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FARTHER north and to the east was a tribe of people who were considered by both the Romans and the Germanic tribes to be very fierce. They were called Huns. They lived far off in the eastern forests, in a part of the world that no one then knew much about.
Even the Germans themselves, fierce fighters though they were, feared the Huns, and it was chiefly because they were afraid of them and wanted to get away from them as far as they could that the Germans went over the borders into the Roman Empire. It was much easier to fight the Romans than it was to fight the Huns.
The leader of the Huns, named Attila, boasted that nothing ever grew again where his horse had trod. He and his Huns had conquered and laid waste the country all the way from the East almost to Paris. At last a Roman-Germanic army made a stand against them and fought a great battle at a place not so very far from Paris, a place called Châlons.
The Germans fought desperately; they fought madly; and the Huns were beaten. It was lucky they were beaten, for if they had won, these wild barbarians might have conquered and ruled the world. So the battle of Châlons, 451 A.D.,is written in history in capital letters and large figures—CHÂLONS, 451.
After Attila and his Huns had been beaten at Châlons, they then went after the Romans. Turning back they went down into Italy, where there was no one able to stop them. They destroyed everything as they moved on. The people of the country didn't even attempt to fight. They thought the Huns were monsters and simply fled before them. On to Rome the Huns went.
Now, there was in Rome at this time a pope named Leo I which means Lion Leo, of course, was neither a soldier nor a fighting man, but h and his cardinals and bishops went out from Rome to meet Attila. They were not clad in armor,and none of them carried any weapons with which to fight. The pope and those with him were dressed in gorgeous robes and richly colored garments. It seemed as if they must be slaughtered by Attila and his Huns like lambs before wolves.
Something strange happened when Attila and the pope met; exactly what no one knows. Perhaps Attila was awed by the pomp and splendor of those Christians. Perhaps he feared what heaven might do to him if he destroyed those holy beings who had come out to meet him as if from heaven. At any rate, he did not destroy them, nor did he enter Rome, but turned about and left Italy, left it for good and all, and he and his Huns returned to the unknown land to the north from which they had come.
Now that the dreaded Attila was out of the way, the Vandals in Africa saw their chance to attack Rome. Attila had barely left Italy before the Vandals crossed over from Africa and sailed up the Tiber to Rome. They captured the city without any difficulty, helped themselves to everything they wanted, and carried away all Rome's treasures.
Poor old Rome! The Eternal Citywas at last beaten, beaten for good! It had been the champion for a great many years. But now all Rome's strength was gone. The city was no longer able to defend itself. Rome's last emperor had the high-sounding name Romulus Augustulus , the same name as the first king,Romulus, with the addition of Augustulus, which means the little Augustus. But in spite of his high-sounding name, Romulus Augustulus could do nothing.
It was in the year 476 that Rome was beaten. The western half of the empire, of which Rome had been the capital, broke up into pieces, and the pieces were ruled over by various Germanic rulers. Like Humpty Dumpty, Rome had had a great fall, and all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put it together again. Only the eastern part, of which Constantinople was the capital, still went on. This eastern half was not conquered by the barbarians, and it still kept going for nearly a thousand years longer until—but wait till we come to that time in history.
People speak of this date, 476, as the end of Ancient History. A date like 476 is very convenient and definite, and people like definite dates, but of course Ancient History didn't come to a sudden end the way one year comes to an end on December 31 and another year begins at once. You might say that Ancient History began to fade away long before 476 and that a new era began to fade in over a long period of time both before and after 476. Still, 476 is a good date to remember.
This new era, called the Middle Ages or the medieval period, began, then, in 476 and lasted until 1453. What happened in 1453? You will learn that later.
During the early part of the Middle Ages, till, about the year 1000, the Germanic peoples were the chief people in Europe. They were quick to learn many things from the Romans whom they had conquered. Even before, they had conquered Rome, most of them had already become Christians. They also learned Latin.
Without the unity of the Roman Empire, people no longer traveled very much or very far. This meant that people from places like Spain and Italy and Gaul didn't talk to each other very often. Over the years they began to use different expressions and to pronounce words differently. As centuries passed, the common people no longer spoke the old classical Latin but spoke what were really the new languages of Spanish, Italian, and French. These were different from Latin and different from each other, too. However, because they all grew out of Latin, they have a lot of words that are very much alike.
In Britain, the Anglo-Saxons would have nothing to do with the Romans and would not use the Roman language but kept their own language. After a while this language of the Anglo-Saxons was called English. The Anglo-Saxons also kept their own religion until about one hundred years later, or about 600 A.D..
At that time some English slaves were being sold in the slave-market in Rome. They were very handsome. The pope saw them and asked who they were.
“They are Angles,” he was told.
“Angles!” exclaimed he, “They are handsome enough to be ‘angels,'and they should certainly be Christians.”
Rome sent some missionaries to England to convert the English: to change Angles to angels. So at last the English, too, became Christians.
在遥远的北方和欧洲以东的地方分布着一个部落，这个部落的人被罗马人和日耳曼部落的人看作凶猛无比，他们被称为匈奴人。匈奴人的故乡在遥远的东方森林里，当时是世界上一个不太为人所知的地方。
尽管日耳曼人本身都是十分勇猛的战士，但他们还是害怕匈奴人。正因为日耳曼人害怕匈奴人，想尽可能地远离他们，所以日耳曼人才越过边界侵入罗马帝国。他们觉得和罗马人打仗比对付匈奴人要容易得多。
当时匈奴的首领名叫阿提拉，他曾经吹嘘说，凡是他的马踩过的地方，从此寸草不长。阿提拉率领匈奴人从东一路向西攻占，差不多打到了巴黎，他们把所到之处都夷为平地。最后，一支由罗马人和日耳曼人联合组成的军队前去抵抗匈奴人的进攻，他们在离巴黎不远的一个叫沙隆的地方打了一场大战役。
日耳曼人拼死战斗，疯狂搏杀，匈奴人最终被打败了。幸亏他们被打败了，因为如果他们得胜的话，这些疯狂的野蛮人可能就会征服和统治全世界呢。所以，公元451年的沙隆战役在历史书中是用大写字母、大号字符特别记录的——451，沙隆之战。
阿提拉和他率领的匈奴人在沙隆被打败之后，他们此时跟在罗马人后面。匈奴人就此转过身，向南进入意大利，在那儿他们所向披靡。他们一路上烧杀抢掠，毁坏了一切，当地人甚至没有勇气去抵挡一下。他们视匈奴人为怪物，匈奴人一出现，他们就望风而逃。就这样，匈奴人到了罗马。
此时，罗马有一位教皇名叫利奥一世，在拉丁语中，“利奥”的意思是“狮子”。当然，利奥一世既不是军人，也不是战士。但是，他带领着枢机团和主教们走出罗马，前去面见阿提拉。他们既没穿盔甲，又手无寸铁。教皇和他的随从都穿着华丽的长袍和色彩艳丽的衣服，他们就这样去见阿提拉和匈奴人，就好像一群小羊来到一群野狼面前，似乎难免被杀。
当阿提拉和利奥一世教皇相遇的时候，不可思议的事情发生了，现在已没有人知道当时的具体情况。可能阿提拉看到这些基督徒这样的气派和气势，不禁感到敬畏，也可能是他害怕如果杀死这些仿佛来自天国与他会面的圣人们，上天会惩罚他。无论是哪种情况，总之他没有伤害他们，也没有入侵罗马，而是转身离开了意大利，永久地离开了意大利。然后阿提拉和匈奴人回到了他们在北边那不为人知的老家。
既然令人恐惧的阿提拉已经不再挡道，非洲的汪达尔人觉得他们进攻罗马的大好时机来了。阿提拉前脚刚走，汪达尔人就从非洲乘船越过地中海，沿台伯河向上航行到了罗马。他们不费吹灰之力就攻下了罗马城，然后随心所欲地窃取一切，把罗马的珍宝洗劫一空。
可怜的古罗马！这座“不朽城”终于被打垮，而且是彻底被打垮了。罗马当了好多年的世界霸主，而如今罗马所有的实力都荡然无存了。这个城市再也没有能力自保了。罗马最后一位皇帝有个听起来很堂皇的名字叫“罗慕洛•奥古斯都卢斯”，这名字和罗马的第一个国王罗慕洛相同，再加上“奥古斯都卢斯”，“奥古斯都卢斯”意思就是“小奥古斯都”
。但是，尽管这个皇帝的名字听起来很堂皇，他却已无法挽救罗马帝国了。
罗马城的失陷是在公元476年。从此，以罗马为都城的西罗马帝国四分五裂，分别被不同部落的日耳曼人统治。有一首童谣是这样的：“矮胖子坐墙头，矮胖子栽跟头，国王的马，国王的兵，无法还他原来的样。”罗马帝国就像这个矮胖子一样栽了个大跟头，再也无法拼凑到一起了。只有以君士坦丁堡为都城的东罗马帝国还继续存在。东罗马帝国没有被野蛮人征服，又延续了将近一千年，直到——还是等到我们讲到历史中的那个时代再说吧。
人们把476年这个年份作为古代史的结束。像476年这样的日期既好记又明确，人们喜欢明确的日期。但是，古代史显然不会是在这一年就忽然结束了，这和每一年到12月31日结束，新一年马上开始，是完全不同的。你可以说古代史在476年之前很久就开始渐渐消失，而一个新的时代也要经过476年之前之后很长一段时间才开始渐渐显露。尽管如此，476年是个很好记的日期。
那么，这个被称为“中世纪”或“中古时代”的新时代，起始于476年，延续到1453年。在1453年发生了什么呢？以后会知道。
中世纪的早期，从476年到大约1000年的时候，日耳曼各民族是欧洲的主要民族。他们很快就从被他们征服的罗马人那里学到了很多东西，甚至在他们征服罗马之前，他们中的大多数人就已经成了基督徒，他们还学习拉丁文。
统一的罗马帝国不复存在，人们也不再经常旅行或去远处了。这就意味着来自西班牙、意大利和高卢这些不同地区的人们很少有相互交流的机会。许多年后，他们开始使用不同的表达方式，说话的语音也不一样了。好几个世纪过去了，老百姓都不再讲陈旧、古典的拉丁文，而是使用西班牙语、意大利语和法语这些真正新的语言。这些语言都不同于拉丁文，相互之间也不同。不过，因为它们都是源自拉丁文，所以有很多词汇都非常相似。
在不列颠，盎格鲁－撒克逊人不会和罗马人有任何关系，也不会使用罗马语，而是坚持使用自己的语言。一段时间后，盎格鲁－撒克逊人的这种语言被称为“英语”。盎格鲁－撒克逊人还一直维持着自己的宗教直到大约一百年后，也就是公元600年左右。
那个时期，有些英国奴隶在罗马的奴隶市场上被贩卖。他们都长得十分英俊。有一次罗马教皇看到了他们，问他们是什么人。
“他们是盎格鲁人。”别人告诉他。
“盎格鲁！”他喊道，“他们这样英俊，应该是‘天使'才对。他们应该成为基督徒。”
后来，罗马就派了一些传教士去英国，要使英国人改信基督教，要把盎格鲁人变成“天使”。就这样，英国人最终也成了基督徒。