Christianity was almost completely triumphant in the Near East although much dissension regarding creed remained. From this period on this religion became the dominant political and sociological factor in the progress of western civilization. The following quotation from Durant^[114] states the situation at this time very eloquently.

"To understand the Middle Ages we must forget our modern rationalism, our proud confidence in reason and science, our restless search after wealth and power and an earthly paradise; we must enter sympathetically into the mood of men disillusioned of those pursuits, standing at the end of a thousand years of rationalism, finding all dreams of utopia shattered by war and poverty and barbarism, seeking consolation in the hope of happiness beyond the grave, inspired and comforted by the story and figure of Christ, throwing themselves upon the mercy and goodness of God, and living in the thought of His eternal presence, His inescapable judgment, and the atoning death of His Son."

Some of the aspects of paganism survived in the form of ancient rites and customs transformed into Christian ceremonies and some of the pagan gods were replaced by saints. Statues of Isis and Horus were renamed Mary and Jesus; the Roman Lupercalia and the feast of the purification of Isis became the Feast of the Nativity while the Saturnalia were replaced by Christmas celebrations. The Floralia was replaced by Pentecost, the festival of the dead by All Soul's Day and the resurrection of Attis by the resurrection of Christ. The harsh slaughter of a living victim was sublimated in the spiritual sacrifice of the Mass.

Magic, astrology and divination were denounced by the church but medieval literature was still full of them and soon people and even priests would use the sign of the cross -as a magic incantation to expel demons. The church creed became very dogmatic and any doubt was a sin, so that there developed an unending conflict with fluent intellect and changeable ideas among men.

The decay of the West and the resulting growth of poverty and violence gave cause for men to seek consolation in their suffering with the result that the age of power gave way to an age of faith. Thus in these early Christian centuries men turned from science, knowledge, power and pride and took refuge for a thousand years in humble faith, hope and charity. (Ref. 49) See also additional material under AFRICA and TURKEY, in the paragraphs to follow.

After the death of Julian in the last century the fate of the Jews in the Byzantine lands took a turn for the worse. The old restrictive laws were re-enacted and made more severe. The Jews, excluded from Palestine, returned to the villages and there remained only 10% of the former Jewish population in Palestine. In 425 Theodosius II abolished the Palestinian patriarchate and Greek Christian churches replaced the synagogues and schools. Some Jews moved east into Mesopotamia where they became prosperous farmers, brewers and traders and some went to Persia where the exilarch, or head of the Jewish community, was recognized by the Persian kings. Others went to North Africa, Italy, Sicily, Sardinia and Spain, where they prospered under the Visigoths. Always they kept their religion and studied the Talmud. While the language of worship was Hebrew, they used Aramaic for daily speech in the East, Greek in Egypt and Eastern Europe, but elsewhere they adopted the language of their host population. Like most Mediterranean people the Jews slipped back into various medical superstitions which found their way into the Talmud. (Ref. 49)

Forward to A.D. 501 to 600

Ethiopia continued to be a Christian area in communication with southern Arabia and Egypt. Axum expansion in the first half of the century was followed by a period of stagnation in the last half although Byzantine missionaries and traders continued to visit the region. Nominally under Axumite control, Nubia apparently was not really Christianized in this century. The religious and political confusion of this period is apparent in four papyri recently discovered at Qasr Ibrim. Three were written in Sahidic Coptic and the fourth in provincial Greek. The Coptic ones were all addressed to Tantani, Governor of Nubia and apparently Christian. The Greek document is from a pagan king of the Blemmyes to the king of Noubades and refers to a former supreme king of Nubia, called Silco. (Ref. 270, 271)

Nominally still under control of Rome, Egyptic Society, according to Toynbee (Ref. 220), became extinct in this century leaving no "off-spring" in any subsequent society, to date. The little intellectual activity that remained in the remnants of the Roman Empire was now centered in Byzantium, but considerable religious maneuvering continued in Alexandria. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, and later one of the two or three St. Cyrils, led a great struggle against Nestorianism which finally culminated in the Council of Ephesus in 431. Cyril presided and had the support of Pope Celestine 1. His doctrines, although considered orthodox at the time, were actually in part those of Monophysitism and after him this became the national faith of Egypt - eventually the Coptic Church. (Ref. 220, 48)

In contrast to Egypt this part of Africa was a very busy place. In the far west Morocco was invaded and conquered by Berbers coming from the southwest, and then they even attacked the Roman holdings, using newly domesticated camels. In 427 Bonifatius, Roman military commander in north Africa, was about to be cut out of command by enemies in the emperor's court in Ravenna, so he rebelled and called upon the Vandals of Spain to come to his aid. In the following year, Asding Vandals from Spain did go to north Africa, sailing with a large fleet under King Gaiseric who proceeded to conquer most of north Africa, eventually even Carthage (A.D. 455) and then Sardinia, Corsica and the western part of Sicily. The total number of Vandals leaving Spain was probably not over 80,000 but they had the advantage of local social unrest and the cooperation of Bonifatius and thus met little local resistance. Many Berbers and the Donatist heretic group of Christians with about one-half of their bishops also helped the invaders against the Romans. The Donatists were the followers of the once Bishop of Carthage, Donatus, who denied the efficacy of sacraments administered by priests who were themselves in a state of sin, and the Church, willing to risk so much on the virtues of the clergy, repudiated the idea.

As a result of their persecution the Donatists became bands of revolutionists, at once both Christian and communist, condemning poverty and slavery and ending in fanaticism, happy to help the Vandals, who were Arian Christians. Once Gaiseric had obtained Carthage he used the facilities there to greatly augment his navy and subsequently was able to actually sack Rome, itself. Barry Fell (Ref. 66) believes that some orthodox Christians actually sailed to North America at this time to escape the Vandals. According to Herodotus, the Garamantes of Fezzan in the desert had horse-drawn chariots, probably obtained from Egypt. (Ref. 206, 8, 127, 137, 83)

Among the more orthodox Christians of North Africa was St. Augustine, who had become converted from paganism and sin as a youth and who later wrote extensive theological dissertations rationalizing the religion and establishing many Catholic doctrines, as he introduced some element of Greek philosophy into Christianity. It was mentioned in the last chapter that Thomas (Ref. 213) considers him one of the four great "fathers" of the Catholic church. He was killed during one of the Vandals' sieges.

In the Sudan, the roots of the great African Kingdom of Ghana may date back to A.D. 400. Certainly the town of Jenne-Jeno was prospering at the inland delta of the Niger. The eroded foundation of a house has been excavated along with pottery and urns for burial and remains of a wall about three meters wide and four or more meters high that girded the city. All of these things have been dated to this or the next century or two. In central Africa there was continued proliferation of the black people, particularly the Bantu-speakers. (Ref. 268, 154)

Arabia was primarily a Bedouin land, with social organization pivoting around the tribe. Both Byzantine and Persia tried to protect themselves by supporting new buffer Arab border states and through these buffer zones, foreign customs and ideas filtered into the world of the nomads. Far south Arabia remained a civilized, Christian community with close ties to Ethiopia. In North Yemen repairs were attempted on an old earthen dam stretching some two thousand feet across the Wadi Dhana, using 20,000 men, 14,600 camels and 12,000 donkey teams. The dam diverted flood waters to irrigate about 4,000 acres of land but it lasted for only about a century. (Ref. 82)

This region continued as part of the Byzantine Empire. Monophysitism dominated in western Syria while Nestorians were prominent in the east until expelled in the later part of this century.

The Sassanid Empire continued to flourish and after a treaty with Byzantium there was relative peace and tolerance of Christians. The Nestorians were particularly prevalent in Iran in the latter part of the century after they had been run out of the Byzantine area, proper, and later out of Syria. The city of Bandor Shahpur on the Persian Gulf was the site of a great hospital and translation center of Greek texts to Arabic. The Nestorians were active in these translations and in founding the hospital. Particularly famous was Jurgis Bukht-Yishu, first of six generations of translators.

The century began with Zorastrianism continuing as the major religion with taints of Hellenism still remaining, but now appeared Mazdak, a new preacher, reviving a kind of Manichean doctrine, which was translated into a kind of communism. It caused much political trouble for Kavadh I, who originally had supported the doctrine. This king married a Hepthalite (also spelled Ephthalite and sometimes called "White Hun", probably erroneously ^[115]princess of the tribe that had taken over the old Kushan territory and who were beginning to absorb much land from Persia. These people, as well as Chionite nomads were threatening from the north most of this century. One of the most famous of the Sassanian kings was Vahram V (also Varahran), surnamed Gor, great hunter, poet and musician, who left the administration of the country to his chief magus, Mihr Shapur (A.D. 420-440).

In A.D. 484 the Persian army was finally annihilated and their king killed by the Hepthalites. During their period of control of Persia in the remainder of the century an exiled Persian, Kobad, who had been living among the invaders, took the throne, only to be driven off again by his own nobles in 489, perhaps because he supported the priest Mazdak's theories. (Ref. 137, 8, 38, 119)

As in the previous chapter, the reader is advised to study the sections on THE BALKANS, CENTRAL EUROPE and ITALY along with this section. For the two centuries just preceding, the Byzantine monarchy had kept up Roman institutions and had continued to use Latin in its courts, but in this century the central administration stopped the use of Latin in favor of Greek. Little was accomplished from the political and social standpoint during the entire century. For the sake of completeness only, the rulers of Byzantium are listed as follows:

As this century began Goths, under a former Roman army general, Gainas, occupied Constantinople. They were soon eliminated, however, by mobs and the imperial army and thereafter Goths were not allowed to serve in the imperial forces as units, but only as individuals. When Theodosius II began to rule he was young and weak and the empire was actually controlled by his Empress Eudoxia. The reign was a tranquil period, however, and even the wars with Persia ceased. An official collection of imperial legislation was published as the Codes Theodosianus. The great issue of the administration was Nestorianism versus Monophysitism. In 428 Theodosius made Nestorius the patriarch of Constantinople and the latter then startled the Christian world by preaching that Mary was not to be considered the Mother of God, but only Mary, mother of the human Christ, and thus another heresy was started. At the third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus of 431 Monophysitism triumphed and Nestorius was excommunicated and banished to the Libyan desert where he subsequently died. His followers established the Nestorian Church and fled to eastern Syria and later to Persia, eventually founding communities in Balkh and Samarkand, in India and even China. Scattered through Asia a few survive to this day, still denouncing Mariolatry. (Ref. 127, 8, 49)

The one thorn of Theodosius' otherwise peaceful reign was the invasion of the Balkans by Asiatic Huns which had begun in the winter of A.D. 404-405 under the leadership of Uldin. By 408 they were terrifying the Balkan population. When many of the Huns defected to the Byzantine troops in the area, however, Uldin retreated for the moment. Periodic invasions of Thrace recurred, however, through the fourth decade of this century, requiring large tribute payments from the Byzantine government. There were still more an attack in 441 and 442 and the eastern Roman army, under a Goth General Aspar, was beaten time and again. The Huns broke off the engagement only after arrangements for large tribute payments by Theodosius. After the Huns retreat Theodosius stopped the agreed upon payments, probably not because of a lack of funds. It has been estimated that the average yearly revenue of the Eastern Empire at that time was about 170,000 pounds of gold, with only 45,000 pounds of this spent on the army. At any rate, because of the lack of payment the greatest Hun invasion of all in Thrace was launched in 447 with Attila at its head. Theodosius begged for terms and Attila got 6,000 pounds of gold due as back payment as well as a promise of 2,100 pounds annually in the future. At today's value, this would be in the neighborhood of $29,000,000 and over $10,000,000 respectively. In addition, there was to be a "demilitarized zone" from Pannonia to Sistova (north Bulgaria). (Ref. 127)

The fourth Ecumenical Council met at Chalcedon in 451 under Theodosius' successor, Marcian, and this time Monophysitism was condemned as well as Nestorianism, setting the stage for continued religious controversy for another two centuries. On Marcian's death, the barbarian General Aspar was influential in getting a military tribune, Leo I, as emperor. He, too, had Hun trouble as Attila's son, Dengizic, led an invasion into Thrace again. This time, however, many of the Huns did not join him and in 469 the eastern army defeated him, killed him and took his head to Constantinople. This was the last organized Hun expedition but many of those men subsequently joined the eastern army forces where they became known as "Massagetae". (Ref. 127)

When Zeno became emperor in 474 he followed policies which increased the schism between the eastern and western domains of the old Roman Empire and the western position completely collapsed in 476.

The Monophysite Christians of Armenia now formed their own church, independent of Constantinople, and called it simply the Armenian Church. Whereas they had formerly used the Greek language, they now got a national alphabet and had the Bible translated into Armenian. This country had a fully developed feudal system from royal families down to peasants, but at this time the nation was nominally subservient to Persia. The people revolted against Persia when heavy taxes were levied and there were some religious persecutions, but the revolt was not successful. In 455 and 456 the Persians forcibly converted Armenia to Zorasterism but near the end of the century the Armenian leader, Vahan, helped the Persian King Volagases in a civil war and in an Edict of Toleration, the Christians were again granted freedom.