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Jason Almendra

I took “Greek & Latin Roots of English” in college12h

How did medieval Europeans view ancient Greek and Roman culture?

Dark Age Europeans like the Burgundians and Visigoths had no appreciation for ancient Greece and Rome. Even Clovis king of the Franks was a bloodthirsty kinslayer. The Alamanni were simply pagans. The Suebi at least converted to Nicene-Chalcedonian Christianity. The Ostrogoths under Theodoric the Great continued to maintain Roman infrastructure and culture. They maintained contact with the Eastern Roman Empire. The Lombards who invaded Italy in 568AD were as savage as Vikings, except they had no longships.

However Charlemagne was a different kind of Germanic ruler. He brought in Alcuin of York to educate Frankish nobles and clergy, both males and females. The Irish, then Scots and then Northumbrian monks had been recopying ancient Greek and Latin books. Alcuin brought them back to Europe.