In ~400 the Western parts of the empire existed as it had for >200 years. By 450 it was effectively restricted to Italy and parts of southern Gaul, and in 476 it was officially terminated by the death of the last Western Emperor.
Not quite accurate; in 376 a big bunch of barbarians half-forced, half-negotiated their way into the Empire, became disloyal subjects, and subsequently pillaged the Balkans and defeated killed an (Eastern) emperor and his army. So it’s better to say that the Western Empire declined almost entirely during the 100 years 376-476. (Politically, militarily, and on a local rule level this is true. Culturally the collapse did take longer in some places.)
Culturally the collapse did take longer in some places
It’d argue that culturally the Roman Empire didn’t end: today 200 million Europeans (and even more outside Europe) speak languages descended from Latin; to a first approximation, all writing is in the Roman script; and the Roman Catholic Church is the largest religion in areas and populations much greater than ancient Rome.
Oh and that last paragraph included c.15 words derived from Latin.
A few small, scattered, out of context, highly mutated facets of Roman culture have survived here and there. None of these, except Christianity, were among those most important to Romans, or those they saw as primarily distinguishing them from other cultures.
And RC Christianity, apart from the name, is vastly different today than in 500 CE (and both are vastly different from RC Christianity in, say, 1300 CE). A modern Catholic would certainly be considered a sinner and a heretic many times over in 500 CE, and probably vice versa as well (I haven’t checked).
Incidentally, we are corresponding in a language that has much more in common with old Germanic tongues than with Latin, but it doesn’t follow that we retain any of their culture. And here in Israel I talk and write a Hebrew which is quite similar to late Roman-era Hebrew—certainly more so than English is to German or Latin—and Orthodox Jews are the biggest religious segment in the country, but it doesn’t follow that we (the non-religious people) have anything in common with ancient Jewish culture. (Consider that the vast majority of Europeans don’t strictly follow RC rules either.)
Not quite accurate; in 376 a big bunch of barbarians half-forced, half-negotiated their way into the Empire, became disloyal subjects, and subsequently pillaged the Balkans and defeated killed an (Eastern) emperor and his army. So it’s better to say that the Western Empire declined almost entirely during the 100 years 376-476. (Politically, militarily, and on a local rule level this is true. Culturally the collapse did take longer in some places.)
It’d argue that culturally the Roman Empire didn’t end: today 200 million Europeans (and even more outside Europe) speak languages descended from Latin; to a first approximation, all writing is in the Roman script; and the Roman Catholic Church is the largest religion in areas and populations much greater than ancient Rome.
Oh and that last paragraph included c.15 words derived from Latin.
A few small, scattered, out of context, highly mutated facets of Roman culture have survived here and there. None of these, except Christianity, were among those most important to Romans, or those they saw as primarily distinguishing them from other cultures.
And RC Christianity, apart from the name, is vastly different today than in 500 CE (and both are vastly different from RC Christianity in, say, 1300 CE). A modern Catholic would certainly be considered a sinner and a heretic many times over in 500 CE, and probably vice versa as well (I haven’t checked).
Incidentally, we are corresponding in a language that has much more in common with old Germanic tongues than with Latin, but it doesn’t follow that we retain any of their culture. And here in Israel I talk and write a Hebrew which is quite similar to late Roman-era Hebrew—certainly more so than English is to German or Latin—and Orthodox Jews are the biggest religious segment in the country, but it doesn’t follow that we (the non-religious people) have anything in common with ancient Jewish culture. (Consider that the vast majority of Europeans don’t strictly follow RC rules either.)