What happened to all the scholars and scientists of Western Rome during the barbarian invasions?

Upvote:-3

But what happened to all the scholars and sciencists of Western Rome during the Barbarian Invasions?

They didn't pass on their knowledge, and then died of old age.

  1. There were a lot of Latin scholars in the 2nd and 3rd centuries.
  2. People die.
  3. The way that knowledge gets lost is by not being transmitted from generation to generation.
  4. In general, society, even many in the upper classes got poorer. Poor people and those focused on fighting for power don't pay for education.

Upvote:0

I tend to agree with one of the above written statements regarding the existence of Roman Scholars around the 400's AD/CE. The scholarship during this time was primarily located in the East, in places, such as Alexandria, Egypt, as well as Ephesus in Western Asia Minor-(present-day Turkey), Antioch in Syria and Constantinople. There was 1 Roman oriented Library in Athens, known as Hadrian's Library, however, Rome proper and much of the Italian peninsula, during the 400's AD/CE, were too preoccupied with their own internal survival which was constantly under attack by Germanic barbarians. If there were any ethnic Roman scholars, educators, academics or librarians living during this tumultuous time, they were probably residing in one of the above mentioned cosmopolitan cities within the Eastern half of the Roman Empire. (And it should also be noted that much of the scholarship during this time, was Christian oriented).

Upvote:11

There is no analogy in this respect between the fall of the Western empire and the Eastern one. Decline of ancient scholarship happened before the main barbarian invasions, in both East and West. When the Academy in Athens was closed by the emperor's edict, the last few scholars emigrated to Persia. Many years later they were allowed to return, under the condition that they will not teach. What remained of scholarship in Europe after the spread of Christianity was exclusively "Christian scholarship".

Takeover of the Western empire by the "Barbarians" was a slow, gradual process, in which most of these Babarians became Christians. Christian scholars were not especially endangered by this process.

Concerning the Turkish conquest of Constantinople, the reason why many scholars moved was probably not the special hostility of the Turks to scholars, but general conditions of conquest by people of another religion. So those who could, emigrated to Christian countries.

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