THE FALL OF ROME

Alaric I (370 - 410)

He was king of the Visigoths.

He was a Roman military leader for the Goth mercenary army.

He turned his army against the Roman Empire.

Rome fell in 476. This marked the start of the Middle Ages.

The Catholic Church took over Rome, and education was limited to the monks and clergy.

It wasn't until 768 that Charles the Great created an education system.

During the Dark Ages only a few of the Greek books were translated into Latin.

All we knew of Plato came from his dialogue the Timaeus.

Aristotle's Logic and Categories were also available.

By 1225 all the major works of Aristotle were translated.

Hypatia (? - 415)

She was a teacher, philosopher, mathematician, scientist, and head of a Neoplatonic school.
A Christian mob, possibly monks, stripped her naked and dragged her through the streets to a church. She was cut to death with sharp shells or pot fragments.

Boethius (488-525)

Johannes Scotus Eriugena (810-877)

Born in Ireland

Not to be confused with John Duns Scotus (1266-1308)

1.   He was a Neoplatonist.

2.   God encompasses all reality at once, and is not separate.

      How then is change or temporal reality possible?

      But there is evil in the world?

      Like Augustine he held that evil is the absence of good, or a limited viewpoint.

3.   Everything happens out of necessity.

4.   Everything flows from God, and returns to God.

5.   God is  infinite, perfect, a unity, a oneness that transcends all categories, so

     God can only be apprehended by a mystical experience - not reason.

6.  His books were condemned and burned.