rajpurkar/squad huggingface dataset:
Title: Middle_Ages

The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, first used by Bruni.[A] For Europe as a whole, 1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. Depending on the context, events such as Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the Americas in 1492, the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, or the Protestant Reformation in 1517 are sometimes used. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period. For Spain, dates commonly used are the death of King Ferdinand II in 1516, the death of Queen Isabella I of Castile in 1504, or the conquest of Granada in 1492. Historians from Romance-speaking countries tend to divide the Middle Ages into two parts: an earlier "High" and later "Low" period. English-speaking historians, following their German counterparts, generally subdivide the Middle Ages into three intervals: "Early", "High", and "Late". In the 19th century, the entire Middle Ages were often referred to as the "Dark Ages",[B] but with the adoption of these subdivisions, use of this term was restricted to the Early Middle Ages, at least among historians.

Question: What date is usually given as the beginning of the Middle Ages?
Answer: 476

Question: Who was the first writer to date the Middle Ages from 476?
Answer: Bruni

Question: When is the Middle Ages generally considered to have ended?
Answer: 1500

Question: In what year did the Turks conquer Constantinople?
Answer: 1453

Question: When did Ferdinand II die?
Answer: 1516
Title: Middle_Ages

The Roman Empire reached its greatest territorial extent during the 2nd century AD; the following two centuries witnessed the slow decline of Roman control over its outlying territories. Economic issues, including inflation, and external pressure on the frontiers combined to make the 3rd century politically unstable, with emperors coming to the throne only to be rapidly replaced by new usurpers. Military expenses increased steadily during the 3rd century, mainly in response to the war with Sassanid Persia, which revived in the middle of the 3rd century. The army doubled in size, and cavalry and smaller units replaced the legion as the main tactical unit. The need for revenue led to increased taxes and a decline in numbers of the curial, or landowning, class, and decreasing numbers of them willing to shoulder the burdens of holding office in their native towns. More bureaucrats were needed in the central administration to deal with the needs of the army, which led to complaints from civilians that there were more tax-collectors in the empire than tax-payers.

Question: In what century did the Roman Empire achieve its greatest extent?
Answer: the 2nd century AD

Question: In what century did the revival of Persia occur under the Sassanids?
Answer: 3rd century

Question: How much did the size of the Roman army increase in the 3rd century?
Answer: doubled

Question: What did the need for increased revenue to pay for the Roman army lead to an increase in?
Answer: taxes

Question: What is another term for the Roman landowning class?
Answer: curial
Title: Middle_Ages

The Emperor Diocletian (r. 284–305) split the empire into separately administered eastern and western halves in 286; the empire was not considered divided by its inhabitants or rulers, as legal and administrative promulgations in one division were considered valid in the other.[C] In 330, after a period of civil war, Constantine the Great (r. 306–337) refounded the city of Byzantium as the newly renamed eastern capital, Constantinople. Diocletian's reforms strengthened the governmental bureaucracy, reformed taxation, and strengthened the army, which bought the empire time but did not resolve the problems it was facing: excessive taxation, a declining birthrate, and pressures on its frontiers, among others. Civil war between rival emperors became common in the middle of the 4th century, diverting soldiers from the empire's frontier forces and allowing invaders to encroach. For much of the 4th century, Roman society stabilised in a new form that differed from the earlier classical period, with a widening gulf between the rich and poor, and a decline in the vitality of the smaller towns. Another change was the Christianisation, or conversion of the empire to Christianity, a gradual process that lasted from the 2nd to the 5th centuries.

Question: In what year did Diocletian begin his reign?
Answer: 284

Question: When was the Roman Empire split into western and eastern administrative divisions?
Answer: 286

Question: What was the name of the city previously located on the site of Constantinople?
Answer: Byzantium

Question: During what century was the Roman conversion to Christianity considered complete?
Answer: 5th

Question: When did the rule of Constantine end?
Answer: 337
Title: Middle_Ages

In 376, the Ostrogoths, fleeing from the Huns, received permission from Emperor Valens (r. 364–378) to settle in the Roman province of Thracia in the Balkans. The settlement did not go smoothly, and when Roman officials mishandled the situation, the Ostrogoths began to raid and plunder.[D] Valens, attempting to put down the disorder, was killed fighting the Ostrogoths at the Battle of Adrianople on 9 August 378. As well as the threat from such tribal confederacies from the north, internal divisions within the empire, especially within the Christian Church, caused problems. In 400, the Visigoths invaded the Western Roman Empire and, although briefly forced back from Italy, in 410 sacked the city of Rome. In 406 the Alans, Vandals, and Suevi crossed into Gaul; over the next three years they spread across Gaul and in 409 crossed the Pyrenees Mountains into modern-day Spain. The Migration Period began, where various people, initially largely Germanic peoples, moved across Europe. The Franks, Alemanni, and the Burgundians all ended up in northern Gaul while the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes settled in Britain. In the 430s the Huns began invading the empire; their king Attila (r. 434–453) led invasions into the Balkans in 442 and 447, Gaul in 451, and Italy in 452. The Hunnic threat remained until Attila's death in 453, when the Hunnic confederation he led fell apart. These invasions by the tribes completely changed the political and demographic nature of what had been the Western Roman Empire.

Question: In what year did the Ostrogoths settle in the Roman Empire?
Answer: 376

Question: Who invited the Ostrogoths to settle in the Roman Empire?
Answer: Valens

Question: In what province did the Ostrogoths settle?
Answer: Thracia

Question: At what battle was the Emperor Valens killed?
Answer: the Battle of Adrianople

Question: When did the Battle of Adrianople occur?
Answer: 9 August 378
Title: Middle_Ages

By the end of the 5th century the western section of the empire was divided into smaller political units, ruled by the tribes that had invaded in the early part of the century. The deposition of the last emperor of the west, Romulus Augustus, in 476 has traditionally marked the end of the Western Roman Empire.[E] The Eastern Roman Empire, often referred to as the Byzantine Empire after the fall of its western counterpart, had little ability to assert control over the lost western territories. The Byzantine emperors maintained a claim over the territory, but none of the new kings in the west dared to elevate himself to the position of emperor of the west, Byzantine control of most of the Western Empire could not be sustained; the reconquest of the Italian peninsula and Mediterranean periphery by Justinian (r. 527–565) was the sole, and temporary, exception.

Question: Who was the last Western Roman Emperor?
Answer: Romulus Augustus

Question: When did the reign of the last Western Roman Emperor end?
Answer: 476

Question: What is another name for the Eastern Roman Empire?
Answer: Byzantine Empire

Question: What Eastern Roman Emperor reconquered Italy?
Answer: Justinian

Question: When did Justinian's reign end?
Answer: 565
Title: Middle_Ages

The political structure of Western Europe changed with the end of the united Roman Empire. Although the movements of peoples during this period are usually described as "invasions", they were not just military expeditions but migrations of entire peoples into the empire. Such movements were aided by the refusal of the western Roman elites to support the army or pay the taxes that would have allowed the military to suppress the migration. The emperors of the 5th century were often controlled by military strongmen such as Stilicho (d. 408), Aspar (d. 471), Ricimer (d. 472), or Gundobad (d. 516), who were partly or fully of non-Roman background. When the line of western emperors ceased, many of the kings who replaced them were from the same background. Intermarriage between the new kings and the Roman elites was common. This led to a fusion of Roman culture with the customs of the invading tribes, including the popular assemblies that allowed free male tribal members more say in political matters than was common in the Roman state. Material artefacts left by the Romans and the invaders are often similar, and tribal items were often modelled on Roman objects. Much of the scholarly and written culture of the new kingdoms was also based on Roman intellectual traditions. An important difference was the gradual loss of tax revenue by the new polities. Many of the new political entities no longer supported their armies through taxes, instead relying on granting them land or rents. This meant there was less need for large tax revenues and so the taxation systems decayed. Warfare was common between and within the kingdoms. Slavery declined as the supply weakened, and society became more rural.[F]

Question: When did Aspar die?
Answer: Aspar

Question: What year saw the death of Gundobad?
Answer: 516

Question: What notable Roman figure died in 408?
Answer: Stilicho

Question: The loss of what led to the differentiation between the Western Roman Empire and the new kingdoms?
Answer: tax revenue

Question: Rather than taxes, what did the new kingdoms use to support their armies?
Answer: land or rents
Title: Middle_Ages

Between the 5th and 8th centuries, new peoples and individuals filled the political void left by Roman centralised government. The Ostrogoths settled in Italy in the late 5th century under Theoderic (d. 526) and set up a kingdom marked by its co-operation between the Italians and the Ostrogoths, at least until the last years of Theodoric's reign. The Burgundians settled in Gaul, and after an earlier realm was destroyed by the Huns in 436 formed a new kingdom in the 440s. Between today's Geneva and Lyon, it grew to become the realm of Burgundy in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. In northern Gaul, the Franks and Britons set up small polities. The Frankish Kingdom was centred in north-eastern Gaul, and the first king of whom much is known is Childeric (d. 481).[G] Under Childeric's son Clovis (r. 509–511), the Frankish kingdom expanded and converted to Christianity. Britons, related to the natives of Britannia — modern-day Great Britain — settled in what is now Brittany.[H] Other monarchies were established by the Visigoths in Iberia, the Suevi in north-western Iberia, and the Vandals in North Africa. In the 6th century, the Lombards settled in northern Italy, replacing the Ostrogothic kingdom with a grouping of duchies that occasionally selected a king to rule over them all. By the late 6th century this arrangement had been replaced by a permanent monarchy.

Question: In what century did the Ostrogoths arrive in Italy?
Answer: 5th

Question: What Ostrogothic leader led his people into Italy?
Answer: Theoderic

Question: Who destroyed the Burgundian kingdom in 436?
Answer: the Huns

Question: In what part of Europe did the Burgundians settle?
Answer: Gaul

Question: Who was the first notable king of the Franks?
Answer: Childeric
Title: Middle_Ages

The invasions brought new ethnic groups to Europe, although some regions received a larger influx of new peoples than others. In Gaul for instance, the invaders settled much more extensively in the north-east than in the south-west. Slavic peoples settled in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkan Peninsula. The settlement of peoples was accompanied by changes in languages. The Latin of the Western Roman Empire was gradually replaced by languages based on, but distinct from, Latin, collectively known as Romance languages. These changes from Latin to the new languages took many centuries. Greek remained the language of the Byzantine Empire, but the migrations of the Slavs added Slavonic languages to Eastern Europe.

Question: People of what ethnicity settled in the Balkan Peninsula?
Answer: Slavic

Question: In what geographic region did most of the invaders settle in Gaul?
Answer: north-east

Question: What is the collective name for languages derived from Latin?
Answer: Romance languages

Question: What language was spoken in the Byzantine Empire?
Answer: Greek

Question: What languages were spoken by the Slavs?
Answer: Slavonic
Title: Middle_Ages

As Western Europe witnessed the formation of new kingdoms, the Eastern Roman Empire remained intact and experienced an economic revival that lasted into the early 7th century. There were fewer invasions of the eastern section of the empire; most occurred in the Balkans. Peace with Persia, the traditional enemy of Rome, lasted throughout most of the 5th century. The Eastern Empire was marked by closer relations between the political state and Christian Church, with doctrinal matters assuming an importance in eastern politics that they did not have in Western Europe. Legal developments included the codification of Roman law; the first effort—the Theodosian Code—was completed in 438. Under Emperor Justinian (r. 527–565), another compilation took place—the Corpus Juris Civilis. Justinian also oversaw the construction of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople and the reconquest of North Africa from the Vandals and Italy from the Ostrogoths, under Belisarius (d. 565). The conquest of Italy was not complete, as a deadly outbreak of plague in 542 led to the rest of Justinian's reign concentrating on defensive measures rather than further conquests. At the emperor's death, the Byzantines had control of most of Italy, North Africa, and a small foothold in southern Spain. Justinian's reconquests have been criticised by historians for overextending his realm and setting the stage for the Muslim conquests, but many of the difficulties faced by Justinian's successors were due not just to over-taxation to pay for his wars but to the essentially civilian nature of the empire, which made raising troops difficult.

Question: In what century did the economic revival in the Eastern Roman Empire end?
Answer: 7th

Question: In what century was there peace with one of Rome's traditional enemies?
Answer: 5th

Question: Where did most of the invasion in the Eastern Roman Empire take place?
Answer: the Balkans

Question: What year saw the completion of the Theodosian Code?
Answer: 438

Question: Who was Emperor when the Corpus Juris Civilis was compiled?
Answer: Justinian
Title: Middle_Ages

In the Eastern Empire the slow infiltration of the Balkans by the Slavs added a further difficulty for Justinian's successors. It began gradually, but by the late 540s Slavic tribes were in Thrace and Illyrium, and had defeated an imperial army near Adrianople in 551. In the 560s the Avars began to expand from their base on the north bank of the Danube; by the end of the 6th century they were the dominant power in Central Europe and routinely able to force the eastern emperors to pay tribute. They remained a strong power until 796. An additional problem to face the empire came as a result of the involvement of Emperor Maurice (r. 582–602) in Persian politics when he intervened in a succession dispute. This led to a period of peace, but when Maurice was overthrown, the Persians invaded and during the reign of Emperor Heraclius (r. 610–641) controlled large chunks of the empire, including Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor, until Heraclius' successful counterattack. In 628 the empire secured a peace treaty and recovered all of its lost territories.

Question: Who defeated the Eastern Roman Empire near Adrianople in 551?
Answer: Slavic tribes

Question: What tribe received tribute from the Eastern Roman emperors in the 6th century?
Answer: the Avars

Question: Near what river were the Avars originally based?
Answer: the Danube

Question: During the reign of what Emperor did the Persians occupy Egypt?
Answer: Heraclius

Question: In what year did the reign of Maurice end?
Answer: 602
Title: Middle_Ages

In Western Europe, some of the older Roman elite families died out while others became more involved with Church than secular affairs. Values attached to Latin scholarship and education mostly disappeared, and while literacy remained important, it became a practical skill rather than a sign of elite status. In the 4th century, Jerome (d. 420) dreamed that God rebuked him for spending more time reading Cicero than the Bible. By the 6th century, Gregory of Tours (d. 594) had a similar dream, but instead of being chastised for reading Cicero, he was chastised for learning shorthand. By the late 6th century, the principal means of religious instruction in the Church had become music and art rather than the book. Most intellectual efforts went towards imitating classical scholarship, but some original works were created, along with now-lost oral compositions. The writings of Sidonius Apollinaris (d. 489), Cassiodorus (d. c. 585), and Boethius (d. c. 525) were typical of the age.

Question: What author would Jerome rather read than the Bible?
Answer: Cicero

Question: In what year did Jerome die?
Answer: 420

Question: In what century did Gregory of Tours live?
Answer: 6th

Question: Along with art, how was religious instruction commonly received in the late 6th century?
Answer: music

Question: When was the death of Sidonius Apollinaris?
Answer: 489
Title: Middle_Ages

Changes also took place among laymen, as aristocratic culture focused on great feasts held in halls rather than on literary pursuits. Clothing for the elites was richly embellished with jewels and gold. Lords and kings supported entourages of fighters who formed the backbone of the military forces.[I] Family ties within the elites were important, as were the virtues of loyalty, courage, and honour. These ties led to the prevalence of the feud in aristocratic society, examples of which included those related by Gregory of Tours that took place in Merovingian Gaul. Most feuds seem to have ended quickly with the payment of some sort of compensation. Women took part in aristocratic society mainly in their roles as wives and mothers of men, with the role of mother of a ruler being especially prominent in Merovingian Gaul. In Anglo-Saxon society the lack of many child rulers meant a lesser role for women as queen mothers, but this was compensated for by the increased role played by abbesses of monasteries. Only in Italy does it appear that women were always considered under the protection and control of a male relative.

Question: What was the focus of aristocratic culture during this period?
Answer: great feasts

Question: Along with gold, what luxury was present on the clothes of the elite?
Answer: jewels

Question: Along with loyalty and honor, what virtue did the elite value?
Answer: courage

Question: In what society did women have status as abbesses?
Answer: Anglo-Saxon

Question: In what country did Gregory of Tours live?
Answer: Merovingian Gaul
Title: Middle_Ages

Peasant society is much less documented than the nobility. Most of the surviving information available to historians comes from archaeology; few detailed written records documenting peasant life remain from before the 9th century. Most the descriptions of the lower classes come from either law codes or writers from the upper classes. Landholding patterns in the West were not uniform; some areas had greatly fragmented landholding patterns, but in other areas large contiguous blocks of land were the norm. These differences allowed for a wide variety of peasant societies, some dominated by aristocratic landholders and others having a great deal of autonomy. Land settlement also varied greatly. Some peasants lived in large settlements that numbered as many as 700 inhabitants. Others lived in small groups of a few families and still others lived on isolated farms spread over the countryside. There were also areas where the pattern was a mix of two or more of those systems. Unlike in the late Roman period, there was no sharp break between the legal status of the free peasant and the aristocrat, and it was possible for a free peasant's family to rise into the aristocracy over several generations through military service to a powerful lord.

Question: How many people might live in a large peasant settlement?
Answer: 700

Question: What was a way in which a free peasant might become an aristocrat?
Answer: military service

Question: In what century did written records of peasant life begin to appear?
Answer: 9th

Question: Along with aristocratic writers, where do contemporary written descriptions of peasants come from?
Answer: law codes

Question: What field produces most of the finding about peasants from this era?
Answer: archaeology
Title: Middle_Ages

Roman city life and culture changed greatly in the early Middle Ages. Although Italian cities remained inhabited, they contracted significantly in size. Rome, for instance, shrank from a population of hundreds of thousands to around 30,000 by the end of the 6th century. Roman temples were converted into Christian churches and city walls remained in use. In Northern Europe, cities also shrank, while civic monuments and other public buildings were raided for building materials. The establishment of new kingdoms often meant some growth for the towns chosen as capitals. Although there had been Jewish communities in many Roman cities, the Jews suffered periods of persecution after the conversion of the empire to Christianity. Officially they were tolerated, if subject to conversion efforts, and at times were even encouraged to settle in new areas.

Question: About how many people lived in Rome at the end of the 500s?
Answer: 30,000

Question: What new use was found for Roman temples?
Answer: Christian churches

Question: What group was notably persecuted after the Roman Empire converted to Christianity?
Answer: Jews
Title: Middle_Ages

Religious beliefs in the Eastern Empire and Persia were in flux during the late 6th and early 7th centuries. Judaism was an active proselytising faith, and at least one Arab political leader converted to it.[J] Christianity had active missions competing with the Persians' Zoroastrianism in seeking converts, especially among residents of the Arabian Peninsula. All these strands came together with the emergence of Islam in Arabia during the lifetime of Muhammad (d. 632). After his death, Islamic forces conquered much of the Eastern Empire and Persia, starting with Syria in 634–635 and reaching Egypt in 640–641, Persia between 637 and 642, North Africa in the later 7th century, and the Iberian Peninsula in 711. By 714, Islamic forces controlled much of the peninsula in a region they called Al-Andalus.

Question: What was the ethnicity of a leader who converted to Judaism in this era?
Answer: Arab

Question: What was the dominant religion of Persia before Islam?
Answer: Zoroastrianism

Question: In what yer did Muhammad die?
Answer: 632

Question: In what period did Islamic armies conquer Syria?
Answer: 634–635

Question: In what century did Muslims conquer North Africa?
Answer: 7th