time a Character precedes to make peace, it eventually falls apart by a desire to avenge loved ones. This desire is usually upheld until someone is no longer left to be avenged or no one is left to avenge those whom they loved. This, although it may not seem so, happens commonly in this epic.
Many cultures in the ancient and medieval worlds found courage as a value and virtue associated with warriors. To a great extent, western cultures also find courage as an attribute of warriors. This courageous cultural tendency gets its imaginative manifestation in literature of heroic societies such as The Epic of Gilgamesh, homer’s Iliad and Beowulf. These Epic heroes which show human conditions are Gilgamesh, Achilles from Homer's Iliad and Beowulf. Although, the actions and lives of these warriors occurred at different times in history, their stories are passed on from generations to generations and they share a lot of commonalities but with some discrepancies based on their lives, their choices, ideals and beliefs. These warriors present human conditions in terms of their heroism, weaknesses and mortality. All demonstrate the nature of humans and their constant struggles with understanding and curiosity which drives their internal hunger. The struggle of understanding and the curiosity drive is faced with difficulties and the greatest one is that of facing their fears head on.
Brian. A Catlos’ novel, Infidel Kings and Unholy Warriors: Faith, Power, and Violence in the Age of Crusade and Jihad, provides a detailed account of various sites of inter-religious interaction throughout the medieval Mediterranean from the 10th to 12th centuries. Throughout the novel, Catlos illustrates the influence of religion on the relationships and coexistence between the three Abrahamic religions - Christianity, Judaism, and Islam - and the role it plays in the immense violence of the period. The varying perspectives demonstrate how religion acted more as a bridge between cultures than a barrier, and how conflicts deemed as of religious origin were oftentimes driven predominantly by the mundane factor of greed and self-interest rather than existential resentment of opposing groups.
... incrementally, and the way opened for ‘barbarian’ people to supplant, mimic and finally extinguish Rome’s authority. Between the fifth and seventh centuries, groups like the Visigoths, Avars, and Lombards renewed the map of Europe, leaving a bewildering patchwork of divers. (4, Asbridge).
Grendel, the monster terrorizing Heorot, is introduced as being estranged from the rest of the world. He is described as an outsider, a descendant of “Cain’s clan” (107). Grendel’s outcast status leaves him living in darkness, his envy growing the more he hears the celebrations of the Danes. Envy and social status motivate Grendel’s cruelty, filling him with anger towards those who are human. When Beowulf and the Geats arrive, it is not solely out of honor that Beowulf vows to kill the beast. Beowulf’s father, Ecgtheow, had an unpaid debt at the time of his death. Beowulf’s pledge that he would kill Grendel was a repayment, as well as an honorable feat. However, as Beowulf is introduced, the boasts he makes of his heroic feats and his “awesome strength” (29), only prove his barbarity. He boasts that “they had seen me boltered in the blood of enemies when I battled and bound five beasts, raided a troll-nest and in the night-sea slaughtered sea brutes” (419-422). He goes on to blame the enemies for the vengeance that he wrought upon them. Beowulf dehumanizes his enemies, states that they were foul beasts who tainted the land, and he purified it. This is a sadistic view of life and battle, contrasting cruelty for the
They were nomadic, pagan people who did not raid others for the purpose of gaining territory or promoting their religious beliefs. They would ravage communities of their valuables and return to Scandinavia so they would be able to support themselves. Because their main focus was obtaining wealth, they paid immense attention to the trading patterns happening throughout Eastern and Western Europe. This attributes to why they travelled to Western Europe to attack just as the economy flourished. They also paid attention to political changes in Western Europe, as when there was political confusion or tension, they knew that area would be vulnerable to attack. (Bianchini, Lecture).
There is no other experience in history where innocent African Americans encountered such a brutal torment. This infamous ordeal is called the Middle Passage or the “middle leg” of the Triangular Trade, which was the forceful voyage of African Americans from Africa to the New World. The Africans were taken from their homeland, boarded onto the dreadful ships, and scattered into the New World as slaves. 10- 16 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic during the 1500’s to the 1900’s and 10- 15 percent of them died during the voyage. Millions of men, women, and children left behind their personal possessions and loved ones that will never be seen again. Not only were the Africans limited to freedom, but also lost their identity in the process. Kidnapped from their lives that throbbed with numerous possibilities of greatness were now out of sight and thrown into the never-ending pile of waste. The loathsome and inhuman circumstances that the Africans had to face truly describe the great wrongdoing of the Middle Passage.
When Shakespeare was born in 1564, Queen Elizabeth had taken power a mere 6 years prior, and her justice system was very different from ours. In this paper, I hope to explore some of the ways punishments were different, such as how many crimes had individual punishments, often times depending on how severe the crime was. I will also go in-depth to one of the most infamous cases of the medieval period.
Height possible reason had cause the fall of the Roman Empire. The invasion by the Barbarian Tribes, an economic troubles an over reliance on slave labor, the rise of the western empire, a government corruption and political instability, the arrival of the Huns and the migration of the Barbarian tribes, christianity and the loss of traditional values and weakening of the Roman legions. As well as the Black Death also called the Plague. The next several decades the empire had spent, was under threats. In 476, the Germanic leader had organized a revolt that deposed the Emperor Augustus. Even Rome was under attack from outside forces, it was also crumbling from within thanks to a severe financial crisis. With a such a vast territory to govern the empire faced their nightmare on a administrative and legislative level. The invading army reached the Roman’s wall, which had been left totally undefended. In 410 C.E., the Visigoths, led by Alaric breached the wall of Rome and sacked the capital of the Rome empire. The Visigoths looted, burned, and pillaged their way through the city, leaving a wake of destruction wherever they went. These acts continued for three days. For the first time in nearly a millennium the city of Rome was in the hand of someone other then the Roman. Either way was the
In Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey, violence is used to correct imbalances and restore justice. The willingness to get revenge in The Odyssey is sparked by the need to restore order in Ithaka, which has been out of order ever since Odysseus left and the suitors moved in. While Odysseus was gone the suitors who had moved in were rude and arrogant, affronting Penelope and trying to take Odysseus’ position as king. But Odysseus ends up arriving home and with the help of his son Telemachus, kills all the suitors and unfaithful women. In the end the violence used by Odysseus and Telemachus to restore order and balance is justified, because when looking at the epic as a whole you can see many instances where the suitors are disrespectful, and the
As the empire grew it became harder to govern. Violence began to replace law and order. Instead of Emperors, Generals, and politicians being chosen they would have to use violence to take the position. Many Emperors had little desire to govern, or let alone keep the city clean. The Emperors would put extreme taxes onto the people of
The Visigoths were a Germanic tribe of fierce warriors who settled upon the frontier of the Roman Empire. After making contact with the Huns the Visigoths took upon themselves to attack and strike the Rome Empire in 378 A.D. The route they choose to invade went through Greece, putting them against the Roman Army once they reached Adrianople. The Visigoths then did what one other German Tribe had ever done before and that was to defeat a Roman army in this Battle of Adrianople, thus showing how weak the Roman army had become. Moreover, in time to come afterwards they continued westward into the heart of Italy to the great city of Rome where they succeeded in doing something that had not been done in almost 800 years they invaded, sacked and
The slow disappearance of Rome as a major power and the subsequent invasions of foreign tribes led to what is called the Dark Ages. Economic issues and high military costs as a result of war with Persia in the third century plagued Rome, leading to increased taxes and a decline in the landowning class.1 With the splitting of the Roman Empire under Diocletian in 286, the eastern and western halves slowly grew apart, failed to cooperate, and fought over resources and territory.2 The strength of the eastern empire actually encouraged barbarian tribes to invade the dwindling, unfortified cities of the western empire.3 These tribes included the Ostrogoths, the Alans, the Vandals, and the Visigoths, who viciously sacked Rome in 410.4 After Rome’s fall, the period called the Dark Ages began, a time of supposed violence, i...