Introduction to the Dark Ages

Occasionally, a natural event has a dramatic effect on the world. Recent discovery shows how it shifted power from Constantinople back to Rome.

A catastrophic volcanic eruption in 535-536 AD made 536 and 541 the worst years for trees in the past two millennia. [1] The effects were worldwide, as told by writers in Italy, Constantinople, and China. Sulfate spikes appear in arctic ice cores for the mid-sixth century, which pinpoints volcanoes as the source. One report said the sky was darkened for a year and a half, with the sun appearing for only about four hours each day. The air was clouded with fine ash worldwide; the earth would have been colder, and evaporation of water much less, producing dry air and less rainfall. Hence, there were very poor growth conditions for trees and crops.

One result was the Justinian plague in 541-542 AD (bubonic plague; fleas spread it only at <25°C). In Asia, Turkic cows fared better amid scarce food than Avar horses. So the Avars came west, due to the long-lasting drought, and enfeebled the Roman Empire and its capital of Constantinople in the East.

Kelts (Celts) in Western England and Ireland traded with Rome, which brought in the bubonic plague. As the Kelts shrank in West England, Anglo-Saxons came in from the east and became dominant. An excellent video about 536 AD is “The Year That The Sun Disappeared.” [2] The history of the world, as recorded by Procopius, is outlined below.

PROCOPIUS’ HISTORY: CA. 539 AD

Procopius of Caesarea, History of the Wars [3]

V i 2 (Book V, chapter 1, verse 2) — Opens with the reign of Zeno in Byzantium (AD 474-491). Romulus Augustus, as a lad, becomes emperor in Rome (July 31, 475).

V i 5‑6 — Odoacer deposes Romulus Augustus (July 23, 476), Orestes killed (July 28, 476).

V i 14 — King Theodoric/Ostrogoths drive Odoacer from Rome to Ravenna (489). Odoacer defeated and slain (493).

V ii 2 — Justinian becomes East-Roman emperor in Constantinople (527). Volcanic eruption, spewing ash progressively into the upper atmosphere (535 February). Cold climate results in poor growth of trees, and almost certainly of crops (storage of old crops delays famine).

V v 18 — General Belisarius conquers Sicily from King Gelimer/Vandals (December 31, 535).

V vii 37 — End of 1st year of the Gothic Wars (536 Spring Equinox). Sun darkened through the year, another poor year for crops worldwide, hunger follows (536-537).

V xiv 14 — Belisarius drives out Ostrogoths, conquers Rome (December 9, 536).

V xvii ‑ VI ii — King Vittigis/Ostrogoths besiege Rome (537 Winter). End of 2nd year of the Gothic Wars (537 Spring Equinox).

V xxv 13 — Belisarius deposes “chief priest,” Pope Silverius, and replaces him with Vigilius (537).

VI iii 1 — Famine and pestilence in Rome (537 Spring).

VI x 13 — Ostrogoths lift siege of Rome and flee north-ward after 1 year and 9 days (538? Spring).

VI xii 41 — End of 3rd year of the Gothic Wars (538 Spring Equinox).

VI xiii 1 — Belisarius leaves Rome to pursue Ostrogoths (538 Summer Solstice).

VI xxii 25 — End of 4th year of the Gothic Wars (539 Spring Equinox).

VI xxix — Belisarius subjects King Vittigis/Ostrogoths and their capital (Ravenna) (539/540).

VI xxx 30 — Belisarius recalled, leaves Italy for Byzantium. End of 5th year of the Gothic Wars (540 Spring Equinox). Again, a poor year for crops worldwide (541).

VII i 49 — End of 6th year of the Gothic Wars (541 Spring Equinox). Justinian plague (bubonic plague) in 541 and especially 542. Roman Empire (Constantinople) is weakened.

Belisarius, General of Justinian

HOW PAPACY CAME TO POWER

Interpretation: A pope could not have become a civil power until after East-Roman General Belisarius had driven out the Ostrogoths (who were Arian), and until Pope Silverius had been replaced (537 AD), nor likely until Belisarius had left Rome (538 Summer Solstice). But Pope Vigilius was in charge of Rome by the time Belisarius had tricked the Ostrogoths into submission and then left Italy altogether (540 Spring Equinox). While that leaves a span of 21 months during which Vigilius could have begun to exercise political power, a tentative date of about AD 539 should be approximately correct.

Later in the century, Pope Gregory I (590-604) “saw that Rome’s poor were fed and that the church fabrics of the city were repaired and maintained. He managed the estates of the church so successfully that their revenues were increased, but with humane treatment of those who cultivated their lands. He raised armies, kept Rome inviolate from Lombard attacks, negotiated with both Lombards and imperial officials, and on his own authority made peace with the Lombards. During his pontificate he was the outstanding figure in Italy, in its political as well as its ecclesiastical life. He … insisted on the primacy of Rome, especially against the claims of the Patriarch of Constantinople.” [4]

One notes a parallel 1260 years later: French Gen. Berthier marched to Rome, entered unopposed on 10 February 1798, and, proclaiming a Roman Republic, demanded of the pope the renunciation of his temporal authority (he was near Florence in late February 1798). The pope then died in Valence, France, July 28, 1799; Papacy had been terminated! Napoleon hastily returned from Egypt, took power, and prevented the election of a successor until March 1800 — in Venice (far from Rome and outside French-occupied territory).

— Br. James Parkinson

 

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[1] Editor’s comment: The source of the eruption has yet to be positively identified. “Michael Sigl, now of the University of Bern, found that nearly every unusually cold summer over the past 2500 years was preceded by a volcanic eruption.” His team identifies the source in the northern hemisphere. Gibbons, A., “Eruption made 536 ‘the worst year to be alive,’ ” Science, 16 November 2018, Volume 362, 6416, page 733. However, David Keys notes that ice cores from Antarctica also show evidence of a huge volcanic eruption in the mid-6th century AD. He finds that the volcano Krakatoa had a record catastrophic eruption in February 535 AD that was far greater than its 1883 eruption, which killed 36,000 people and is the greatest eruption in modern centuries.

[2] See www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbwyR5jLSUQ, 536 AD: “The Year That The Sun Disappeared.”

[3] Procopius of Caesarea, History of the Wars, Loeb Classical Library, Volumes III and IV (Books V-VII), translator H. B. Dewing (1962, 1968).

[4] Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of Christianity, Harper & Brothers, New York (1953) pages 338-339.

 

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