FALL OF ROME & LEGACY OF ROME Mr. Snell

SETTING THE STAGE  By the 3 rd century, Rome faced many problems.  Both from within and outside the empire.  Drastic reforms would try to hold off the collapse.  Political  Economic  Military

A CENTURY OF CRISIS  Pax Romana ends at the ender of the reign of Marcus Aurelius.  Future emperors had no idea how to handle the giant Roman empire.  Rome began to decline.

ROME’S ECONOMY WEAKENS  Hostile tribes outside the boundaries of the empire and pirates on the Mediterranean Sea disrupted trade.  Romans lacked new sources of gold and silver.  Government raised taxes, desperate for money.  Government minted coins with less silver.  Economy suffered.  Inflation – drastic drop in the value of money coupled with a rise in prices.  Harvests started to lessen.  Years of war, low soil fertility.  Food shortages.  Disease spreads, population declines.

MILITARY AND POLITICAL TURMOIL  Soldiers had less discipline, less loyalty.  Gov’t recruits mercenaries who would fight for less pay than Romans.  Lack of loyalty to the empire.  Regular citizens lost loyalty to the empire as well.  No more patriotism, or pride in one’s country.  People no longer cared about the fate of the empire.

EMPERORS ATTEMPT REFORM  Rome would survive for another 200 years.  Diocletian reforms the empire in 284 C.E.  Iron fist rule, limit personal freedoms.  Doubled size of the Romany army.  Fixed prices for goods.  Presented himself in a godlike aura to restore office prestige.  Believed the empire was too big in its current state.  Divided the empire into the Greek speaking East (Greece, Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt) and the Latin-speaking West (Italy, Gaul, Britain, and Spain).  Took eastern half for himself, appointed co-ruler for the west.  East Empire> West Empire – In regards to wealth, cities, trading.  Diocletian retires, Civil War breaks loose, Constantine Emerges.

CONSTANTINE  Gains control of the western half of the empire in 312 C.E.  In 324 Constantine also secured control of the East, thus restoring the concept of a single ruler.  330 C.E. – Moves capital from Rome to Byzantium  Strategic center for trading and defense on a crossroads between east/west empire.  New capital shifts power to the eastern half of the empire.  Byzantium = Constantinople (new name)  Post-Constantine’s death  Western Empire crumbles, East lives on.

WESTERN EMPIRE CRUMBLES  Collapse due to:  Outside invasions  Worsening internal problems  Separation between the wealthy East and less wealthy West.

GERMANIC INVASIONS  Gathered on the northern borders of the empire.  Coexisted in peace with Rome until around 370 C.E.  The Huns - Mongols nomads who moved into the territory of the Germans, destroying all in their path.  Germans fleeing were forced into the land of the Romans.  Moved through Gaul, Spain, and North Africa.  Western Roman empire could not fill an army to stop invasions.  In 410, Rome was plundered for 3 days by hordes of German “barbarians”  Romans called all invaders “barbarians,” a term that they used to refer to non-Romans.

ATTILA THE HUN  United the Huns around 444 C.E.  Terrorized both halves of the empire.  Plundered and attacked 70 eastern cities. Failed at Constantinople.  452 C.E. Huns push into Rome.  Fail due to famine and disease.  Death - Huns no longer a threat after 453 C.E.  Germans invasions, however, continue.

AN EMPIRE NO MORE  Last emperor – 14 yr old boy named Romulus Augustulus  Marked the end of the Western Roman empire in 476 C.E.  Eastern Empire:  Became Byzantine Empire  Flourished  Preserved Greek & Roman heritage for another 1,000 years.  Empire would not fall until 1453 from the Ottoman Turks.

THE LEGACY...

GRECO-ROMAN CIVILIZATION  The mixing of elements of Greek, Hellenistic, and Roman culture produced a new culture, called Greco-Roman culture.  Roman Fine Arts:  Roman sculptors created realistic portraits in stone.  Roman art - intended for public education.  Mosaics were pictures or designs made by setting small pieces of stone, glass, or tile onto a surface.  Frescoes – large mural paintings

ROMAN MOSAIC

LITERATURE  Virgil – Roman poet, wrote The Aeneid, most famous work of latin literature.  Inspired by epics written by Homer (The iliad, the Odyssey)  Livy & Tacitus – Roman historians  Tacitus wrote on the morality of imperial Rome, the good and the bad. VirgilLivyTacitus

LATIN LANGUAGE  Latin, the language of the Romans, remained the language of learning in the West long after the fall of Rome.  It was the official language of the Roman Catholic Church into the 20th century.  Served as the foundation for the Romance Languages  More than half of English words have a Latin base.

MASTER BUILDERS  The arch, the dome, use of concrete.  Colosseum  Aqueducts – used to bring water into the cities or towns.  Thomas Jefferson began a Roman revival in the United States in the 18th century.  Many large public buildings, such as the U.S. Capitol and numerous state capitols, include Roman features.  Roman roads – Would exist through the Middle Ages, some still in use today.

ROMAN SYSTEM OF LAW  Some of the most important principles of Roman law were:  All persons had the right to equal treatment under the law.  A person was considered innocent until proven guilty.  The burden of proof rested with the accuser rather than the accused.  A person should be punished only for actions, not thoughts.  Any law that seemed unreasonable or grossly unfair could be set aside.  The principles of Roman law endured to form the basis of legal systems.