Rome Fades Away

Two Emperors:

• DIOCLETIAN 
• he rules from 284-303
• he thought it was okay to persecute Christians
• thought they were disobeying Roman Laws
• Rome needs a bigger army (400,00 strong) 
• Rome needs a big government (20,000 officials) 
• Solution was to divide Rome in half- west and east 
• West- was harder to defend (bigger) 
• East- Richer, better trade routes
• There may have been one or two emperors between them 
• CONSTANTINE 
• rules from 306-337
• He was okay with the Christians 
• conversion to Christianity via a cross in the sky (conquer by this)
• PX was painted on the armor 
• wins the battle and starts to trust in the Christian God
• 313- his Edict of Milan proclaims freedom of worship
• built a new capital on the east
• Byzantium, soon to be known as Constantinople
• The struggle of peasants
• Life in the fourth century 
• country dwellers are getting bankrupted by endless tax collection
• new farming system: peasants work for elite landlords on large forms
• peasants can avoid paying taxes, but they are getting hit just as hard as the landlords
• Paying off debts and being "allowed" to live on the land, in exchange for endless hard work
• landowners hold local power as courts and bishops, wielding more real power than the faraway empire
• foreshadowing feudalism (the system where the manor is owned by the rich, knights to protect, who their lord is)  
• The western empire crushes
• Rome's power is decreasing, while nomadic barbarians gain power
• western empire is too poor, begins to be neglected
• Huns migrate from China to eastern Europe
• Visigoths take over Spain, and actually capture and loot Rome itself in 410
• Vandals control Carthage and the Western Mediterranean 
• other barbarian tribes
• Ostrogoth's in Italy 
• Franks in Gaul 
• Angles and Saxons in Britain 
• End of an era
• from the beginnings 
• 500 BC- the monarchy is abolished 
• 450 BC- twelve tables are established
• through the glory days
• 44 BC- end of the line for Caesar
• 27 BC-180 AD- The Roman Peace (pax romana)
• To the bitter end 
• constant fifth century invasions by barbarians tribes left the western Roman Empire shattered and crumbled
• the last emperor was a teenage boy installed in 475 by his father
• barbarians deposed Romulus Augustulus without bothering to kill him