Fall of the Roman Empire

May 16, 2013 09:00

After tying up some loose ends on Copernicus and Aristotle in the Engineering course this morning, we began our discussion on the predecessors of Leonardo da Vinci. The collapse of the Roman Empire in about 500 began what is known as the Middle Ages. This collapse was initiated by a coordinated barbarian invasion: the Huns from south Russia, the Vandals from northeastern Germany and the Franks and Goths from the east. Some of these barbarians were actually previously hired by the Romans as mercenaries; thus, they knew Roman war strategies and had a significant advantage.

After the invasion, western Europe was divided into several kingdoms. Not to mention that the region was now isolated from the eastern Greek culture. The barbarians had no interest in culture; therefore, progress and independent thinking was subject to significant slowdown.

Meanwhile, in eastern Europe, Muslims excelled in abstract and applied science. They also established number theory, algebra and invented the numerals. Interestingly, the numerals as they stand today are based on the number of angles when the numeral is inscribed in a circle. For example, the numeral 1 outlines one angle; the numeral 2 outlines two angles; etc. Really cool stuff. I realize this might be hard to visualize – feel free to check out this blog for some more insight.