Focus 1.Discuss Diocletian’s reforms. 2.What does the Eastern Roman Empire become?

Rome as a Christian Empire to the Fall of Rome

Christian Empire (324–395) The beginning of the Roman Empire as a Christian empire lies in 313, with the Edict of Milan. The "Edict of Milan" (AD 313) declared that the Roman Empire would be neutral with regard to religious worship, officially ending all government-sanctioned persecution, especially of Christianity

Constantine Constantine is best remembered in modern times for the Edict of Milan in 313 and the Council of Nicaea in 325, which fully legalized and then legitimized Christianity in the Empire for the first time. These actions are considered major factors in that religion's spread, and his reputation as the "first Christian Emperor" Constantine was also known for being ruthless with his political enemies, deposing the Eastern Roman Emperor Licinius, his brother-in-law, by strangulation in 325 even though he had publicly promised not to execute him upon Licinius' surrender in 324. In 326, Constantine executed first his eldest son Crispus and a few months later his own second wife Fausta.

Cont… After the Edict was proclaimed, however, the Christian Church rapidly became extremely influential amongst the ruling classes of the Empire, and the Bishops were established in positions of power and influence. Christianity became the single official religion of Rome under Theodosius I (r. 379–395). Eventually the church would gain enough power that it would outlast the empire in the west.

Cont… The Empire's conversion to Christianity made the Bishop of Rome (later called the Pope) the senior religious figure in the Western Empire, as officially stated in 380 by the Edict of Thessalonica.

From Roman to Byzantine in the East Constantinople would serve as the capital of Constantine the Great from May 11, 330 to his death on May 22, 337. The Empire was parted again among his three surviving sons

Late Antiquity in the West (395–476) In popular history, the year 476 is generally accepted as the end of the Western Roman Empire. It grew more vulnerable to invasion by the barbarian tribes from the north-Huns, Vandals, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and more. The Visigoths sacked Rome in 410 A.D. In 439 AD, Vandals advanced to Roman North Africa, capturing Roman Carthage. Barbarian leaders closed in on the last emperor to sit on the Roman throne, a poor youngster named Romulus Augustus.

Cont.. In 410, Rome was sacked for the first time since the Gallic invasions of the 4th Century BC, and in effect as the military order of the western empire unraveled it ceased to be Roman and became barbarian.

Cont. The Goths were an East Germanic tribe which according to their own traditions originated in Scandinavia –They migrated southwards and conquered parts of the Roman empire

Cont… Hun is a term that refers to a specific group of Central Asian nomadic tribes, who appeared in Europe in the 4th century. The Ostrogoths ("Eastern Goths", in distinction to the Visigoths ("Western Goths"), were a Germanic tribe that influenced political events of the late Roman Empire

Attila Attila the Hun (Old Norse: Atle, Atli; German: Etzel; ca. 406–453) was the last and most powerful king of the Huns. He reigned over what was then Europe's largest empire, from 434 until his death. His empire stretched from Centra Europe to the Black Sea and from the Danube River to the Baltic. During his rule he was among the direst enemies of the Eastern and Western Roman Empires