Welcome to the Middle Ages. If you are coming to these lectures having just finished my lectures on Rome, there will be some minor overlap here. If you have not listened to my lectures on Rome, I recommend listening to the last few so that you can begin these lectures with a running start.

In the coming lectures, we will be looking at Europe’s transition from the fifth to the fifteenth century. This lecture begins by looking at the so-called “barbarian” kingdoms after the deposition of Romulus Augustulus, the last Roman Emperor in the West formally recognized as Roman Emperor by the Roman state. This will lay the groundwork necessary for understanding the next lecture in which we explore the early sixth century invasions of western Europe by the Eastern Roman Emperor, Justinian.