The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000

Summary

The Inheritance of Rome is Chris Wickham's history of Europe and the Mediterranean from the last century of the western Roman empire to the year 1000. First published in 2009 in Britain and the United States (the American edition carried the subtitle Illuminating the Dark Ages, 400–1000), it runs to about 650 pages and is written for general readers by one of the leading specialists in the period. The book is in copyright, so the library holds no text; this entry describes it and offers a study guide. Wickham opens by arguing that early medieval Europe has repeatedly been misread. Some historians have searched it for the origins of modern nations such as France or Spain; others have told it as a story of failure, a long dark age between the fall of Rome and a later recovery. He sets both readings aside and insists that each period must be understood on its own terms, without hindsight. His recurring themes are the accumulation of wealth, how political power was organized into institutions, and the public culture through which rulers and elites sought legitimacy. The book has four parts. The first, on the Roman empire and its breakup from 400 to 550, describes the weight of the late Roman state, its taxation and its army, and the culture and belief of the Christian Roman world, then follows the crisis of the fifth century in the West, in which new Germanic kingdoms took over Roman provinces while preserving much of Roman society. The second part, on the post-Roman West from 550 to 750, treats Merovingian Gaul and Germany, the kingdoms of Visigothic Spain and Lombard Italy, and Britain and Ireland, showing how rulers without a Roman tax system came to rely on land and personal loyalty. The third part turns east to the empires that held on or rose between 550 and 1000: Byzantium, which survived the loss of much of its territory, and the Arab caliphate, whose wealth and cities surpassed anything in the Latin West, together with its successor states, including Muslim Spain. The fourth part follows the Carolingian and post-Carolingian West from 750 to 1000: the empire of Charlemagne and his heirs, with its ambitious program of moral and religious reform; the kingdoms that succeeded it; the formation of new Christian polities in Scandinavia and central and eastern Europe; England; and what Wickham calls the caging of the peasantry, as lords in many regions tightened their control over rural communities. A conclusion draws out the long-term trends in European history across these six centuries. Reviewers praised the book's range, from Ireland to Baghdad, and its use of archaeology alongside written sources; some noted that it demands concentration from readers new to the period.

Plot or Argument

• Introduction: a misunderstood age

  Wickham criticizes histories that read the period backward from modern nations or treat it as a failure between Rome and the Renaissance, and calls for understanding each society on its own terms.

• Part I: The Roman Empire and its break-up, 400–550

  The late Roman state's taxation, army and administration; the culture and Christian belief of the Roman world; and the fifth-century crisis in the West, in which Germanic kings inherited Roman provinces and much of their social order.

• Part II: The post-Roman West, 550–750

  Merovingian Gaul and Germany, Visigothic Spain and Lombard Italy, and Britain and Ireland. Without the old tax system, kings increasingly rewarded followers with land, and political communities grew smaller and more local.

• Part III: The empires of the East, 550–1000

  Byzantium survives the Persian and Arab wars and reorganizes; the Arab conquests create a caliphate whose cities, trade and learning far outstrip the West; and successor states, including al-Andalus, emerge in the tenth century.

• Part IV: The Carolingian and post-Carolingian West, 750–1000

  Charlemagne's empire and its program of religious and moral reform; the kingdoms that followed it; new Christian polities in the north and east; England; and the growth of local lordship over the peasantry.

• Conclusion: trends in European history, 400–1000

  Wickham draws together the long-term changes in wealth, political institutions and public culture across the six centuries.

Characters

• Chris Wickham, author

  Historian who surveys six centuries of Europe and the Mediterranean through comparative social and political history.

• Germanic kings of the West, collective

  Rulers of the Franks, Visigoths, Lombards and others who took over Roman provinces and much of Roman administration.

• Byzantine emperors, collective

  Rulers of the eastern Roman empire, whose survival under great pressure forms a major thread of Part III.

• The caliphs, collective

  Umayyad and Abbasid rulers of an empire whose wealth and cities set a standard for the period.

• Charlemagne, Frankish king and emperor

  Ruler of the largest western polity since Rome and sponsor of a far-reaching program of reform.

• Peasants, collective

  The great majority of the population, whose changing relation to lords and states Wickham treats as central.

Lessons

• Every age on its own terms

  Wickham argues that reading the early Middle Ages only as the origin of later nations, or only as a decline from Rome, distorts it. Students learn to ask what people at the time were trying to do rather than what they 'led to'.

  • What two common misreadings of the period does Wickham reject?
  • Why is it tempting to read history backward from the present?
  • Choose another period you have studied. How might it look different if seen without hindsight?

• Taxes, land and loyalty

  A central thread is the shift in the West from a Roman state funded by taxation to kingdoms that rewarded followers with land. This change altered the scale of politics and the relation between rulers, aristocrats and peasants.

  • How did the late Roman state pay for its army?
  • What changed when kings gave land rather than salaries to their followers?
  • How does the way a government is funded shape the kind of government it becomes?

• A wider Europe

  By giving full attention to Byzantium and the caliphate, Wickham shows that the Latin West was one region among several heirs of Rome, and not the richest. This comparison helps students see Christendom's history in its real setting.

  • Why does Wickham treat Byzantium and the caliphate in the same book as Francia and England?
  • In what ways did the eastern empires remain more like Rome than the western kingdoms did?
  • What do we gain by seeing the western Middle Ages beside its neighbors?

Context

Since the mid-twentieth century, historians and archaeologists have revised the old picture of a 'Dark Ages' after Rome. Scholars of late antiquity emphasized continuity and transformation, while archaeologists documented both economic contraction in the West and the vitality of the eastern Mediterranean and the Islamic world. Wickham's own Framing the Early Middle Ages (2005) compared regional economies and societies across the Mediterranean in great detail; The Inheritance of Rome brings that comparative approach to a general narrative.

Composition

The book was published in 2009 in London and in New York, where its subtitle was Illuminating the Dark Ages, 400–1000. It is organized in four chronological and regional parts with an introduction and conclusion. It is in copyright, so the library stores no text.

Reception

Reviews praised its breadth, its rejection of nationalist and declinist narratives, and its combination of archaeological and documentary evidence; Publishers Weekly said it 'contributes richly to our picture of this often narrowly understood period.' Some reviewers noted that its density makes it demanding for beginners. Historians continue to debate how sharp the break in the West was: Wickham stresses both real economic simplification and the continuity of Roman structures, a position between scholars who emphasize transformation and those, like Bryan Ward-Perkins and Peter Heather, who emphasize collapse.

Comparisons

• woolf-rome-an-empires-story

  Greg Woolf's survey ends with the long decline of Roman power; Wickham picks up the story in 400 and asks what the successor societies made of the Roman legacy.

• gibbon-decline-and-fall-selections

  Gibbon told the same centuries as decline and fall; Wickham explicitly rejects a 'story of failure' and treats the period as legitimate in its own right.

• bede-ecclesiastical-history

  Bede's history of the English church, finished in 731, is a primary witness to the British and Irish world that Wickham's Part II describes.

• heather-the-fall-of-the-roman-empire

  Peter Heather emphasizes the violent end of the western empire under outside pressure; Wickham gives more weight to the continuity of Roman structures within the new kingdoms.

• herrin-byzantium

  Judith Herrin's portrait of Byzantine civilization fills out the eastern empire that Wickham treats as a principal heir of Rome.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The introduction's critique of nationalist and 'failure' readings of the period.
• How each part describes the sources of rulers' wealth: taxes, land, trade.
• The full chapters on Byzantium and the caliphate, and how they compare with the West.
• The Carolingian reform program and its religious aims.
• The idea of the 'caging of the peasantry' near the end.

Key terms and names

Teleology

Explaining past events by the outcomes they supposedly led to; Wickham argues against it.

Fiscal state

A government funded by regular taxation, as the late Roman empire was, in contrast to rule based on land and personal loyalty.

Merovingians

The Frankish royal dynasty in Gaul from the late fifth century to 751.

Carolingians

The Frankish dynasty of Pippin and Charlemagne, which ruled much of western Europe from 751.

Caliphate

The Islamic empire ruled by the successors of Muhammad, under the Umayyad and then the Abbasid dynasties.

Caging of the peasantry

Wickham's phrase for the tightening of lords' control over rural communities between 800 and 1000.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What are the four parts of the book, and what regions and dates does each cover?
2. Comprehension Why does Wickham include Byzantium and the caliphate in a history of Europe?
3. Interpretation What does Wickham gain, and what might he lose, by refusing to read the period as the origin of later nations?
4. Interpretation Why might the end of Roman taxation in the West have changed the scale of politics?
5. Big Question Is the phrase 'Dark Ages' a fair description of any period of history?
6. Big Question What does a civilization truly inherit from the one before it?

Faith Connections

• Augustine, City of God XIX.17 (Church Fathers)

  Augustine taught that the heavenly city uses the peace of the earthly city while on pilgrimage, a way of thinking about Rome's fall that shaped the Christian kingdoms Wickham describes.

• Gregory the Great, Pastoral Care (Great Conversation)

  Gregory's handbook for bishops, written in the 590s amid the wars of Lombard Italy, was read across the post-Roman West and shows the church supplying leadership where the state had receded.

• Matthew 28:19–20 (Scripture)

  The command to teach all nations underlies the missions to England, Germany, Scandinavia and the Slavs that brought new peoples into Christendom in these centuries.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Early medieval Europe has often been read backward from later nations or as a decline from Rome. Both readings impose hindsight. If each society is studied on its own terms, attending to wealth, institutions and public culture, the period appears varied and creative. Therefore the centuries from 400 to 1000 should be understood as legitimate in their own right, not merely as a prelude or an interruption.

Rhetorical device: refutation of prevailing views. The book opens by naming common misunderstandings of the period (quote 1) and sets out to correct them before beginning the narrative.

Debate: Resolved: That the term 'Dark Ages' should be abandoned.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Explain Wickham's objections to nationalist and 'failure' readings of the early Middle Ages, and evaluate whether his alternative approach is persuasive, using one region from the book as evidence.

Comparison with The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Selections): Gibbon saw these centuries as the triumph of decline; Wickham sees them as an age with its own legitimacy. Compare their approaches and explain what each sees that the other misses.

Medical Lens

A political, social and economic history; it is not a source for medicine or psychiatry.

Creative Prompts

• Essay

  Wickham warns against reading the early Middle Ages as the origin of modern nations. Choose one kingdom from the book and describe it as its people might have seen it, without reference to what came later.

• Classroom

  Divide the class into four groups representing Francia, Byzantium, the caliphate and England around the year 800. Each group reports on its ruler, its sources of wealth and its religion, then the class compares.

• Dialogue

  Write a conversation between a Frankish envoy and an official at the caliph's court in Baghdad, each describing his ruler's realm.

Further Reading

• Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400–800, Chris Wickham

  Wickham's detailed comparative study on which this book builds.

• The Rise of Western Christendom, Peter Brown

  A history of Christianity's spread and transformation from 200 to 1000.

• The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Bede

  A primary source for early medieval Britain.

• Two Lives of Charlemagne, Einhard and Notker the Stammerer

  Contemporary and near-contemporary portraits of Charlemagne.