The Dark Ages

The time we call the Middle Ages lasted for 1,000 years. The first few hundred years of the Middle Ages, until about 800, are often called the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages began with the fall of the Roman Empire in 476. For some time the empire had been growing weaker. Ro¬man soldiers who were in the British Isles, northern Europe, and other faraway parts of the empire had been called back to protect Rome. Tribes of barbarians were pushing into the empire from the north and east. The barbarians proved too strong for the Romans. They swarmed over all of western Europe that had been ruled by Rome.
The barbarians were fierce, wild fighters. They plundered the palaces of the rulers of Rome. They let the famous roads that led to Rome fall into decay. The barbarians could not read or write and cared nothing at all for the learning that had come down from the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians and Greeks. Life in the lands they overran came to be not very much better than the life lived by the cave men in much earlier days. No wonder the time is called the Dark Ages.
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