 Take your Chapter 9 Notes Guide  Take out something to write with  Put the rest of your materials in/under your desk

Today we will be learning the fall of Rome!

 A.D. 180 *Marcus Aurelius died & his son, Commodus, ruled next.  *Commodus was cruel & wasteful.  *He was killed by his bodyguard.  Severans *After Commodus, emperors called the severans ruled Rome. *The Severans paid the army well, but ignored problems like crime and poverty.

 When the last Severan emperor died Roman army leaders fought one another for power.  *Rome had 22 different emperors during these troubled times of fighting.  *Roman gov’t officials took bribes.

 *Talented ppl refused to serve in gov’t.  *Many wealthy ppl stopped paying taxes  *People stopped going to school.  *Wealthy Romans used cheap slave labor to get work done.

 *In A.D. 200s, the gov’t weakened, law & order broke down.  *Soldiers seized crops & destroyed fields - so the farmers grew less food.  *People began to die of hunger.  *Artisans produced less & shopkeepers lost $.

 *A plague (disease that spreads & kills many people) killed 1out of 10 ppl in the empire.  *Rome suffered from inflation (rapidly increasing prices).  *To save $ Romans started putting less gold in coins & the coins lost their value.  *People stopped using $ & started bartering (exchanging goods w/o using $).

 *Germanic tribes swept in from the west & raided farms and towns.  *In the east, Persian armies pushed into the empire’s territory.  *Romans started using Germanic warriors to fight for them.

 *A.D. 284 Diocletian b/c emperor. He introduced reforms to make things better. 1. *He divided it into 4 parts & named officials to rule these areas under him. 2. *He set prices of goods & wages 3. *All people had to remain at the same job until they died.  Diocletian didn’t have enough power to make people obey his rules & they ignored him.

 *A.D. 305 Constantine became emperor. He issued several orders to help the empire. 1. *Son’s of workers had to follow their fathers’ trade 2. *Constantine moved the capital from the dying city of ROME to the Greek city of BYZANTIUM in the east.  *There he built a forum and amphitheater called the Hippodrome, and many palaces.  *He called the city Constantinople today it is called Istanbul (Muslims changed its name)

 Diocletian & Constantine couldn’t save the empire.  *Theodosius ruled next. He split the empire into two parts.  *WESTERN ROME EMPIRE – capital Rome  *EASTERN ROME EMPIRE – capital Constantinople

 Germanic tribes *Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Vandals, Angels, and Saxons, invaded the empire in search of warm climates.  They were also interested in Roman’s wealth & culture.  *In addition, they were trying to escape the Huns, fierce warriors from Mongolia.

 *A.D. 378 the Visigoths defeated the Roman legions at the Battle of Adrianople. Rome surrenders its land to the Visigoths.  *A.D. 410 Alaric, a Visigoth leader, captured Rome. This was the first time Rome had been captured in 800 yrs.

 *Vandals looted & burned Rome in A.D From these attacks came the English word vandalism(willful destruction of property).  *A Germanic general, Odoacer, overthrew 14- year-old Emperor Romulus Augustulus – Historians often use this event as the end of the Western Roman Empire.

 *Although the western part fell the Eastern Roman Empire prospered & b/c known as the Byzantine Empire.  Legacy of Rome Many words in the English language & many of our ideas about gov’t, laws & building ideas come from the Romans. The peace & order brought by Roman rule allowed Christianity to spread.

 We like, the Romans, believe: *That all ppl are equal under the law, *Judges should be fair, *People are considered innocent until proven guilty. *That a republic made up of equal citizens is the best form of gov’t *That it is the citizens duty to participate in gov’t.

 *Latin shaped many languages. Many English words come from Latin. Scientist, doctors and lawyers still use Latin phrases.  *We still use concrete today for much of our construction.  *Many of our public (gov’t) buildings use Roman architectural styles.

 *Christianity began in the Roman Empire.  *Rome’s gov’t adopted Christianity in A.D. 300.