Diocletian
- he rules from 284 - 303
- it's cool to persecute Christians
- Rome needs a big army (400,000 strong)
- Rome needs a big government (20,000 officials)
Constantine
- rules from 306 - 337
- it's cool to BE a Christian
- conversion to Christianity
via a cross in the sky (conquer by this!)
- 313 - his Edict of Milan proclaims
freedom of worship
- built a new capital in the East
- Byzantium, soon to be known as Constantinople
life in the Fourth Century
- country dwellers are getting bankrupted by endless tax collection
- new farming system: peasants work for elite landlords on large farms
- peasants can avoid paying taxes, but they are getting hit just as hard by the landlords
- paying off debts and being "allowed" to live on the land, in exchange for endless back-breaking work (such a deal!)
- landowners hold local power as counts and bishops, wielding more real power than the faraway empire
- foreshadowing feudalism
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:
Ostrogoths in Italy
Franks in Gaul
Angles and Saxons in Britain
from the beginnings...
500 BC - the monarchy is abolished
450 BC - the Twelve Tables are established
...through the glory days...
44 BC - end of the line for Julius Caesar
27 BC - 180 AD - the Roman Peace (Pax Romana)
to the bitter end...
constant fifth century invasions by barbarian tribes left the western Roman Empire shattered and crumbling
the last emperor was a teenage boy installed in 475 by his father
barbarians deposed Romulus Augustulus without bothering to kill him
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