Chapter Outline

I. The Making of the Western Kingdoms, ca. 376 -- 750 [IMG: The Mediterranean World on Eve of Germanic Invasions]

II. The Decline of the Western Empire

1. Decline [TXT: Ammianus Marcellinus (c.330-395 CE): History, XIV.16: The Luxury of the Rich in Rome, c. 400]
1. Political Reasons
2. Military Reasons [TXT: Ammianus Marcellinus (330-395 CE): The Battle of Adrianople, 378 CE]
3. Social Economic Reasons [TXT: Salvian: The Burden of Taxation]

III. The Barbarians and the Western Empire

1. Barbarian Customs and Institutions [TXT: Tacitus: Germania]
1. Daily Life [TXT: Sidonius Apollinaris: "Country House Life in Gaul" and "A Visigothic King"]
2. Law [TXT: Law of the Salian Franks]
3. War bands

2. Migration and Settlement
1. Movements [TXT: Priscus: On the Palace of Attila the Hun, 448 CE]
2. Sack of Rome [TXT: Procopius of Caesarea (c.500-after 562 CE): Alaric's Sack of Rome, 410 CE] [TXT: Text: Pope Leo I and Attila: Two Accounts, 452 CE]

3. Theodoric [TXT: Jordanes: Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths][TXT: Theodoric (r.493-526 CE): Selected Letters]
4. Clovis [TXT: The Conversion of Clovis: Two Accounts, 496 CE][IMG: Baptism of Clovis]