History Of European Integration In 2500 Years E-Book

Roberto Amati

• Herausgeber: Tektime
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

History Of European Integration In 2500 Years

Leseprobe

Roberto Amati

HISTORY OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION IN 2500 YEARS

The ancient origins renovated in the nowadays Aeternitas

Original Title: Storia dell’integrazione europea in 2500 anni

Translated by: Alessandra Cervetti

Book awards

Special Award “literature and geopolitics” from the Jury of 45th “PREMIO CASENTINO” 2020

3rd classified in General Nofiction selection at the III International Award “CASTROVILLARI CITTA’ CULTURA” 2020

THE HISTORY OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION OVER 2500 YEARSThe ancient origins renovated in the nowadays Aeternitas

Copyright © Roberto Amati 2019

The copyright on the De Agostini historical charts is for:© Libreria Geografica –Novara 2019

First edition: May 2019

English edition: January 2022

Translator: Alessandra Cervetti

Publisher: TEKTIME – www.traduzionelibri.it

https://storiadellintegrazioneeuropeain2500anni.eu

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, including by any mechanical or electronic system, without permission of the editor, except for brief passages taken for the purposes of review.

Preface

Research into the origins and 'evolutionary' history of Europe, conducted concisely through the political, military, religious and socio-economic events that have defined its profile over the last 2,500 years, has followed a path originating in the melting pot of ancient Eastern and Mediterranean civilisations, marked by the forging of the Christian Empire, and leading up to the present day. In this extended period, the European continent has experienced various events, as unique as they are complex, which have seen numerous personalities intervene directly and consistently during events, which together have profoundly shaped the shared history and culture of Europe, through processes that to most may appear random, without a common thread, and therefore difficult to understand to human reason. They probably do, however, carry with them some elements of continuity.

The history of Europe is often told as a pure chronology of events, with little connection between them, except within narrow margins of time and space: events that, at first glance, seem to depend more on contingent situations and protagonists than on anything else.

On the contrary, I believe that there are various, profound and essential elements of continuity in the historical processes that have 'made' Europe in the past centuries and that it is possible to clearly and rationally connect the classical-antique age with the 'middle' age and, again, these with the modern world in which we live. It is possible to outline an objectively definable historical, political, religious and cultural unity of what was and still is the evolutionary path of the 'old continent. Those Aeternitas around which the continent's structure has reigned for millennia are still alive and recognisable today and are virtually unchanged since ancient times.

Thanks to the principles developed by the philosophical and theological logic of the classical thinkers, the speculation of the Patristics and the analysis of modern philosophers, it is possible to narrate the course of European history and understand it as it evolves, slowly and inexorably, towards the final goal: the integration of the peoples and nations that make up Europe. Consider, for instance, the concept of 'organicism', or that of origin (or if you prefer, of 'root'), or the idea of continuum in history: these are just some of the constructs developed by European man that can be applied as a key to this study. Using the most ancient principles of human thought, the treatise then rereads the entire history of the continent by structuring it around three intertwined topics that narrate the ultra-millennial history of Europe as a long, continuous and evolutionary typical journey of its people: an unstoppable transformation that took place around the founding/constitutive elements (Empire, Christianity, Traditional Culture) that condense the very essence of Europe.

The book is conceived with a plural thematic structure reflecting the various European souls:

Introduction:

principles, concepts, questions exposed with a discourse of oriental and classical philosophy;

Historiography

(Part I): facts, characters, evolutionary lines of European history, told with a Greek stereological approach and according to the author's interpretation justifying his thesis;

Function of Auctoritas

(Part II): evolution of juridical and political thought, following a Roman jurist form of a treatise, for reasons you will discover while reading this part.;

History of Christianity

(Part III): exposes the long process of Christianisation of Europe, under the sign of the biblical New Testament eschatological vision, considering the related historical-political events;

Cryptic Tale

(Part IV): roots, myths and the path of the 'European people' narrated according to a metaphysical approach of the Celtic matrix, a historical tale that is rooted in traditional European poetic literature;

Aeternitas

(Part V): analysis of the essential elements of the European system, following a typically northern European, modern, functionalist scientific-logical approach.

To support your research and to stimulate your interest in the work, you will find at the end the Bibliography of the essay and the supporting Bibliography, a Glossary of Concepts used in the course of the discussion and a sequence of historical Maps produced by De Agostini (and by the author) that help you to understand the historical geopolitical path of Europe and some 'non-visible aspects told in the essay.

The reading paths can be different. The text can also be consulted only in its specific parts. The historical maps exemplify the evolution of Europe and are the graphic support for the author's thesis. The Glossary allows you to understand better what is said in the text, mainly by following its internal links and references.

Enjoy your reading!

 HISTORY OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION IN 2500 YEARS 1

Introduction 1

PART I ) History of European integration in 2500 years 7

BEGINNING OF HISTORY: THE CLASSICAL GREEK AGE 8

THE ROMAN EMPIRE 9

ROMAN-BARBARIAN REIGNS AND THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE 11

Justinian restores order to the Imperium 13

The situation outside the Imperium 15

The Byzantine Empire: continuity of the Roman tradition 16

THE CHURCH OF ROME AND THE CAROLINGIAN EMPIRE 18

The new Imperium in Pars Occidens of the Carolingians 19

Europe beyond the borders of the Imperium Christianorum 22

THE GERMAN EMPIRE: RENOVATIO IMPERII 24

Christian Europe enlarges to the east and west 26

The New Kingdom: "a thousand and no more thousand!" 28

CHAOS IN EUROPE: ROMAN THEOCRACY, FRENCH HEGEMONY, NEW MEDIEVAL KINGDOMS, BETWEEN THE END OF BYZANTIUM AND THEBEGINNING OF THE 'THIRD ROME 29

The challenge between Empire and Papacy 29

The New Medieval Kingdoms 31

The theocracy of the Roman Church 33

French hegemony over Europe 34

Christian dynastic kingdoms and the rebirth of the German Empire 35

De profundis Byzantium 39

The 'Third Rome' in Russia 40

Italy after the German Empire 41

Cities, culture and religiosity in the late Middle Ages 42

The Reneissance 43

THE HAPSBURG EMPIRE: THE PROTEST, THE NEW SOVEREIGN STATES, THE AGE OF WARS, COLONIALISM 44

The Renaissance dynastic monarchies 45

Religious conflicts [16th-17th centuries A.D.]. 47

Wars of Power [17th-18th centuries AD]. 49

Transformations in Europe and colonisation of the Earth 53

MODERN EUROPE: THE 'NEW ORDER' BETWEEN REVOLUTIONS, NATIONALISM, IMPERIALISM AND GERMAN HEGEMONY 57

The Civil Revolutions [1774-1789 A.D.]. 58

The Napoleonic era [1797-1815 A.D.]. 59

The Restoration and the 'long century' [1815-1914 A.D.]. 61

DISINTEGRATED EUROPE: WORLD WARS, DICTATORIAL REGIMES, RECONSTRUCTION AND THE 'COLD WAR 65

World War I [1914-1918 A.D.]. 66

The National Socialist Regimes [1922-1933 A.D.]. 68

World War II [1939-1945 AD]. 69

'Cold War' [1947-1989 AD]. 70

THE (NEW) EUROPEAN INTEGRATION: A CHRISTIAN, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL COMMUNITY TO COME... 72

PART II) The unifying function of the Empire 75

THE ANCIENT AUCTORITAS 76

Ancient Greece: the revolution of Alexander the Great 76

Rome: the authoritarianism of Caesar and Augustus 77

Roman Empire: the absolutist turns of Diocletian and Constantine 80

Byzantine Empire: Vicarius Dei emerges in Christian theology and Roman law of the late Empire 81

THE MEDIEVAL AUCTORITAS 85

The Roman-Barbarian kingdoms and the 'limited sovereignty' of the Rex Christianorum 85

The Reich renews the Roman tradition in Pars Occidens 88

The Theocratic Reform of the Roman Church and the decline of the Auctoritas Imperatoris 92

THE RENAISSANCE AUCTORITAS 95

Dynastic kingdoms: Auctoritas becomes multiple 95

Universal monarchy: the 'secular' Auctoritas according to Christian Humanism 102

THE MODERN AUCTORITAS 106

PART III) The key role of Christianity and the Church 111

PROTO-CHRISTIAN ERA: FIRST EVANGELISATION OF THE EMPIRE 112

THE STATE CHURCH IN THE CHRISTIAN EMPIRE 115

CHRISTIANITY 'FORGES' ROMAN-BARBARIAN KINGDOMS 118

CHRISTIAN CULTURE PERVADES THE EMPIRE OF THE FRANKS:THE 'CAROLINGIAN RENAISSANCE'. 121

THE 'CHURCHES OF THE NORTH' AND THE CHRISTIANISATION OF EASTERN EUROPE UNDER THE REICH 122

THE ROMAN CHURCH REDEEMS ITSELF: CLUNY, GREGORIAN REFORM, EASTERN SCHISM AND CRUSADES 126

THE ROMAN CHURCH CHALLENGES THE EMPIRE: THEOCRACY, COMMON LAW AND THE CONFLICT FOR SUPREME AUCTORITAS IN REGNUM CHRISTI 131

TOTAL CRISIS IN ECCLESIAE CHRISTIANA: 'THE AVIGNON CAPTIVITY', WESTERN SCHISM, PROTEST AND REFORM, RELIGIOUS WARS, STATE CHURCHES AND PASTORAL CHURCHES IN EUROPE 136

BETWEEN THE REFORM OF CATHOLICISM AND THE ORTHODOXY OF PROTEST, A HARSH RELIGIOUS AND IDEOLOGICAL CLASH DIVIDES MODERN EUROPE 143

SECULARISATION AND THE END OF THE 'CHURCH STATE'. ENLIGHTENED CATHOLICISM EMERGES IN PARS OCCIDENS, ORTHODOXY REORGANISES ITSELF IN PARS ORIENSIS 147

PART IV) The culture and thought behind the United Europe 153

RELIGIOUS AND MYTHOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS 154

India and ancient Greece: the creation of the Cosmos 154

The Bible: Genesis, Exodus and Protohistory of the People of God 160

Oriental myths, Egyptians, Persians and Mithraism: the one God 165

Greek-Macedonian and Western-Roman European Epic: 'divine lineages'. 167

THE ORIGIN OF EUROPEAN PEOPLES 170

A POSSIBLE PERIODIZATION 184

End of the Persian Wars (439 BC) and independence of Europe 184

With the Roman Empire (27 B.C.) comes the Europe of the Olympics 189

Christian Empire (390 AD): the Kingdom of God on Earth 198

The Carolingian Empire (800 A.D.) embodies the Christus Rex in Pars Occidens 212

The 'nationes' and the Jewish revolt (1215 A.D.) bring Chaos to Europe 226

Sovereign states and secularisation (1648 AD): Leviathan dominus est 234

A united Europe (21st century AD): the Kingdom of Men begins? 243

ANSWERS AND REFLECTIONS ON A UNITED EUROPE 243

PART V) The elements of aeternitas 246

Bibliography 251

Glossary of Terms 266

The Index of historical charts 290

Introduction

From mythology to classical philosophy, to Christianity: which principles and conceptual foundations rooted in European thought are helpful for the cultural integration of Europe

Where did Europe originate? What are its cultural roots? What is the origin of its people? What are its natural, physical and geographical borders? Questions that frequently recur in the modern debate on the 'old continent', the answers to which can be found by rereading its history and cultural background.

Europa was a character in an ancient Greek myth: the daughter of King Agenor of Tyre, she was abducted by Zeus, incarnated in the form of a bull, who impregnated her with Minos, the famous priest-king of Crete, the protagonist of the Minotaur cult and founder of Minoan and Mediterranean civilisation. Here we already have many elements to think about.

For example, the origin of the name is to be found in Mythology1, a travelling companion of the first Mediterranean-MiddleEast civilisations, an integral part of the way of life, beliefs, and thought of ancient Europeans, whose roots lie in times far removed from us, populated by gods, demigods, heroes and superhuman characters who, in the end, leave us with many doubts as to the absolute and ultimate truth of European human affairs. With the introduction of History, a scientific tool for the temporal and spatial organisation of events, we have acceptable certainty. It tells the facts through the direct testimony of those who experienced them in person or through the original documentation that has been preserved2. However, a closer look at various elements of mythological narratives and historical events raises doubts about what difference might ultimately exist between Myth and History. It probably lies in the method of transmitting information, which in mythological tales was mainly handed down orally (and subsequently codified in graphic form). In contrast, History has always had a written and, therefore, necessarily documentary practice. Indeed, thinking back to the story of the battle of Troy or the Odyssey or the events of Osiris and Abraham, which we know through indirect evidence in the form of mythical-religious accounts, the question arises as to whether they should be included in Myth or History, since even today archaeological research recovers and catalogues numerous physical and documentary references to those events.Whichever way you look at it, the myth remains a tremendous cultural heritage inherited from the most ancient oriental and Mediterranean civilisations: from the Babylonians to the Assyrians, from the Egyptians to the Mycenaeans, from the Hebrews to the Celts, up to the Greeks and Romans, it is easy to 'discover' similar roots and common traits in their respective mythological stories, especially in the religious and cosmogonic spheres. This does not seem to me to be an insignificant element, given that it is precisely the religious sphere and the conception of the sacred that has conditioned the human political and social system for millennia, providing legitimacy to power, law and law, customs and cultures of the different European peoples3. The fact that there are so many homogeneities between cultures of 'peoples' so different and distant in time and space makes one wonder: are these perhaps some of the 'common roots' of Europe? If so, it would be the assumption and confirmation that the living space of the European continent is inseparably fused with the Mediterranean-Middle East area, as well as with North Africa and Central Asia. Regions of the world that have unquestionably always been interconnected and still are today4.

It is equally clear that the historical, political, economic and cultural influences between Europe and the Middle East and the entire Mediterranean basin have always been two-way, multiple and enduring. This consideration introduces other elements of analysis, which will prove very useful to our investigation into the history of Europe's evolution: if multiplicity also means plurality, differentiation, non-homologation, variability with respect to the essential elements of commonality, bi-directionality instead indicates the existence of relationships of reciprocity and systematicity (also called holistic) between the parts of the world, but also of communicability mediated by cultural and linguistic codes shared through processes that are continuous and unchanged, consciously accepted and preserved over time. These are some of the founding European concepts belonging to the immense wealth of Western thought, which is fragmented into multiple disciplines and intellectual currents. However, all converging on a common Τόπος: the human being, his earthly existence, his relationship with the divine, his anthropological problems, and the political and legal structures of common coexistence. We are talking here about the so-called 'humanistic' disciplines5.

The history of Western thought is very rich in τόποι and topics concerning man, starting with the Greek philosophers of the classical era6. They were questioning the nature of reality and the meaning of life, searching for the ultimate truth and absolute knowledge. Well, they identified the roots of human life. They recognised them in the άρχή, the source of cosmic existence, the point of origin of truth, laws, order and justice, the eternal and immutable entity, the beginning and the end of everything, the continuous and indivisible, the supreme synthesis of άρμόζα and πόλεμος, the voice of λόγος. It was understood as the origin of the 'All' (χάος), which contains everything, the ultimate identity, the infinite, the eternal salvation7.

These were the various definitions of άρχή commonly accepted by ancient philosophical meditation, which illuminated and guided human life, caught in the desperate struggle between the opposing cases of peace and discord, steeped in the pain that leads man to seek truth and happiness, to reach his salvation finally. The Gnostic view8 of human life as desperate and already marked by an ineluctable adverse destiny was counterbalanced by the 'dualist' culture, for which the only existing intermediary between men and άρχή was the δημιουργός, the being necessary to shape and guide earthly existence according to the divine will, the intermediate entity that shapes matter in order to produce phenomenal reality (the physical manifold): endowed with the σοφός and the power to control original thought, dense with ideal concepts and τόποι, the δημιουργός9 succeeds in transforming reality according to supreme expectations. So, men must hope in him.

This was the so-called 'idealist' philosophical view.10 Opposed to it was the so-called 'materialist' view11. According to which only human knowledge and the χάος can manipulate the Φύσις according to the most arbitrary forms12. It here appears, plastically, the ancient version of today's recurring challenge between Man and God: for one school of thought knowledge comes to Man from intuition mediated by faith; for the other, instead, Man can only know reality through theories and scientific experience (έμπειρία)13.

In both theses, however, there was a solid reference to the idea of continuity/mutation, to a higher ethic and to those virtues necessary to lead a 'good life' and finally reach the truth14. There was a shared view of the existence of a 'becoming' entity that transforms and orients itself, as an ordered and structured, organised and complex, self-regulated universe: the diatribe lay in consideration of whether there is an external guide to the events of human life or whether, instead, everything happens according to chance, determined exclusively by human actions. Whatever is the 'right' (or proper) view, it can undoubtedly coexist with the principle of evolution, already known from the most ancient Eastern religions, according to which every living being on Earth is animated by a spark of divine light15, which incarnates in order to discover the laws of eternal life and the ultimate truth about itself, longing for reunion with the divine. In this philosophy, the earthly/material world is only how the spiritual being finds himself and God.

This conception was adopted by the so-called 'Hellenistic' culture when the Western Greek world was integrated with the Persian, Egyptian and Middle Eastern worlds: it also spread in Greece, and people began to believe that human life was included in a 'circle' leading back to the divine, passing a 'final judgement' on how the suffering produced by the contact of the pure and divine soul with the matter16 had been dealt with. In this way, the concept of Άνεμος and the relationship with the supreme being, the άρχή, was reinforced, unwittingly preparing the ground for the advent of the 'new teaching' of Christianity. This came as an innovative revelation of the ancient monotheistic religion rooted in Judaism, bringing the message of relegating the meaning of human life to total faith in God, the only 'way' that can lead the human being to the reunion with the divine. Thus, the idea of salvation for those who believe in God, whether they are followers of Moses or Jesus, was introduced into human thought for the first time17.

It was the subsequent exegesis of the Holy Scriptures, carried out by the so-called 'Fathers of the Christian Church', that constructed the rational link18 between the Old and New Testaments of the Bible and built the theological, philosophical and cultural foundations of universal Christianity (catholicos) and of the relative dogmatic corpus, defining the three 'theological virtues' (Spes, Fides, Charitas)19 that were placed alongside the so-called 'cardinal virtues' already known to the Fathers. Cardinal virtues already known to the ancients, on which Rome had founded the historical, juridical, cultural and religious heritage of its civilization (Mos maiorum)20. The Roman Virtutes were numerous and were the cultural-mental substratum necessary to define the concepts on which the entire architecture of the Roman system rested, of which we are particularly interested: Auctoritas, Ius, Communitas, Res Publica, Statum, Pax, Universitas and Traditio. I think it is clear to everyone how relevant and fundamental these are to European civilisation even today...21 The ancient Romans also idealised the so-called Aeternitas22, those elements of the Roman system still present today. The ancient Romans also idealised the so-called Aeternitas, those elements of community life that referred to the religion, tradition and customs of the Patres. Moreover, which have been preserved and continue to exist in Europe today23.

The Christian-Roman-Classical cultural package, elaborated in the course of the old age, was then handed down throughout the Middle Ages to the different continental populations and tribes that came into contact with the Imperium Romanum, coming from different latitudes: in the thirteenth century A.D., that baggage was enriched by the contribution produced by the speculation of Scholasticism24, which added the concept of Corpus Mysticum to complete the millennial package of classical-Christian philosophical-theological thought, in an attempt to reconcile Ratio et Fides. It was the beginning of a new historical era in Europe and the holistic conception of the Universe, at the centre of which was now Man, made 'in the image of God, capable of knowing reality through intuition, concepts and principles, simply by following his innate consciousness.25

The exasperation of this vision, based on the scientific method and pure analytical rationalism, paved the way for the advent of modern science and the search for the truth inherent in the Φύσις26, totally disregarding human opinion. There began the growing intellectual dispute over the meaning and 'direction' of human life, which is nothing more than a continuous return to the origins of the classicists. At the same time, it is the inexorable progress towards happiness and the realisation of 'Paradise on Earth' for the modernists27. A schism that has marked the course of European (and therefore Western and world) history, with divergences that have become increasingly clear and violent and are still evident today.

However, in the twentieth century A.D., the organicistic and holistic hypothesis of reality was again considered, despite the so-called 'mechanistic paradigm'. Built on the concepts of order, harmony and entropy of the system, of the interdependence of the parts of a systemic whole, unique, self-preserving and evolutionary, following successive stages of internal crises and transformations, it proposes a way of understanding the human reality that is underpinned by a system of philosophical and religious conceptions of thought, already profoundly influential in the European political thought of past centuries28. It is a vision that was formed in the wake of the path originating in classical idealism, passing through the constitutionalist practices of the Greek πόλις and the legal case of the Roman Statum, to then infuse itself into the medieval 'Christian royal theology'29 and the definition of 'absolute sovereignty30 in the Renaissance era, to finally conclude in the modern models of 'contractualism'31 and 'universal democracy'32. In short, a systemic, totalitarian, and eternal vision that demonstrates how in every past era, the ideas of the totalising state, representativeness, common laws, legitimisation of power, and elitist government have been fundamental, fully applied and handed down, and coherently linked to the communitarian and integrated vision of human life33.At this point, we can identify those principles that are to be considered central to European history, deeply rooted in the primordial crucible of Eastern-Mediterranean culture and continuously transmitted and implemented over the centuries. They are the idea of the continuity and change of every cosmic element; the conception of God the Creator-Father, of the Whole and its intertwined parts; the vision of eternity and cyclical events; the forces of cosmic order and chaos; the human awareness of virtues and ethics; the necessity of laws, justice and the codification of social norms; the importance of the state, authority, political power and the community assembly. These are the elements common and known to all the cultures, traditions, religions and philosophies contemplated in the continental history of Europe, already present in the most ancient myths or 'revealed' by history, thanks to which the different European peoples have lived and coexisted for centuries, have met and clashed, divided and then reconciled, and finally found themselves and recognised in the 'common house' of the European Union, conscious of their history but above all of their common origin.

In the next chapter, I will recount the political-military and diplomatic history of Europe, concerning the enduring process of progressive integration of peoples, cultures and religions, which has taken place over the last 2,500 years, and which has produced the complex differentiation of today's nation-states. In the next part, this will be followed by a study of the unifying function of the Imperium in European integration, with particular emphasis on the importance of the figure of the Emperor and his Auctoritas. It was an instrument of and made use of the fundamental contribution made by the Christian religion in integrating the different European peoples who gathered on the continent, both through the work of the Gospels and thanks to the role played by the Christian Church in the European 'political game': this is the subject of the third part of the essay. This is followed by a review of the millenary history of Europe, starting from its Eastern roots, through the tales of Myth, the Sacred Books and the best-known legends of European culture, to prove those intimate connections and continuities that have sustained the entire course of continental history, to highlight also the specific European cultural identity. In the last part, I will try to explain some of the ancient Aeternitas's historical continuity consisting of identifiable and recognisable elements of stability and continuity in the millennial European integration process.

This research aims to show that Europe is, in essence, a community of different peoples who have experienced a common history rooted in the culture of the most ancient oriental and Mediterranean civilisations, marked by political, religious, economic and social events that have taken place over the centuries, more or less consciously in the direction of a broader and total continental integration, thanks to the decisive contribution of the Christian religion and under the aegis of the unifying force of the Imperium. Alternatively, in the wake of the millenary ecumenical and universal conception of human life, if you prefer...

Table of Contents

PART I )History of European integration in 2500 years

PART II)The unifying function of the Empire

PART III)The key role of Christianity and the Church

PART IV)The culture and thought behind the United Europe

PART V)The elements of aeternitas

PART I )History of European integration in 2500 years

From classical civilisations to the Roman Empire, from the βάρβαρος to the Sacrum Imperium, from modern states to the European Union: a thousand-year struggle between the drive for unification and the spirit of freedom, which has resulted in the differentiation and historicity of today's nation-states.

The search for the roots of Europe is a Τόπος that has always fascinated historians, philosophers and intellectuals, as well as being one of the central points in the European political debate, especially concerning the process of integration of the continent that began with the establishment of the European Economic Community.

Opinions on the subject are diverse and contrasting, in line with the current knowledge system's ideological opposition34. However, beyond these positions, which by their very nature are difficult to reconcile, it may be helpful to attempt to extend the concept of European integration beyond the conventional temporal limit of the post-World War II period of the twentieth century A.D., aware of the fact that the continent's history is much older and that the events of our day relate to our more remote past. This is an argument that probably finds few supporters. However, I intend to try to prove it: it will be useful to go back in time, to look for the elements of connection or continuity related to those political, social, economic, ethnic or cultural entities that are and have been the necessary and living 'foundation' for the construction of the present integrated continental system. For example, the idea of a politically 'united Europe' was certainly not born in Maastricht in 1992 A.D.: that was the historical moment in which a will that Europeans had held for centuries was sanctioned, and which they have sought to make concrete continuously over time, with different formal and operational modalities.

The millenary struggle for the unification of Europe, both political and religious, has shaped the complex political framework of today, determining the differentiation of modern nation-states, often arising from a movement for freedom and independence of some European peoples against the 'totalitarian' ecumenical entities that, for centuries, dominated the European political and cultural scene. Thus, the intentions to build large unitary systems, on the one hand, and the drives towards independence and freedom, acted as opposing forces that marked the course of events in Europe, initiating a centuries-long confrontation that produced the current geopolitical framework. It was the dominant figure of the Empire, conceived in ancient Persia and then spreading from the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea to the heart of continental Europe, that acted as a pole of attraction and repulsion for all those peoples who passed through its sphere of influence. The Empire, therefore, as a significant element of political and cultural continuity and, above all, a unifying and generative force for the whole of Europe, throughout all the historical eras in which it has existed in its various forms.

Since this subject is inextricably linked to history, as a source of data and facts and as an instrument of investigation, it is from it that the search for the elements practical to provide a plausible answer to the τόπος on the roots of Europe begins.

BEGINNING OF HISTORY: THE CLASSICAL GREEK AGE

Conventionally, History began with the chronicles Thucydides wrote about the Peloponnesian Wars [431-404 BC], which pitted the Greek city-states (πόλις), now commonly regarded as the point of origin of Western classical civilisation, against each other in an ongoing political and economic competition: the free Greek cities, which colonised the northern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea ('Magna Graecia'), regularly fought each other in order to impose their hegemony on their rivals. It was an anarchic political framework in which, often, the independent πόλις organised themselves in political-military alliances (League of Delos, League of Peloponnesus) in order to defeat their rivals, demonstrating how already then, the survival of every city-state, small or big, was necessarily linked to that of the others and depended on the regime of the international political system of the time, which was very unstable. However, the times of the freedom wars against the Persian menace were not far off [Persian Wars, 499-479 BC]: on that occasion, all πόλις had allied themselves against the common enemy (referred to by the Greek term βάρβαρος because of the incomprehensible language) and succeeded in defeating several times (battles of Thermopylae, Salamis and Plataea) a much more powerful and numerous opponents. In that case, the external threat had driven the Greek city-states to give up part of their independence to survive. Nevertheless, once the enemy had been repelled, they began to rechallenge each other for hegemonic power over the Aegean and the Mediterranean.

However, the era of the free πόλις ended abruptly when the Macedonians led by King Philip II succeeded in definitively defeating the league that brought together all the other cities [battle of Chaeronea, 338 BC] and subjugating them to their kingdom. Shortly afterwards, Alexander 'the Great' continued his father's work and conquered the Persian Empire, which included all the lands between the Indus and Nile rivers, to find the Hellenic Empire: it was a brief but fundamental step for the future of Europe. In just a few years, Αλεχανδρος had unified in a single political and cultural system a vast geographical area, which in previous millennia had seen the prosperity of opposing and very different empires, kingdoms and civilisations (Egyptians, Hittites, Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Mitanni, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Mycenaeans, Achaeans, Lydians, Medes, Persians). The 'Hellenistic' experiment of fusion between the cultures of the Western-Greek and the Eastern-Persian civilisation (οίκουμένη) came to an end with the death of the Macedonian βασιλεύς [323 BC]. Although short-lived, it was an attempt that left its mark on the political and cultural consciousness of Europeans in the centuries to follow in fact, the first to imitate the Alexandrian example was the διάδοχοι, the generals of the Macedonian leader who inherited parts of his empire and divided it up by establishing several independent kingdoms (Ptolemy in Egypt, Antigonus in Asia, Seleucus in Syria, Antipater in Greece and Lysimachus in Thrace). For decades, they fought each other for absolute dominance, but none of them managed to prevail over all the others. Thus, the Hellenic Empire was never reconstituted, and the extraordinary task of reconstituting the immense common multi-ethnic and multi-cultural political entity, bringing together civilisations, religions and political systems of all kinds dreamed of by Αλεχανδρος, was only to be achieved by the Romans towards the end of the pre-Christian era.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Founded in 753 B.C. by Romulus on the left bank of the Tiber, Rome was the city-state of the Latins and Romans (Civitas), which opposed the dominance of the Etruscans and the expansionist ambitions of the other peoples who inhabited Italy at that time (Taurians, Ligurians, Celts, Veneti, Osco-Piceni, Illyrians, Sabines, Samnites, Bruzi, Lucani, Sicani, Sardinians, etc.), including the southern cities that were colonies of the Greek πόλις. ), including the southern cities that were colonies of the Greek πόλις. Having freed themselves from the Etruscan yoke and established the Res Publica [509 BC], the Romans soon succeeded in subduing and unifying all the Italic peoples, also using alliances and federative peace treaties (Foedus). After that, they defeated the Mediterranean rivals of Carthage [Punic Wars, 264-146 BC], incorporating its possessions in the Iberian and Balearic Islands, Sardinia and Sicily. Subsequently, Roman legions conquered Illyria and the Greek and Macedonian kingdoms [146 BC]. Rome was a militaristic city organised into social castes. It had now annexed by force of the sword and its civic pride all the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, from Gibraltar to the Dardanelles Strait, maintaining a republican political and legal order.

At that point, it became clear that the Senatus, the political-legislative body at the head of Rome, was no longer able to manage alone the power over dominions that continued to expand in all directions: to the north and west, towards Gaul and Iberia, to the East in Dalmatia and Asia Minor, until the conquest of Syria and Palestine [64 B.C.]. Moreover, there were continuous social conflicts between the Plebeians and the Patricians, the latter belonging to the ancient and glorious aristocratic Gens that had always held power in Rome (Optimates) and dominated over the Populus, the whole of the citizens (Cives) whom Roman law had established as the source of all political and religious power. This class confrontation turned into civil war [from 88 B.C.]. It continued for decades in confrontations between generals and consuls (first Marius against Sulla, then Caesar against Pompey, finally Antony against Octavian), further extending Rome's dominions to Egypt and Anatolia. The epilogue of the prolonged republican crisis was the birth of the Principatus [27 B.C.], an innovative political and legal formula of authoritarian government invented by Augustus, which placed the Princeps at the centre of the system and in a leading position to all other powers (Summa Potestas). In his hands was concentrated the supreme military command (Imperium), exclusive and personal, with political pre-eminence in the Senate (Primus inter Pares in Auctoritas). At the same time, he represented the guarantor of state unity (Curator et Tutelar Res Publica Universae) and the religious head who mediates with the Gods (Pontifex Maximus)35.

This high-imperial political model was preserved for centuries, with the transmission of the title of Imperator Caesar Augustus between members of the Gens Senatorie (I and II centuries A.D. the Julio-Claudi, Flavi, Antonini and Severi dynasties succeeded each other), through the public act of adoptio, followed by the concessio Senatus and the indispensable ancient famous proclamation. In the centuries that followed, the power of the Imperator became increasingly absolute, independent of the caste of the Roman patriciate and the noble families of the Provinciae, united in the Senatus together with the representatives of the wealthiest citizens (Ordo equestre) chosen and elevated by census by the Emperor himself (Dignitas). The Emperor also imposed a bond of loyalty to the imperial bureaucracy (chosen with a personal nomination) and to the military class (Ordo milites), which had always been made up of the popular class. Thus, the Imperator concentrated in his person entire military, diplomatic, legislative and supreme judicial powers (Summa potestas) and was considered superior to the law (legibus solutus), issued money and collected his tribute (Fiscus Caesaris), ruling in a regime of absolute monarchy of a hereditary, deified, totalising... Persian type!

The progressive enlargement of the borders of the Imperium (Limes), which ran along with the courses of the Rhine and Danube rivers to the north, and along the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea to the south and East (now called Mare nostrum), created many difficulties for the Romans: From the inside, it was necessary to integrate the different peoples who lived there, while from the outside, the pressure from the Germanic tribes, who populated the lands north of the border, and from the Slavs, Dacians, Scythians, Goths, Parthians, who settled in the eastern lands, was increasing. Moreover, in the 3rd century A.D., the Empire entered a severe general crisis: of power, marked by successive coups and civil wars between various military commanders who tried to grab the imperial title [an era of 'military anarchy', 235-284 A.D.]; agricultural and economical, which eventually led to the emergence of aristocratic latifundia and the almost total loss of ownership of land and rights by the people; religious-cultural, triggered by currents of pagan thought praising the deified figure of the Emperor and oriental mysticism. The Christian religion, increasingly widespread in the Empire, especially in the popular communities, among the troops and in the patriciate (from which many bishops and Church Fathers emerged), was increasingly perceived as a severe destabilising danger for the imperial political power and was put under pressure (with persecutions).

In order to solve all these problems, two leading political solutions were found. The first was the reform of the Empire in an autarchic sense, with the institution of Domination by Diocletian [284 AD]: a model that strengthened imperial power by transforming it into a Hellenistic type of monarchy (the figure of Dominus et Deus) and organising it into a dynastic reign (Tetrarchy), reserved exclusively for members of the imperial family with the strong support of the military power (Duces) and supported by a vast bureaucratic system (Dioecesis). The other operation, on the spiritual level, was necessary to integrate the immense and growing population of the Empire36: by recognising the status licita religio to the Christian cult [Edict of Tolerance, 313 A.D.], completed by conferring on Constantine the role of head of the Ecclesiae Christiana as Pontifex Maximus [Council of Nicaea, 325 AD], the power was reconciled with the power of the Christian Church. This reconciled the absolute and sacred power of the emperor (who now referred directly to the mithraic divine figure of Sol Invictus) with the economic-religious power held by the Bishops in the Dioecesis37, of which they became the regents and depositaries of the benefits and civil-jurisdictional powers, attributed to them in competition with the other imperial administrative and military figures (Duces, Comites, Magister).

With Theodosius, I decided to sanction Christianity as the only religion allowed in the Empire [Edict of Thessalonica 380 A.D.], with the consequent ban on all pagan worship and Arianism. With the Imperium transformed into a theocracy, on the death of the first 'Christian Emperor' the split between the Greek East and the Latin West was consummated: the Pars Occidens was progressively abandoned to the power of the military, landowners and the Western Church, which was headed by the Bishop of Rome, populated by the barbarian tribes already federated and settled for some time within the Limes to counter the continuous invasions of Goths and Huns, which finally determined the final dissolution of Roman power [476 AD. In the East, the Empire survived in the form that had evolved into orientalising, verticist, theocratic and universalistic, later known as the Byzantine Empire, or 'Second Rome'.

ROMAN-BARBARIAN REIGNS AND THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE

The Germans were an Indo-European people (ÜrVolk) of probable Aryan ancestry, semi-nomadic warriors/farmers, bound together by common blood (lineage), language, religion and laws, tribes from northern Europe already known to the Greeks and Romans who classified them as Goths (distributed along the course of the Danube and on the coast of the Black Sea, between Pannonia and Dacia), Franks (having penetrated northern Gaul, on the left bank of the Rhine, they were also present on the other bank and in Germany), Lombards (who first settled east of the Elbe, then moved on to Bohemia and Pannonia), Suebi (who occupied the Swiss Alps, the right bank of the Rhine and south-west Germany), Bavarians and Thuringians (who settled along the upper reaches of the Elbe, in Bohemia and the Austrian Alps). During the pre-Christian centuries, the Goths met and intermingled with other Iranian (Alani, Sarmatians), Mongolian (Huns, Avars) and other nomadic Asian warrior tribes (Reitervolker) in the vast area outside the Imperium to the east of the Danube. Between the 3rd and 5th centuries A.D., there was slow immigration of these 'barbarian' groups38 within the Limes, favoured by the granting of accession/inclusion treaties (Foedus) and by the ancient Roman rules on hospitality to foreigners (hospitalitas), which allowed the enrolment of those among the soldiers and officers of the legions stationed along the border.

This was possible thanks to Rome's policy of 'civilisation' (so-called 'romanisation'), which was inspired by Christian philanthropy and the Roman conception of Felicitas, considered the means of evangelisation and conversion of pagan peoples Catholic-Conciliar Christianity had developed at the time39. In addition, the barbarian tribes were granted economic and fiscal autonomy, political and administrative powers, critical roles in the marshalling of trade and the command of indigenous military units (limitares), placed to defend the borders along the Danube, the Rhine, the North Sea and in Britain, and subject to the control of the bishops at the head of the dioceses and the Roman aristocracy, who managed the city offices. Between the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D., the new provinces of Germania Superior and Inferior were settled by tribes of Alamanni, Suebi, Burgundians, Franks, Batavians and Frisians. At the same time, the Lombards entered Pannonia and the Goths, some areas of Moesia and Thrace.

The Roman Empire thus succeeded in transmitting its own political and economic system and the Roman modus vivendi to all the dominated peoples, guaranteeing protection for the actual trade (slaves, soldiers, goods, gold) across the limes, on the routes towards Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and the East. The ethnic Germanic society thus inherited, through assimilation, the clientelistic political organisations of Rome (clans) and developed its symbolic-legal mix of Roman-Germanic-Celtic power, innovating the ancestral ties of kinship to transform the political leader into the role of Rex Gentium of his tribe. All this was propitious for the formation of the so-called 'Roman-Barbarian kingdoms', formed from the 5th century A.D. onwards, and guaranteed their integration into the Imperium Romanum, the reference model of integrative/attractive civilisation that had favoured the consolidation of the Christian religion, of Roman Civitas and Law, as well as of the Latin language and culture, even among the Celtic and Germanic peoples, who now identified with the peoples of the Mediterranean and southern Europe.

The unforeseeable, however, happened during the 4th century A.D.: the Huns began to attack all the surrounding empires (Han in China, Gupta in India, Sasanian in Parthia), then invaded the Russian steppes and forced the peoples settled there (Eastern Goths, Vandals, Avars, Alans) to migrate West. It was the time of Attila and the so-called ‘Barbarian invasions': gentes who abandoned the eastern plains and invaded Italy, southern Gaul, Iberia and northern Africa, where they established various autonomous kingdoms, later formally legitimised by an act of submission to the Emperor of Byzantium (in Pars Orientis), which recognised the title of Rex Gentium, Dux or Magister Militum to the heads of the various tribes and which allowed, in fact, their alternation in power to the detriment of the local elites. It thus happened that, in the provinces of the Imperium in Pars Occident, the senatorial-bureaucratic and clerical aristocracy of Roman or local origin moved to the countryside (giving rise to large, landed estates) to leave the class of Germanic warriors the political power in the cities, by Roman law and the imperial bureaucracy.

However, the operation of social integration of the 'newcomers' was not straightforward, and the establishment of the Roman-Barbarian kingdoms proved to be a long and complex process: the βάρβαρος were not granted Roman citizenship and were not allowed to legally join the Ρωμαΐος, since the prohibition of ethnic mixing (connubium) was still in force. Therefore, Roman military magistrates and imperial officials ruled the barbarian kingdoms maintained Roman public law and the Roman economic and social system. At the same time, the Ius loci were enriched with various barbarian codes that facilitated peaceful coexistence between Roman civil society and the barbarian military elite and between orthodox Christianity and Arianism40.

The following is a historical summary of the main kingdoms that emerged between the 4th and 5th centuries A.D.41:

Regna Francorum

[398 A.D.]: the Franks ('free'), an Isvetone tribe settled in Belgian Gaul and Germania Inferior (Flanders, Brabant, Lorraine), were led by the Merovingian dynasty (lineage of the Salii tribe) who welcomed the conversion to orthodox Christianity with Clovis I and consequently committed themselves to the fight against Arianism and paganism. By this promise, they merged peacefully with the pre-existing Gallo-Roman population and allied themselves with the bishops and the landed aristocracy, with whose help they were able to fight the pagan Goths and conquer the whole of Gaul (ex-Diocese), after having driven the Visigoths out of Aquitaine [507 AD] and annexed the lands of the Burgundians [534 AD]. They then obtained the recognition of sacralised kingship from the Roman Church (with the anointing and episcopal coronation) and the Eastern Emperor (with the concession of the title of Rex Francorum), necessary to build the foundation of a Roman-Gallo-Franco Christian society in which a mixed Roman-Gallic law was in force (Epitome Sancti Galli). The Frankish warrior elite coexisted with the Gallo-Roman aristocracy and people. The permanence of Salic law (Lex Salica, 511 AD. ) led to the continual division of the Regna into hereditary fiefdoms (Neustria, Austrasia, Burgundia and Aquitaine), ruled by the descendants of the Merovingian dynasty, which for centuries maintained political leadership over Gaul, Alemania and the Rhineland (populated by a mix of Ripuarians, Alemanni and Suebi Franks), constituting a highly integrated economic valuable area for the development of trade along with the courses of the Rhine and Rhone, and between the Mediterranean and North Seas;

Regna Burgundorum

[407 AD]: the Burgundians, a Gothic tribe from the lands east of the Oder, occupied Viennese Gaul and the Alpine provinces (Provence, Burgundy, Savoy and western Switzerland), where they formed a kingdom around the entire course of the Rhone, which was annexed to the Frankish Kingdom in 534 AD. With the recognition of kingship by the emperor (title of Rex Burgundorum), a Christian community was formed, governed by a mixed Roman-Barbarian code of law (Lex Romana-burgundiorum, 501 AD) and the Burgundian military elite, flanked by the landed aristocracy and the local Gallo-Roman clerical class.;

Regna Visigotorum

[418 AD]: the Visigoths, a Gothic tribe from Moesia (but whose origin must have been in Göthaland), after a rapid incursion into Italy (as far as Rome!) occupied central and eastern Iberia, Aquitaine, Narbonne Gaul and the Pyrenees region. They maintained maritime trade and political relations with Byzantium and the other Regna in Pars Occident, preserving Arianism and imitating the Byzantine royal cult. Pushed over the Pyrenees by the Franks [507 A.D.], they unified the Iberian Peninsula (ex-Dioecesis Hispania) with the annexation of the Kingdom of the Suebi [585 A.D.], who had long been established in the north-west (411 A.D.), Cantabria, Galicia, Asturias, Basque Country, where they had merged with the pre-existing Basque and Celtiberian populations, in a mix populi that was to form the basis of the future Kingdom of Asturias-León): The Visigoth elite then converted to Christianity with King Recaredo and began the reconciliation with the indigenous Celtiberian-Romans, obtaining recognition of sacred kingship from the Roman Church (with bishop's anointing) and the Byzantine Emperor (with the title of Rex Visigotorum). This step favoured the formation of a Christian Roman-Celtiberian-Visigoth community, in which a mixed Roman-Gothic code of laws (Lex Romana-visigothorum, 506 AD and Lex Visigothorum, 654 AD) was in force, led by the Goth military elite in peaceful coexistence with the Celtiberian-Roman aristocracy and clerical class.

Regna Vandaloricum

[435 AD]: another tribe of Gothic descent, the Vandals invaded the coasts of North Africa after being expelled from Spain by the Visigoths and formed an independent kingdom from where they launched colonial expeditions to the islands of Corsica, Sardinia and Malta, for a long time. After a brief period of federation with the Imperium, this ephemeral kingdom that never adapted to Roman-Byzantine civilisation was annihilated by Emperor Justinian [535 AD];

Regna Ostrogotorum

[493 A.D.]: the Ostrogoths, a Gothic tribe, settled in Dacia at the end of the 4th century A.D. (but of eastern origin), occupied the region. (but of Eastern origin), occupied the former Diocese of Italy

42

on commission from Emperor Zeno to drive out the Heruli (who had put an end to the Imperium with Odoacer) and reconstitute the heart of the Pars in the West. Although faithful to Arianism, King Theodoric 'called the Great' was nevertheless awarded the title of Rex Romanorum by the Byzantine sovereign, who ordered the Senatus Romanum to recognise his legitimacy. However, despite their common Christian beliefs, the Ostrogoths and Romans never formed a diverse society, so that power remained entirely in the hands of the Goth military elite, who subjugated the Roman senatorial aristocracy and bishopric, wresting from them all possessions and civil power, despite the imperial issuing of a mixed Roman-Gothic code of law (Edictum Theodorici, 520 AD). This kingdom too was destroyed by Emperor Justinian [535 AD];

Regna Britannica

[5th century A.D.]: at the time of the collapse of the Western Empire, the Britons reclaimed the lands within Hadrian's Wall (Dioecesis Britannia), led by the legendary Celtic chieftain Riothanus, who established a Regnum Britannoricum in Cornwall [409 AD]. In the rest of the British Isles, the Celtic kingdoms of Cambria (or so-called 'Pendragon', 450 AD) in Wales and Caledonia in Scotland [400 AD Ca]

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and on the mainland (in the Brittany peninsula), where the Regnum Armorica was founded by Celtic tribes of Christian-Celtic cult with links to Dumnonia, which lasted until the Franks' conquest in the 9th century A.D.

Justinian restores order to the Imperium

This extraordinarily fragmented and variegated situation prompted Justinian I to embark on an extraordinary and impromptu undertaking: to reconquer the western lands of the Imperium in order to restore their political and legal integrity, under the aegis of the reunited Orthodox Church, shaken by the internal theological divisions produced by the followers of various movements condemned as 'heretics' (Arianism, Monophysitism, Gnosticism), which for centuries had been the cause of political struggles and military revolts in imperial-era Christendom. Byzantium promoted an alliance with the Franks in order to annihilate and drive out the Goths, Arians and pagans from the former Western imperial dioceses: thus, the Gothic War [535-553 AD] was fought in Italy, which led to the annihilation of the Ostrogoths and the restoration of direct Byzantine power in Ravenna (the last capital in Pars Occidens) and Rome (seat of the Church), with the Prammatica Sanctio (554 AD). On the other hand, the Franks succeeded in driving the Visigoths out over the Pyrenees and in defeating and subduing the Burgundians. At the same time, the imperial armies led by the generals Belisarius and Narses reconquered the Spanish and North African coasts, definitively exterminating the Vandal tribe.

The western political scene seemed to be stabilised, but Italy was again invaded by a Germanic tribe: the Lombards a few years later. Of Scandinavian origin, after a long pilgrimage beyond the limes, they settled in the Italian peninsula (except for the areas of Lido di Venezia and Romagna, Umbria, Latium, Apulia, Calabria, Sicily and Sardinia, which remained under the yoke of the Byzantine Empire) to found the Regnum Longobardorum [568 AD], definitively suppressing the rest of the Roman aristocracy! This kingdom, governed entirely by the elite of the Lombard warriors, who managed the election of the Rex in the council of the Duces (Arimanni), sanctioned the precise social and political rift between the newcomers (Arians) and the Romans (Orthodox) that not even Byzantium was able to recompose: However, this did not prevent the Lombards from accepting the influence of classical Greco-Roman culture and a slow conversion to orthodoxy, thanks mainly to the work of the monks of Bobbio and Pope Gregory I 'known as the Great'. With the Edictum Rotari [643 AD], a new Roman-Longobard κοινή was achieved, the Christian community subject to Roman-Longobard law and the Longobard elite in cooperation with the Roman bishops, which was the guarantee of the final political legitimisation by Byzantium with the recognition of the title of Rex Longobardorum [680 AD], followed by papal coronation with the famous 'iron crown' of Theodolinda.

Generally speaking, the Roman-Barbarian kingdoms that existed between the 5th and 8th centuries AD were made up of a mix of peoples, languages and laws of a Germanic and Latin-Roman matrix, all subject to the sacralised power of the Rex, assisted by the warrior elite, who ruled by right of conquest and with the duty of defending their people, exploiting a public sphere that was by then reduced to only civil-administrative functions. This was the main reason why the traditional Roman Res Publica was slowly transformed into the direct property of the political-military head of the Regnum44, who, in order to ensure the military protection of his Gens, began to assign, in a quick manner, Feudes publicus to the various Duces, guaranteeing them the relative rights to an income (this was the embryo of the feudal and military model that would become established later). In addition, the Roman-Barbarian kingdoms commonly applied the principle of the 'personality of the law', which made a clear legal distinction between invaders-dominators and Romans in the application of the law (Roman or the ancient Ius Gentium). Important was the juridical-political principle of a Germanic matrix that legitimised the sacred power of the Rex, chosen with the election of the nobleman considered 'the most moral' by the assembly of Arimanni, followed by the coronation with anointing by the Bishop (recovering the Jewish tradition of the anointing of David) and finally the attribution of the role of Pater Patriae on the population belonging to the territory placed under his rule (principle of Ius soli)45. This was a reworking of Roman imperial law adapted to the Germanic culture and to the needs of the Roman Church to oversee the West46.

The situation outside the Imperium

The lands beyond the Rhine and the Danube remained almost always outside the Imperium, inhabited by various Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons, Thuringians, Bavarians) who were not politically organised and were pagan. Then, pressurised by the migrations of other peoples from the east (Slavs, Avars and Bulgarians), they too created autonomous kingdoms that were later 'Romanised':

Anglo-Saxon kingdoms

[6th century AD. Anglo-Saxon kingdoms [6th century AD]: tribes of Angles, Jutes and Saxons, initially settled in northern Germany and Denmark, invaded the British Isles several times until they succeeded in establishing the new kingdoms of the 'Heptarchy' (Kent, Wessex, Essex, Sussex, Mercia, Northumbria and East Anglia), subject to the cultural influence of Byzantium and the religious practice of the Christian Archbishopric of Canterbury: From there, in fact, it was possible to transmit the legacy of classicism and Roman civilisation to these tribes, to the point of establishing an autonomous Anglo-Saxon Church organised in dioceses on the model of the imperial one, which would become fundamental for the subsequent Christianisation of northern Europe. The Anglo-Saxon invasion was resisted by the Romano-British kingdoms of Cambria and the Celts in Ireland and Scotland, who maintained a permanent state of war against the invaders until the subsequent advent of the Dani and Normans [9th century AD];

Regnum Bavarum

[6th century AD]: in the former imperial provinces of Noricum, Rhaetia, and Pannonia, an autonomous Ducatum [553 AD] was established, ruled by Bavarian dynasties. In the former imperial provinces of Noricum, Rhaetia and Pannonia, an autonomous Ducatum [553 AD] was established, governed by Bavarian dynasties in complete agreement with the Rhaetian-Roman episcopate, which over time built up solid political and diplomatic relations with the Lombard Reign (many Duces were of Bavarian origin) and with the Roman Papacy, which later proved to be preparatory to the complete conversion of the Bavarians to Christianity. Even in those regions, the Roman political and cultural continuity of the Christian religion was guaranteed, as well as the use of Roman law (Lex Bawariorum, 744 AD);

Germanic duchies

[5th-6th century AD]: in the regions situated between the courses of the Rhine, Danube and Elbe rivers, populated by the Germanic tribes of the Alamanni, Saxons, Thuringians and Ripuari Franks, autonomous duchies were established, governed directly by the Merovingians or by other members of the Frankish aristocracy linked to them by dynastic ties. They had never been annexed to the Imperium, despite the numerous attempts of the Romans to conquer them (a wall of more than 500 km was finally built between Koblenz and Augsburg to establish a border with those Germanic populations, which did not resist the invasions of the 4th century AD): there was, therefore, no substantial influence of the Latin classical culture, nor of the Christian religion, especially in the northernmost area of Saxony, which remained independent from the Frankish dominion until the 9th century AD, and in the region of Thuringia, which became an independent Regnum [450 AD] until the final annexation by the Franks [540 AD]. When the Merovingian dynasty faltered, the Alamannan tribe achieved brief independence, evidenced by its codification of Romano-Germanic law (Lex Alamannorum, 725 A.D.);

Empire of the Avars

[7th century A.D.]: the entire Carpathian region, located east of the river Danube, had been inhabited for centuries by various nomadic peoples before falling under the political rule of the Khagan of the Avars, an Asian people who invaded the area, subjugating the pre-existing peoples and forcing the already Romanised tribes (Albanians, Vlachs, Dacians) to flee and retreat to the mountain valleys of the Carpathians and the Balkans;

Empire of the Bulgarians

[8th century A.D.]: the former Dioceses of Thrace and Moesia, situated beyond the lower reaches of the Danube, were invaded by the Turkoman Bulgarians, who established their kingdom there, recognised by Byzantium with Foedus in 681 AD, guaranteeing peaceful coexistence to the Greek-speaking peoples living in Illyria and Albania. Nevertheless, for a long time, it represented a constant threat to the Byzantine Empire. It was the source of constant conflicts and an attempt at imitatio Imperii repressed by Christian conversion [810 A.D.].

The Byzantine Empire: continuity of the Roman tradition