Читать книгу Why Rome Fell - Michael Arnheim - Страница 15

The position in regard to the western empire is very different. As the Visigoth King Athaulf (r. 411–415) recognized, no “barbarian” kingdom of Gothia would ever come into existence (Orosius 7.43.4–6). The only “barbarians” who gave their name to a country were the Franks and the Angles though the language of France is a Romance language, like those of most of the rest of the western empire, and that of England (an integral part of Britain, from the area’s Roman name) has become suffused with Latin loanwords

The Roman Catholic Church, with its subdivision into dioceses and provinces, terms taken over directly from the Roman Empire, still has its headquarters in Rome, under a bishop who is called in Latin by the same title as the Roman emperor as head of the old pagan state religion: Pontifex Maximus (chief priest). Politically, too, the image of the western Roman Empire survives in the ideal of a united Europe. And a modern version of Roman Law still dominates the continent.