Much of the history of pre-modern European society was shaped by the migration of various groups of peoples into and across the European landscape. The Celts moved from their homeland in Central Europe and settled throughout much of Western Europe, bringing their language and culture with them. The Romans were yet another migrant group, and undoubtedly one of the most culturally impactful groups because they enforced their political, legal, and religious customs in the territories they settled. Similarly, the German-speaking tribes who moved into Roman territory as the Roman Empire fell; the Vikings, who emerged from Scandinavia in the late 8th century CE and settled throughout much of Western Europe; and Muslim peoples, who emerged from the Arabian Peninsula in the mid-7th century CE and settled in Spain and Sicily, had a significant influence on the formation of early European culture. We'll examine all of these groups and their impact on the history and culture of Western Europe in the pre-modern period.

1. Pre-modern European Migrations: Roman Migrations
Map from Lynn Hunt, The Making of the West, Volume 1, 3rd edition.
• Early conflicts
• The Oscans, 500-400
• Etruscan Veii, 396
• The Gauls and the Battle of Allia, 390
• War with the Latin League, 341-338
• Samnite Wars, 343-341, 326-304 and 298-
290
• War with Tarentum and Pyrrhus of Epirus,
280-275
• “Pyrrhic victory”

2. Pre-modern European Migrations: Roman Migrations
Map from Lynn Hunt, The Making of the West, Volume 1, 3rd edition.
• Phoenicians and Carthage
• Punic from Poeni
• The First Punic War, 264-241
• The Second Punic War, 218-201
• Hannibal Barca, d. 183/182
• Battle of Cannae, 216
• Publius Cornelius Scipio (aka Scipio
Africanus), d. 183
• Battle of Zama, 202
• The Third Punic War, 149-146
• Numidia
• “Carthago delinda est”

3. Pre-modern European Migrations: Roman Migrations
Map from Lynn Hunt, The Making of the West, Volume 1, 3rd edition.
• The Macedonian Wars
• Pergamum
• The Aetolian League
• War with Macedon, 215-205; 200-196;
171-168
• The Syrian War, 192-189
• Seleucid advances into Asia Minor
• Peace of Apamea, 188
• Divided Asia Minor between Pergamum,
Rome, and Rhodes
• Destruction of Corinth, 146
• The Achaean League

4. Pre-modern European Migrations: Roman Migrations
Map from Lynn Hunt, The Making of the West, volume 1, 3rd edition.
• Spain, 155-133, 80-73, 55-52
• Southern Gaul, 113-101
• Numidia, 112-105
• Pontus, 90-85, 74-63
• In 63, Pontus, Cilicia, and Syria were
made into the province of Asia
• Nearby kingdoms of Cappadocia and
Armenia became client kingdoms
• Judaea made into a client kingdom in
63 BC-6 AD
• Northern Gaul and Britain, 58-51
• Parthia (modern Iraq), 53, 39-8, 36
• Egypt, 31-30

5. Pre-modern European Migrations: Roman Migrations
Image of Kirk Douglas as Spartacus, in Spartacus, 1960.
• Conquest and cultural change
• Land
• Municipia
• Coloniae
• Provinciae
• Centuriation
• Plunder (gold, silver, etc.)
• Sulla’s plundering of Delphi, 87
• Slaves
• Sicilian slave revolts, 135-132
and 104-100
• Spartacus slave revolt, 74-72

6. Left—Centuriation of the Po Valley; right—Awlad al’Abid, Tunisia. A centuria is
square with sides 700 meters in length.

7. Roman slaves in collars, relief from Smyrna (Izmir, Turkey), 200 AD, in Ashmolean
Museum, Oxford.

8. Pre-modern European Migrations: Roman Migrations
Reconstruction of a Roman villa, built in the 1st century AD, now the Open-Air
Museum at Hechingen-Stein, Germany.
• Conquest and cultural change
• Latifundiae
• Large farms that grew cash crops,
relied on slave labor
• Mystery cults
• Elusinian mysteries
• Cult of Isis and Serapis
• Cult of Mithras
• Magna Mater
• Adoption of Greek philosophy
• Stoicism
• Luxus (luxury, wealth)

9. Left—Capitoline Isis, 138-117 BC, Capitoline Museum, Rome; right—Persephone and
Pluto as Isis and Serapis, Archaeological Museum, Heraklion, Crete.

10. Left—statue of Mithras slaying a bull, 1st century AD, British Museum, London; right-
-Magna Mater/Cybele, 50 AD, Getty Museum, Malibu, California.