HS 120 Final Exam Study Guide (Fall 2023) PDF

HS 120 – Introduction to Western Civilization I (Fall 2023) Dr. Fabrizio Conti Final Exam Study Guide ✓ The murder of Julius Caesar • Was murdered on the Ides of March, March 15, 44 BC. Caesar did not hide his contempt for Republican constitutional formalities. By accepting a dictatorship for life,...

HS 120 – Introduction to Western Civilization I (Fall 2023) Dr. Fabrizio Conti Final Exam Study Guide ✓ The murder of Julius Caesar • Was murdered on the Ides of March, March 15, 44 BC. Caesar did not hide his contempt for Republican constitutional formalities. By accepting a dictatorship for life, he offended conservatives; by flirting with the title of king, he infuriated them. Sixty senators stabbed him to death. The assassination took place in the portico attached to the theater of Pompo, i, the assassinate of Pompey himself, where the senate was meeting that day. The assassins called themselves Liberators, believing that they were freeing themselves from Tyranny just as the founders of the Republic had done centuries before. The assassination of Caesar threw Rome back into turmoil. Octavian took over after. ✓ End of the Roman Republic (main steps) • After a century of warfare, it started to take a toll on the ordinary people, the Romans and peasants allied together over their farms were ruined from the fighting. The Roman elite disagreed with how to handle problems with the peasants, some wanted to redistribute land to the peasants. Overcrowded, one million end first century. The government had to take charge of the grain supply, politicians exploited the issue for partisan purposes. Soon the peasants became impatient starting protests across Italy demanding land • As fever and lever potential soldiers could afford to own property however, during the second century, it became necessary to reduce the property qualification several limes. If the free peasantry continued its decline, Rome would either have to drop the property qualification for the military altogether or stop fielding armies. Clearly, something had to be done. • Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, a distinguished general and ambassador seemed like an excellent spokesperson for a group of prominent senators who backed land reform to restore Rome’s peasant soldiers • Many senators suspected that Tiberius wanted to set himself up as a kind of super patron, buoyed by peasant supporters. Senators disliked pushy and heavy-handed legislative tactics. Broke second consecutive term as tribune. While the tribal assembly prepared to vote on the new tribunes, some senators led a mob to the Forum and had Tiberius and three hundred of his followers clubbed to death. This shocking event marked the first time in the Republic that a political debate was settled by bloodshed in Rome itself. Tiberius's killers had not merely committed murder but had attacked the traditional inviolability of the tribunes. The ancient sources agree that it was the beginning of a century of revolution. • Gaius continued his brother's work, became a tribune, and sponsored an extension of his brother;s agrarian law, Eventually, he ran aground on a plan to include the Italian allies as beneficiaries of reform -a farsighted notion, but one unpopular with the Roman people, who were jealous of their privileges. A riot by his supporters led the senate to pass a declaration of public emergency, empowering officials to use any means necessary to protect the state. One of the consuls had Gaius and 250 of his followers killed. Another 3,000 Gracchans were executed soon thereafter. The Gracchan Land Commission gave land to approximately 75,000 citizens. ✓ Pax Romana (Roman Peace) • Pax Romana (Roman Peace) Its height was between AD 96 and 180, an era of enlightened emperors, thriving cities, intellectual vitality, and artistic and architectural achievement, 50-100 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ million people, heightened spirituality, era of slavery, new religion was Christianity, after 180, turned into bad emperors, civil war, inflation, plague, invasion, and defeat. The Fall of Rome • The Reigns of Diocletian (284-305) and Constantine (306-337) called by scholars “Late Antiquity”, the empire fell in the fifth century. Classical civilization gave gloom to the Dark Ages. Specialists see vigor and achievement from 300 to 600. Emphasize continuity and coherence over calamity and collapse. Recent scholars stress how the Romans themselves created a stable framework for change. No catastrophic time, place, or event marked the “fall of Rome”. Early medieval Germanic migrations • The years from the 370s to the 530s were decisive in the history of the Roman Empire in the West. This period saw the transformation of Rome’s western provinces into several Germanic kingdoms, most of which maintained some formal relationship with the Eastern Roman Empire. Roman encounters with the barbarians took many forms, ranging from violent conflict to peaceful accommodation. The key point to understand is that although the barbarians supplanted Roman rule in the West, they did so slowly and often with Roman collaboration (intentional or unwitting). There were various “tribes”. like the Barbarians, Frank, Vandal, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Lombards, Burgundians Edict of Milan • In 312, while marching toward Rome to fight his rivals, Constantine believed he saw in the sky a cross with the words “In this sign, you shall conquer”. Persuaded, Constantine to put chi-rho (from chrestos, Christ in Greek) on his soldier's uniform. He defeated his enemy at the Milvian Bridge near Rome, certain he secured his victory, he and his eastern colleague issued the Edict of Milan in 313, granting Christianity full legal status in the empire. Edict of Theodosius • The Edict of Thessalonica issued on February 27 380AD by Theodosius made Nicene Christianity the state church of the Roman Empire. It condemned other Christian creeds such as Arianism as heresies of “foolish madmen”, and authorized their punishment. Feudalism • Feudal system, used in England, France, and in a lesser degree Germany and Italy, “feudal Realms”. Lords, up to the king, secured some personal and political services from vassals (knights) in return for material rewards often landed estates called fiefs. They are reluctant to use the term feudal system in present day because there was nothing systematic about how services were obtained or discharged. Over Europe, where royal power was most ineffective both knights and nobles secured tighter control of peasant labor. This process provided money to build castles and fine possessions. Expanded government-held higher offices or pressured kings to concede such offices to them. At the same time, families began to practice primogeniture—that is, reserving their lands, castles, and titles to the primus genitus, or “firstborn” son. Nobles would buy blocks of land to build a castle on it and named after the castle. Medieval trifunctional society (Social trifunctional) • After 1000, European society was subdivided in three orders, each with a different occupation and function: 1st: orant, “those who pray” Considering the clergy, the situation is rather complex because a distinction must be made between bishops, priests, monks and nuns. Moreover, within a monastic community, there were clear hierarchical differences, and there were differences between monastic orders. Nevertheless, during the High Middle Ages, monastic life was the most important part of the religious society, both in spiritual and 2 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ economic terms. The second order was the nobility, they lived in castles, wooden fortifications on artificial mounds/ natural elevations, evolved into stone castles during the late medieval period. Donation of Constantine • The lands, that the Franks guaranteed to the Popes, formed the basis for the Papal States, a political entity in central Italy that endured many changes over time and survives today as Vatican City. The Papal claim to territorial rule was based at least in part on the Donation of Constantine, a document probably written in the 760s but claiming to represent a donation to the papacy by Constantine of rule in the West after he departed for Constantinople. The Black Death • There is no consensus to what caused the Black Death. It wiped across Europe, wiping out families and infecting cities. Some between the Bubonic plague, identified by French and Japanese doctors. However the bubonic plague usually travels slowly and infects a small portion of the population. Some suspect Anthrax or hemorrhagic plague similar to Ebola. In present day, looking at the DNA fragments of plague bacillus from the mass graves, the disease could have been a mix of diseases; knowing little about clothing, sanitation, and parasites in a typical house we can not be sure what caused it. Fourth Lateran Council (1215) • Popes built a sophisticated legal system. Could excommunicate, social death, lay a territory under interdict, invoke inquisition (this was a judicial mechanism fully rooted in Roman law and widely used in the medieval West. Effective government, a network of legates, law, the Investiture Contro- versy, successful battles with many rulers, leadership in the Crusades, and Europe-wide councils (Lateran IV in 1215 was the largest council of the Catholic Church until the sixteenth century) made the papacy the premier institution in high medieval Europe. The First Crusade • In 1906, an army of Christian knights who called themselves pilgrims left Europe to Liberate the Holy Land from the Muslim “infidel”. Although no one knew it at the time, this was the first of many Crusades, so called because the warriors were crucesignati, “signed by the cross”. Normally we think of Crusades as expeditions to the Holy Land but in high medieval, there were also Crusades against political foes in Italy, against heretics in France, and pagans in the Baltic. Five pillars of Islam • 1) the profession of faith, “there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His Prophet” 2) individual prayer five times daily, plus group prayer at noon on Friday in a mosque, a Muslim house of prayer 3) the sunup-to-sundown fast for one month per year 4) the donation of generous alms to the poor 5) a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a person’s lifetime. ✓ Italian Renaissance = meaning, main traits • Humanista is a renaissance term; humanism as a concept was employed for the first time by Friederich Immanuel Nietammer in 1808. Italians turned to models from classical antiquity attempting to deal with cultural, political, and educational reform. A group of scholars (humanists) argued the superiority of the literature, history, and politics of the past. Humanists discovered more about ancient culture, they were able to understand more clearly historical 3 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ context Rome and Greek writers and thinkers lived. And by the early sixteenth century, their debates on learning, civic duty, and the classical legacy had led them to a new vision of the past and a new appreciation of the nature of politics. The Renaissance of the arts; three periods; 1st: artists imitated nature, 2nd: rediscovered classical ideas of proportion, 3rd: High Renaissance artists were superior to nature but also to the artists in the ancient world. Renaissance “Universal Man” (Homo universalis) • A man who can excel in several fields, prominent during the Renaissance Time for all the fields, art literature, philosophy, and other academics. Uono universal=universal genius. Men should try to embrace all knowledge and develop their own capacities as fully as possible. “Humiliation of Canossa” • On January 25, 1077, Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV arrived at the gates of the fortress at Canossa in Emilia Romagna beyond the Alpes to declare atonement and to pledge for forgiveness from Pope Gregory VII, who had excommunicated Henry earlier from church. Henry’s act of penance became known as the “ Walk to Canossa ”. Remains a pivotal event in medieval history illustrating the power struggle between church and state. Renaissance Catholic reform movements • Pope Leo IX (1054) allied the Papacy with religious reformers, Lay investiture of bishops and abbots = laymen putting bishops into their political offices with pastoral staff and ring = spiritual investiture. From moderate reform to radical reform = clash between the Papacy and the Empire Church Reform: the ‘Investiture Conflict’ The Dictatus Papae (1076) = it marks the main direction towards which the Church should develop the spiritual; has to dominate over the material; kings and emperors have not to meddle in church affairs. Intellectual battle between two parties. Clash with Emperor Henry IV (d. 1106). In 1076 Gregory excommunicated and deposed Henry, Humiliation of Canossa (1077). Church Reform: the ‘Investiture Conflict’. The Investiture Conflict ended with the Concordat of Worms (1122) between Pope Calixtus II and Henry V = only the pope can invest bishops with pastoral staff and ring; the emperor invests the bishop of his feudal duties only. Axial Age • The Axial Age denotes a series of profound cultural transformations that occurred in some of the major civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean, the Near East, and South and East Asia in the centuries around the middle of the first millennium BCE. The term was coined by Karl Jaspers in a small book, Vom Ursprung und Ziel der Geschichte, which appeared in 1949. Romulus Augustulus • Gradually, several small kingdoms emerged. Although Britain retained contact with Gaul, the island had virtually no Roman political or institutional inheritance. Through most of the fifth century, the western empire was ruled by a series of forgettable and ineffective rulers. The last of them, Romulus Augustulus (note that he bore, in diminutive form, the names of the founders of Rome and of the empire) was deposed by a Germanic general in 476. Ruling in Italy, he simply sent the imperial regalia to Constantinople and declared that the West no longer needed an emperor. This is all that happened in 476, the traditional date for the “fall” of the Roman Empire. Odoacer • a Germanic soldier in the Roman army who in 476 became the first King of Italy. He led one of the mercenary armies called foederati, with the rise of Emperor Augustulus became frustrated by their treatment and status. They revolted against Emperor Augustulus and deposed him in 476, granting Odoacer kingship. As Odoacer’s position improved, Zeno, the Eastern Emperor, increasingly saw him as a rival, and in response pitted the Ostrogoth 4 Theoderic the Great against him; Theoderic proved victor against Odoacer repeatedly and eventually killed him in 493. ✓ Alboin • Alboin (530s – 28 June 572) was king of the Lombards from about 560 until 572. During his reign the Lombards ended their migrations by settling in Italy, the northern part of which Alboin conquered between 569 and 572. He had a lasting effect on Italy and the Pannonian Basin; in the former his invasion marked the beginning of centuries of Lombard rule, and in the latter his defeat of the Gepids and his departure from Pannonia ended the dominance there of the Germanic peoples. ✓ Constantine the Great • Constantine I (27 February c. 272 – 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337. He was the first emperor to convert to Christianity. He restructured the government, separating civil and military authorities. To combat inflation, he introduced the solidus, a new gold coin that became the standard for Byzantine and European currencies for more than a thousand years. The Roman army was reorganized to consist of mobile units (comitatenses), The age of Constantine marked a distinct epoch in the history of the Roman Empire and a pivotal moment in the transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages. He built a new imperial residence at the city of Byzantium and renamed it New Rome, later adopting the name Constantinople after himself, where it was located in modern Istanbul. It subsequently became the capital of the empire for more than a thousand years, the later Eastern Roman Empire often being referred to in English as the Byzantine Empire, a term never used by the Empire, invented by German historian Hieronymus Wolf. ✓ Justinian • Justinian I (r. 527-565) was the first great ruler of the Byzantine empire. It was from these rough soldiers that Justinian emerged to become the greatest ruler of Late Antiquity. Restoration of the Empire: lost territories were regained (Belisarius, Narses: Greek-Gothic war 535-553). Reform and codification of Roman law = Corpus iuris civilis. Unification of Christianity. Architectural development (Hagia Sophia). Between 529 and 533, Justinian issued his code, the Corpus Iuris Civilis in several parts. Justinian’s code, based on the idea that law should “give everyone his due,” is the most influential legal collection in human history. It summarizes a thousand years of legal work, remained valid in the Eastern Empire until 1453, and has subsequently influenced almost every legal system in the modern world. Justinian was born in an Illyrian village, entered the army, and secured high office under his illiterate Uncle Justin. Justinian surrounded himself with remarkable people and gave them considerable latitude. In 525, he flouted conven- tion by marrying the actress Theodora. A woman of intelligence, imagination, and great courage, Theodora was one of Justinian’s key advisers. ✓ Charlemagne • Clovis and the Franks created the most effective of the early Dynasty Germanic kingdoms. During the seventh century, that kingdom, too, experienced difficulties but did not disappear. Just as Roman aristocrats had borne the ancient heritage into the Middle Ages, so now a Frankish family, called “Carolingian” from the name of its greatest member, Charlemagne, assembled the talent and resources of the Frankish realm in a new way. Charlemagne reformed his government and church, patronized learning, and resurrected the western empire. Early medieval civilization reached its culmination in the work of Charlemagne and his dynasty. Charlemagne (Carolus Magnus, “Charles the Great” in Latin) was a huge man, and his stature has grown in European history and legend. Like all great lea- ders, Charlemagne (r. 768–814) 5 was complex. He spoke and read Frankish, Latin, and some Greek but never learned to write. He promoted Christian morality but perpetrated unspeakable brutalities on his enemies and enjoyed several concubines. Many battles were fought in his name, but he rarely accompanied his armies and fought no campaigns that are remembered for strategic brilliance. Determination and organization were the hallmarks of his forty-six-year reign. Charlemagne’s first major achievement was the articulation of a new ruling ide- ology in the Latin West. In capitularies (kuh-PITCH-u-lar-eez)—royal executive orders—of 789, Charlemagne required all males to swear an oath of allegiance to him, and he compared himself to a biblical king in his responsibility to admonish, to teach, and to set an example for his people. He referred to the people of his realm as a “New Israel,” a new chosen people. Interestingly, this chosen people was not exclusively Frankish. No distinctions were to be made among Franks or Bavar- ians or Saxons. Everyone was to be equal in allegiance to the king and in member- ship in a sort of Augustinian City of God. ✓ Pepin the Short • Was King of the Franks from 751 till death in 768. He was the first Carolingian to become king. He was the son of Frankish Prince Charles Martel and his wife Rotrude. Pipin’s upbringing was distinguished with education he received from the Christian Monks at the Abbey Church of St. Denis. The brothers were active in suppressing revolts led the Barbarians, Aquitanian, Saxons, and the Alemanni in the early years of their reign. In 743, they ended the Frankish Interregnum by choosing Childeric III, who was to be the last Merovingian monarch, as figurehead King of the Franks. Being well disposed towards the Christian Church and Papacy on account of their ecclesiastical upbringing, Pepin and Carloman continued their father's work in supporting Saint Boniface in reforming the Frankish church and evangelizing the Saxons. Pepin the Short = Carolingian Dynasty Charlemagne named king in 1800. Expansion with Clovis = conversion to Christianity (496) baptized by St. Remigius = after the Battle of Tolbiach against the Alemanni. Alliance with the Church = bishops = Roman territories and population. ✓ Pope Innocent III • was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1198 to 1216. He reformed the Roman Curia, reestablished and expanded the pope’s authority over the Papal States, and worked tirelessly to launch Crusades to recover the Holy Land. He also combated heresy in Italy and southern France, shaped a powerful and original doctrine of papal power within the church and in secular affairs, and in 1215 presided over the fourth Lateran Council, which reformed many clerical and lay practices within the church. ✓ Pope Gregory VII • was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 22 April 1073 to his death in 1085. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. One of the great reforming popes, he is perhaps best known for the part he played in the Investiture Controversy, his dispute with Emperor Henry IV to establish the primacy of papal authority and the new canon law governing the election of the pope by the College of Cardinals. He was also at the forefront of developments in the relationship between the emperor and the papacy during the years before he became pope. He was the first pope in several centuries to rigorously enforce the Western Church's ancient policy of celibacy for the clergy and also attacked the practice of simony. During the power struggles between the papacy and the Empire, Gregory excommunicated Henry IV three times, and Henry appointed Antipope Clement III to oppose him. Though Gregory was hailed as one of the greatest of the Roman pontiffs after his 6 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ reforms proved successful, during his own reign he was denounced by some for his autocratic use of papal powers. Pope Sixtus IV • Francesco della Rovere. An Italian priest of the Roman Catholic Church and the 213th Pope from 1471 until death in 1484. He is known for beginning construction on the Sistine Chapel, he was also a noted theological writer and teacher who gave lectures at universities in Siena, Pavia, Florence and Bologna. Pope Leo X • Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici, head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from March 9 1513 to death in December 1521. Leading Renaissance popes, made Rome a cultural center and a political power. However, he depleted the papal treasury and contributed to the dissolution of the Western Church by failing to take the developing Reformation seriously. He was born into the powerful Medici family, which was prominent in banking and politics. Henry IV (Emperor) • When Henry IV came of age in 1066, he faced opposition on all sides, controlled no duchies, was not yet emperor, and had lost much of his father’s control of the church. When he tried to make church appointments in the traditional way, he encountered the fierce opposition of the newly reformed papacy in the person of Pope Gregory VII (r. 1073–1085). Their battles inaugurated the so-called investiture controversy (discussed later in this chap- ter), which lingered on until 1122, when both of the original foes were long dead. On January 25, 1077, Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV arrived at the gates of the fortress at Canossa in Emilia Romagna beyond the Alpes to declare atonement and to pledge for forgiveness from Pope Gregory VII, who had excommunicated Henry earlier from church. Henry’s act of penance became known as the “ Walk to Canossa ”. Remains a pivotal event in medieval history illustrating the power struggle between church and state. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and his Oration on the dignity of man • Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola (d. 1494). Humanist, mathematician, Platonic philosopher. At the Platonic academy in Florence with Marsilio Ficino. The Oration On the dignity of Man (1486) as the opening lecture of a universal philosophical conference = 900 theses on syncretism and harmony among philosophies. Dignity of man = his unique nature and excellence that places him over all other creatures 7