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Juvenal
- i. Best poet of the silver age of Latin Literature.
- ii. Wrote five books of satires in which he ridiculed the manners and vices of his generation
- 1. Affectations of Roman women, abuse of slaves, excesses of emperors, immigrants, his own poverty, and the inequities of Roman society
- iii. Not a reformer
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1. Gregory I
- i. Known as Gregory the Great
- ii. Set the papacy and the Roman Catholic Church on a path enabling the church in the 7th and 8th centuries to play a role in civilizing the Germans
- 1. Assumed direction of Rome and its surrounding territories, making Rome and its surroundings into an administrative unit called the Papal States, where he provided food, government, and protection against Lombards
- iii. Pursued policy of extending papal authority over western Christian Church
- 1. Intervened in ecclesiastical conflicts throughout Italy and corresponded with Frankish rulers, urging them to reform the church in Gaul
- 2. Initiated the efforts of missionaries to convert England to Christianity and was active in converting the pagans of Germanic Europe through the monastic movement and St. Augustine.
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Charles Martel
- i. Served as mayor of the palace of Austrasia beginning in 714
- ii. Led troops that defeated the Muslims near Poitiers in 732
- iii. By the time of his death in 741, he had become virtual ruler of the three Merovingian kingdoms
- iv. His efforts put his family on the verge of creating the Carolingian dynasty
- v. His son was Pepin; his grandson was Charlemagne
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Boethius
- i. Christian from a patrician family who served as consul in 510.
- ii. When Theodoric tried to bring people up to the level of Roman civilization, he employed Boethius to teach, but it failed
- 1. Imprisoned by Theodoric for treason and executed
- iii. Worked on translating and interpreting the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle
- iv. Influenced by Greek Neoplatonism
- v. Wrote On the Consolation of Philosophy: a treatiste on fortune, death, etc.
- vi. He is the source for the curriculum known as the quadrivium, a combination of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music
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Res Gestae
- i. Summarizes the accomplishments of Augustus in three major areas: his offices, his private expenditures on behalf of the state, and his exploits in war and peace
- ii. Though factual in approach, it is a highly subjective account
- iii. Written by Augustus and inscribed on a bronze tablet at Rome
- iv. Called “the most famous ancient inscription”
- v. Examples of topics:
- 1. Raised an army at 19 and liberated the republic
- 2. Drove his dads assassins into exile and conquered them twice
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Alcuin
- i. Called by Einhard, “the greatest scholar of that day”
- ii. Man of letters who was from the famous school at York that was a product of the great revival of learning in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria
- iii. Provided leadership for the palace school while serving at Charlemagne’s court as an adviser on ecclesiastical affairs from 782-796
- iv. Concentrated on teaching Classical Latin and adopted Cassiodorus’ sevenfold division of knowledge known as the liberal arts
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1. Al-Khwarizmi
- i. A ninth-century Persian mathematician who created the discipline of algebra
- 1. Coined the term ‘algebra’
- 2. He and his colleagues were scholars at the House of Wisdom in Baghdad
- ii. Made contributions in geography, astronomy, arithmetic, and algebra
- 1. Created map of known world
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Leo III
- 750-816 i. In 799, a rebellion against him caused him to flee to safety at Charlemagne’s court; he was barely clinging to power in the face of rebellious Romans
- ii. After Charlemagne journeyed to Rome to settle affairs in Novemeber 800, afterwards, on Christmas Day in 800, Pope Leo III placed a crown on Charlemagne’s head
- 1. He crowned him emperor of the Romans
- a. Signified the Pope’s ability to make an emperor and depose an emperor
- i. Also a blending of three cultures: A Germanic King was crowned emperor of the Romans by the Pope
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Battle of the Milvian Bridge
- i. This battle was the turning point in Constantine’s life that caused him to begin supporting Christianity
- 1. It was also fought because Constantine was on the quest to be a sole ruler
- ii. This battle was against the forces of Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge, which crossed the Tiber River just north of the city of Rome
- 1. Before the battle, he saw the words, “In this sign, you will conquer.”
- a. He ought the battle in the name of the Christian God
- b. He won the battle and was convinced of the power of the Christian God
- iii. After this battle, he emerges as sole ruler of the West
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Treaty of Verdun
- i. This treaty was signed by three of the four sons of Louis the Pious, Charlemagne’s son and successor.
- 1. It divided the Carolingian Empire among the three of the sons into three major sections
- a. Charles the Bald: western Frankish lands, which became France
- b. Louis the German: eastern lands, which became Germany
- c. Lothar received the title of emperor and a “Middle Kingdom” extending from the North Sea to the Mediterranean, including the Netherlands, the Rhineland, and northern Italy
- i. This territory became a source of incessant struggle between the other two Frankish rulers and their heirs
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