Discuss Factors Contributing to the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Textbook, pp. 147-51#1 all parts, 3, 7

1a. Diocletian(with 3b.)• Reigned as emperor A.D. 284-312• Divided empire into eastern and western portions as a

means of political and economic reform; he controlled wealthier East and appointed a co-emperor to rule with absolute authority in West

• Inflated the façade of prestige of the position of emperor by means of fancy robes and requiring visitors to his court to kiss the hem of his robe

• Fixed prices for goods and services and required families to stay tied to their land or to follow in the father’s occupation

• Measures were intended to make steady the empire’s production and a family’s income. Over time, it merely restricted trade, limited quality of goods and services, and inhibited creativity and advancement. Socialism is simply defined as government monopoly. Such economies and societies decay and implode.

1b. Constantine

• Became emperor in A.D. 312• Issued Edict of Milan in A.D. 313• Built NEW CAPITAL on the Bosporus,

called Constantinople• Moving the capital moved the center of

power toward the eastern half of the empire

• Eastern half continued to prosper while western half declined further

1c. And 1f. Huns and Attila

• Having east Asian background, these nomadic people migrated to central Europe by A.D. 350

• Huns drove Germanic peoples such as the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths south into Roman territory

• Rome relinguished its hold on Britain, Gaul, and Spain because migrating Goths were too great in number to halt

• This weakening of Rome’s barrier of defense led to invasions directly into Italy

And, Attila?

• Began his “scourge of God” campaign across Europe in A.D.434

• His death in A.D. 453 more or less ended his empire, but Huns continued to wreak havoc on Germanic peoples, sending still more people to Roman territory for safety and assistance. It was a further drain on an already weakened system

1d. And 1e.Visigoths and Alaric

Visigoths defeated the Roman army at Adrianople in A.D. 378, setting the stage for further attacks over the next century.

Alaric led the Visigoths on a plundering raid into Italy and

Rome itself in A.D.410.

1g. Odoacer

• All the textbook gives us is “Germanic leader” as the conqueror who finally SACKED Rome in A.D. 476!!!

3a. Crises after the Pax Romana• Political violence and instability

due to assassinations and overthrows of leadership

• Twenty-six emperors reigned in a fifty-year period

• Successive crop failures brought hard times upon the majority of the Roman citizenry

FURTHER 3a.

• High taxes financed the army• Growing bureaucracy also

burdened citizens• Sharecropping by poor farmers on

wealthy landowners’ farms, ultimately, undermined all of the nobility left in the hearts of Roman men at the plow

7. Division of the Empire

• Causes: social, economic, and political decline. Diocletian and Constantine made this move to increase government’s role in peoples’ lives, trying to “hold on” for a century longer.

• Effects: Short-term solutions only demoralized further the backbone of the Old Republic, the people. So, Rome fell. No man can serve two masters, so the “favored” or more prospering half of the empire received the greatest attention.