Fall of the Western Roman EmpireLoss of political control in antiquityMap of Roman territory Republic Principate/Dominate Eastern/Byzantine Empire Western EmpireThe fall of the Western Roman Empire, also called the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Rome, was the loss of central political control in the Western Roman Empire, a process in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its vast territory was divided among several successor polities.
Barbarian kingdomsThe Post-Roman Kingdoms, historically referred to as the Barbarian Kingdoms, were states founded by various non-Roman, primarily Germanic, peoples in Western Europe and North Africa following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century CE. The barbarian kingdoms were the principal governments in Western Europe in the Early Middle Ages.
History of EuropeThe history of Europe can be traced back to the appearance of the first modern humans identified as ancestors of contemporary Europeans about 37,000 years ago during the Paleolithic. Early European Farmers migrating from Anatolia spread agriculture across the continent during the Neolithic (7000–2000 BC), a period that also included early metallurgy. Starting around 4000 BC, westward migrations of steppe pastoralists spread Indo-European languages.
Early SlavsThe early Slavs were Indo-European peoples and speakers of the Indo-European dialects who lived during the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages (approximately from the 5th to the 10th centuries AD) in Central, Eastern and Southeast Europe and established the foundations for the Slavicnations through the Slavic states of the Early and High Middle Ages.
GothsThe Goths were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe. They were first mentioned by Greco-Roman authors in the 3rd century AD, living north of the Lower Danube in what is now Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania. From here, they conducted raids into Roman territory, and large numbers of them joined the Roman military.
AlansThe Alans (Latin: Alani) were an ancient and medieval Iranicnomadic pastoral people who migrated to what is today the North Caucasus; some continued on to Europe and later North Africa. They are generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern historians have connected the Alans with the Central AsianYancai of Chinese sources and with the Aorsi of Roman sources.
VandalsThe Vandals were a group of Germanic peoples who were first mentioned in passing by a small number of Roman writers in the first and second centuries, but became more prominent starting in the late second century during the tumultuous Marcomannic Wars of the Romans against many of the Germanic peoples north of the Danube, when Hasdingi-led Vandals took the side of the Romans, in exchange for territory in or near Dacia.
Late antiquityThe Barberini ivory, a late Leonid/JustinianByzantineivory leaf from an imperial diptych, from an imperial workshop in Constantinople in the first half of the 6th century (Louvre)LocationKey eventsCrisis of the Third CenturyCivil Wars of the TetrarchyFall of the Western Roman EmpireVandalic WarGothic WarByzantine–Sasanian warsEarly Muslim conquestsByzantine–Lombard warsLate antiquity is a period of Eurasian, , and Near Eastern history conventionally placed between the third and seventh centuries CE.
BurgundiansThe Burgundians (Latin: Burgundiones or less commonly Burgundii) were a Germanic people of the Roman imperial era, who established the powerful Kingdom of the Burgundians within the Roman empire in what is now western Switzerland and south-eastern France.
HunsExtinct nomadic people in Eurasia (4th–6th centuries)The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th centuries CE. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part of Scythia at the time. By 370 CE, the Huns had arrived on the Volga, causing the westward movement of Goths and Alans.
AlemanniThe Alemanni or Alamanni were a confederation of Germanic peoples who first appeared in the region east of the Upper Rhine river during the third century AD, where they eventually took control of a large swathe of lands previously ruled by the Roman empire, within the province of Germania Superior.
Pannonian AvarsThe Pannonian Avars or Carpathian Avars ( AV-arz) were a confederation of Eurasian nomads. They were also known as the Obri (modern Russian: обры, Obry) in the chronicles of the Rus, the Abaroi or Varchonitai (Greek: Βαρχονῖται, romanized: Varchonitai), or Pseudo-Avars in Byzantine sources, and the Apar (Old Turkic: 𐰯𐰺) to the Göktürks. They established the Avar Khaganate, centred in the Carpathian Basin, from the late-6th to the early-9th centuries.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.