Rome Fades Away

*The last two Emperors were Diocletian and Constantine under Diocletian it was okay to persecute Christians and 400,000 army and 20,000 officials and then under Constantine it was okay to be a Christian
*Constantine built a new capital in the east another name was "Byzantium", soon to be known as Constantinople
*Life in the fourth century (stuggle for peasants)

• - country dwellers are getting bankrupted for endless tax collection
• - new farming system; peasants work for elite landlords on large farms
• - peasants can avoid paying taxes, but they are getting 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 power than faraway empire
• -foreshadowing feudalism

*The western Empire crumbles

• -Romes power is decreasing, while nomadic barbarians gain power
• -Western Empire is too poor, beings 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 western Mediterranean

Other barbarian tribes

• -Ostrogoths in Italy
• -Franks in Gual
• -Angles and Saxons in Britian

End of Era

From the beginnings....

500 BC-the monarchy is established

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 teenager boy installed in 475 by his father

Barbarians disposed Romulus Augustulus without bothering to kill him