The Dark Ages - Book I of III

The Charles Oman classic history of the Dark Ages, re-edited and re-formatted with new illustrations and maps.


Combined with copious illustrations, maps and images, the newly revised Dark Ages is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand a critical period in Western history that saw the transition from Roman Imperial rule to conquest-driven tribal rule and, ultimately, a flowering into the High Middle Ages. 


Oman provides one of the best historical examinations and explanations about the period widely known as the Dark Ages, when the end of total and complex Roman Imperial rule over Europe and the Mediterranean collapsed, taking the institutions that provided so much cultural sophistication and stability with it. Very much a work about how Europe, and the Western Tradition, survived after the Roman collapse. 


The Dark Ages has also been split into three books, mainly for ease of reading; the original book published in 1893 was a massive tome that covered the period from 476 CE to 918 CE. This first book in the new edition covers the period from 476 CE to 603 CE:


ODOACER AND THEODORIC 476-493

THEODORIC KING OF ITALY 493-526

THE EMPERORS AT CONSTANTINOPLE 476-527

CLOVIS I AND THE FRANKS IN GAUL 481-511

JUSTINIAN AND HIS WARS 528-540

JUSTINIAN 540-565 CE

THE EARLIER FRANKISH KINGS 511-561

THE VISIGOTHS IN SPAIN 531-603