The Fractured Legacy of Rome

The relationship between Western Europe and its classical past is one of disrupted continuity. While much of Western culture traces its origins to ancient Greece and Rome, most surviving traditions underwent profound transformations. This is particularly evident in the linguistic landscape: Latin, once the unifying language of the Roman Empire, fragmented into distinct Romance languages across former imperial territories. Meanwhile, a revived form of Latin persisted as the language of religion and scholarship, largely due to the efforts of Christian missionaries from Anglo-Saxon Britain—an unexpected cultural force emerging from Rome’s northwestern frontier.

By contrast, the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire maintained an unbroken connection to classical Greek heritage. Koine Greek—a lingua franca derived from the Attic dialect—remained Byzantium’s official language, allowing it to avoid the cultural rupture experienced by the West. As French philosopher Rémi Brague observed, this linguistic continuity gave Byzantine elites an unchallenged claim to classical literary heritage, fostering cultural confidence. The West, lacking such direct lineage, developed what Brague describes as a “sense of alienation and inferiority” toward its classical origins—a nostalgia that paradoxically fueled Europe’s reinvention as the heir of Rome.

The Islamic Catalyst

The divergence between East and West cannot be attributed solely to differing relationships with antiquity. The rise of Islam in the 7th century fundamentally reshaped the Mediterranean world. Historian Henri Pirenne argued that Islam’s rapid expansion—from Arabia to Spain in the west and Afghanistan in the east—shattered the Mediterranean’s ancient unity more decisively than earlier Germanic invasions. The Frankish Carolingian dynasty’s reorganization of Western Europe under Christian leadership marked the true beginning of the medieval era.

Pirenne’s thesis remains controversial. Critics note that Byzantine trade policies—not Islamic conquest—may have disrupted Mediterranean commerce. Moreover, Pirenne overstated institutional continuities between Rome and the Merovingian Franks while dramatizing the Carolingian takeover. By the mid-8th century, Carolingian mayors like Charles Martel (victor at Tours in 732) already held real power. Nevertheless, Pirenne correctly identified Islam’s role in finalizing the East-West split—a division that enabled the historic alliance between the papacy and the Franks.

The Papal-Frankish Alliance

Facing Lombard threats to Rome, Pope Zacharias turned to the Carolingians when Byzantine emperors—preoccupied with Islamic advances and iconoclasm controversies—failed to help. In 751, Zacharias crowned Pepin the Short as Frankish king despite his usurpation of the throne. Three years later, Pepin defeated the Lombards and donated conquered territories (including Rome and Ravenna) to the papacy—creating the Papal States.

Pepin’s son Charlemagne expanded this partnership. After crushing the Lombards in 774, he campaigned against Saxons, Bavarians, and Spanish Muslims. On Christmas Day 800, Pope Leo III crowned him Emperor—a provocative act given that a woman, Irene, ruled in Constantinople. This “translation of empire” marked Western Europe’s political emancipation from Byzantium, though Constantinople only recognized Charlemagne’s title in 812 after he dropped “Roman” from his imperial claims.

Carolingian Renaissance and Its Limits

Charlemagne’s reign fostered a cultural revival. Monasteries became centers of education, preserving classical texts while developing Carolingian minuscule script. Anglo-Saxon scholar Alcuin promoted Latin reform and vernacular studies at Charlemagne’s Aachen court. This “Carolingian Renaissance” laid foundations for Western rationalism through rediscovered works like Boethius’s Aristotelian commentaries.

Yet the empire’s unity proved fragile. Charlemagne’s grandsons partitioned it in 843 (Treaty of Verdun), creating precursors to modern France and Germany. When the Carolingian line ended in 924, the imperial title lapsed until Otto I’s 962 coronation—an event that began the Holy Roman Empire but lacked Charlemagne’s unifying vision.

The Enduring Divide

The East-West schism had lasting consequences. Byzantium preserved classical Greek learning until its 1453 fall, allowing direct transmission to the Renaissance. The West, meanwhile, reconstructed antiquity through fragmented lenses—a process that ultimately fueled innovation. As historian Edward Gibbon noted, classical texts served as “a bridge between the ages of Augustus and Charlemagne,” keeping knowledge alive until Europe’s “more mature season.”

Charlemagne’s empire was not Europe but a pre-European construct. Its dissolution into competing kingdoms mirrored the continent’s enduring pluralism—a diversity that would define Europe’s future. The medieval divergence between Latin West and Greek East thus set the stage for contrasting modern identities: one rooted in reinvented tradition, the other in unbroken continuity.