History Series – Part One

Preface

I recently finished reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. It was an incredible book that I highly recommend reading. Despite its length of nearly 2000 pages, it was thoroughly fascinating to read and I can say with sincerity, it was a page turner.

The book detailed Hitlers conquest of countries such as Austria, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Yugoslavia, and Greece. On several occasions, the author would compare a conquest or invasion to some event of the past and quote people groups or civilizations that I recognize the name of, but don’t know the story. The Teutons for example, or the Normans.

I don’t like the feeling of not knowing what people are talking about, and for a long time, I have had the urge to better understand history (primarily European history), but I never spent the time to learn it. Somehow, reading this brick of a book gave me the motivation I needed.

Here is my plan. I’d like to learn and briefly summarize as many of the major events, conquests, and wars of history as I can in chronological order. My hope is to create an accurate picture in my mind of how the world has been hacked up, divided, won over, reclaimed, and re-attacked. I will start right after the fall of Rome, so that I don’t have to try and summarize the behemoth that is Roman history. To limit the scope, I am also going to focus on Europe, but I realize that Europe’s history is intertwined with its neighbours in Asia and Africa, so I may need to spend some time discussing them as well.

I’ll be utilizing a tool called perplexity.ai to kick off my research. Now before you write me off for using AI, the reason I am using Perplexity to start is because it provides sources for all of its responses, so I can corroborate whether what it is saying is true or not. I have such little knowledge of the events of history, I think starting with AI will help me gain context more rapidly than blindly typing questions into a search engine and reading whatever ad sponsored, high SEO content it prioritizes first. Ultimately, I am going to pull threads and see where it takes me.

I’m a bit concerned that I will end up writing things that are not true because I don’t know any better. Please excuse any mistakes in the below, and if you catch any, please let me know so I can learn.

Context

We’ll start this series in the year 476 AD. This year is what many historians mark as the beginning of the Middle ages in Europe. Some of the major civilizations or groups that were “on the scene” in terms of everything we are about to talk about are the following:

1. The Romans, who up until about this time, were the dominant force in Europe.
2. The Germanic tribes such as Vandals, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Lombards, Franks, Jutes, Angles, and Saxons, who played an important role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
3. Nomadic tribes such as the Huns in central Asia, who had alliances with some of the Gothic tribes.

Chapter 1: The Fall of The Western Roman Empire

Rome didn’t fall in a day. The Eastern Roman Empire lasted considerably longer than the West. The West is said to have fallen in 476 AD, and is attributed to a Germanic warrior named Odoacer. Odoacer led a group of mercenaries who were becoming frustrated with their treatment and status under the Roman emperor Augustulus, so they revolted. Odeacer and his mercenaries managed to kill emperor Augustulus’ father, and then deposed Augustulus.

As a result, Odoacer become the king of Italy. A key reason he was able to do this was because he won the approval of the Roman senate, which he was able to accomplish due to the following:

1. He allowed the senate to continue its activities.
2. He permitted freedom of worship for both Christians and pagans, which endeared him to the Romain citizens and the senate.
3. He also made efforts to maintain peace and security which aided his popularity.

The Roman senate wrote the Eastern Roman Empire and told them that they felt that the Roman Empire didn’t need a Western emperor, and could be ruled by Constantinople in the East. Though the Eastern emperor Zeno initially disproved of this, he agreed to the idea because he thought it would enhance his prestige to be the sole emperor of the Roman Empire.

In short, because Odoacer was able to ensure stability within Italy, he gained loyalty from the population and the senate, which is how he managed to become the first barbarian king of Italy.

It’s funny to me that the superpower that is the Roman Empire was overthrown because some warrior was unhappy with him and his mercenaries treatment. If Rome had just raised minimum wage a couple points, and hadn’t cut life insurance and dental benefits for mercenaries, maybe Rome would still exist. In reality, I imagine the Western Roman Empire was fairly fragile at this point, and this was simply the tipping point.

Chapter 2: A new king

So Odoacer has secured himself as King of Italy and for a brief moment, all was right in the world for him, and for the sole emperor of the Roman Empire, Zeno. However, the power was starting to get to Odoacers head, and he started acting more independant from the Empire, and was even staging some attacks against the East, which was not tolerable for Zeno.

Before we carry on that story, there is a new character to introduce named Theodoric. Theodoric was the leader of the Ostrogoths, which is one of two main groups of Gothic people (the other being the Visigoths). The Goths were a Germanic people who originated in southern Scandinavia. While they were Germanic, they had some cultural differences from other Germanic tribes, and considered themselves distinct. So despite the fact that Odoacer and Theodoric were both of Germanic descent, they wouldn’t necessarily play nice at parties.

The Goths were a nuisance to the Roman Empire to put it lightly. They had significant military prowess, and were rich in number. They also established themselves in strategic locations around the Byzantine empire (the name of the Eastern Roman Empire that emerged after the West fell) which made it easy to constantly attack them. Furthermore, the Goths had formed a number of alliances, such as with the Huns, which helped strengthen them. The Byzantines however, were plagued by internal conflicts and disputes which weakened them.

Zeno was stuck in a difficult position then, as he was dealing with conflict from the Goths, and he had a separate issue with Odoacer becoming increasingly belligerent. In a shrewd political move, Zeno decided to pit Theodoric against Odoacer to simultaneously deal with both problems.

So Zeno struck a deal with Theodoric, offering him titles like magister militum (top level military commander) and encouraging him to attack Odoacer and take over the kingdom of Italy. From Theodoric’s perspective, he was presented with the opportunity for further military glory and, if he won the battle, the opportunity for more land for his people. An enticing offer.

In 488AD, Theodoric attacked Odoacer and invaded Italy. The war seemed to be leaning in Theodorics favour, but after some setbacks, a truce arose between the two leaders, and they were considering ways to divide and rule Italy together.

One night, during a banquet celebrating the blossoming unity between Odoacer and Theodoric, Theodorics men had the sudden, and I’m sure unprompted, idea to ambush and assassinate Odoacer. What a stroke of luck for Theodoric, as he no longer had to share Italy with anyone else.

This story had me reflecting for a while. A highly powerful, and at one time unified civilization like the Roman Empire is torn and ripped to shreds by people like Zeno who are hungry for power, and tried to consolidate his rule as sole emperor of Rome. Zeno’s desire for power caused problems though, as he seemed to forget that other people like Odoacer might also be hungry for power, influence, and glory. So now he has to deal with Odoacer by allowing the pesky Otsrogoths to take over what was once a significant part of his Roman Empire (Italy). Which it seems to me has left him in a worse situation than when he started. He is the sole emperor sure, but the kingdom is half the size.

The patterns I see from these stories, and from reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is that the insatiable desire for power, tends to send people to their ruin rather quickly. Of course, a lot of damage can be done during even a few short years, but there is at least a shelf life. Take Hitler for example. Hitler was enormously arrogant to start, believing and writing in Mein Kampf that he was a “world-historical hereditary bearer of genius”. But as his megalomania grew, he began to make terrible decisions and would not waver since he believed himself to be infallible. He had hundreds of thousands of enemy troops pinned at Dunkirk, but chose not to send his troops to attack, which allowed them to evacuate over several days via military ships and even civilian fishing vessels. He ordered his armies not to retreat in the bleak winter fighting in Russia, despite how ill equipped they were against the winter prepared Russian troops and despite the pleading of his generals who were on the ground witnessing their destruction. This cost the German armies huge losses, and was a major turning point in the war.

Chapter 3: The end of the Ostrogoths

Theodoric ruled Italy for 33 years, from 493, to 526 AD. He acted as viceroy to the Eastern Roman Empire, and during his rule, ushered in stability and prosperity to the region. Theodoric died around the age of 70, in 526 AD, and was succeeded by his young grandson named Athalaric. While Theodoric was ruling Italy, emperor Zeno died in a rather unfavourable manner. According to historians, Zeno was accidentally buried alive after becoming sick. To make matters worse, his wife apparently heard his cries from within his sarcophagus, but refused to let him out.

Theodorics grandson was too young to rule, so his mother Amalasuntha acted as regent. Amalasuntha had a very pro-Byzantine leaning. She also desired to have Athalaric educated in a Roman style, which was heavily opposed by the Ostrogoth nobility. There were attempts against her life, and she had three nobles put to death on suspicion of being part of a plot to kill her.

Athalaric was what you might call a trust fund baby. He wasted his life on excessive drinking and other indulgences and died at the age of eighteen from a combination of over-drinking, and diabetes.

After Athalaric’s death in AD 534, Amalasuntha shared the throne with her cousin Theodahad, with the hope of giving him the title of King, but retaining actual power for herself. However, Theodahad was under severe pressure by people who did not like Amalasuntha, so he exiled her to an island where she was strangled in her bath tub by some relatives of the nobles that she had put to death. What goes around comes around I guess.

These events added quite a bit of instability to the Ostrogoths, and the new Byzantine emperor who replaced Zeno named Justinian I, saw an opportunity to reclaim Italy. In 535 AD, Justinian launched a military campaign to overthrow the Ostrogothic kingdom. This kicked off a long and destructive conflict known as the Gothic wars which occurred between 535-554 AD. During the years of 535-540, the Byzantines captured Sicily, Naples, and Rome. By 540, they had captured the Ostrogothic capital of Italy, called Ravenna, and it seemed like the war would soon be over in the Byzantines favour.

However, the Ostrogoths had a new King named Totila who effectively rallied the armies, and the Ostrogoths were able to reclaim much of Italy. But, the Byzantines ultimately gained back momentum, won a decisive battle in 552 AD, and by 554, had reclaimed Italy once and for all. The end state for the Byzantines is what is called a pyrrhic victory, meaning the nearly 20 year war was so devastating for them that it is equivalent to a defeat. Italy was severely impacted and depopulated as well. After the loss of the Gothic wars, the Ostrogoths ceased to exist as a distinct political entity and there no clear traces of a continuing archaeological culture or ethnic identity after the 6th century. The Ostrogoths melted back into the Italian population they had previously ruled over.

End of part 1.