2. Year of the Four Emperors  Nero commits suicide in 68  AD 69 3 emperors take power…all three assassinated …one after the other  The fourth emperor, Vespasian, survives and starts the Flavian Dynasty

3. Flavian Dynasty, AD 69-96  Vespasian (69-79) builds the 70,000 seat Flavian Amphitheatre…the Coliseum of Rome  Titus (79-81)  Reigns during the destruction of Pompeii by Mount Vesuvius  Domitian (81-96)  Invaded and conquered Britain  Got himself assassinated

4. The Five Good Emperors  Nerva (96-98)  Recognizes that there’s no system for picking successors  Establishes system of adopting his successor  The five good emperors are all capable administrators and leaders:  Trajan (98-117)  Hadrian (117-138)  Antoninus Pius (138-161)  Marcus Aurielius (161-180)

5. Unleash Chaos  After the death of Commodus in 193, 5 emperors ruled in 193  The last one, Severus, starts a dynasty that lasts from 193-235  From 235 to 284, twenty-five different men claimed to be emperor  Average reign lasted 2 years  Almost all of them got assassinated

6. Divide and Conquer  By 286 it is clear that one man cannot rule the empire alone  Diocletian divides the empire into an eastern and western half  Ruled by an Augustus and a Caesar  Constantine builds a new capital at Byzantium, and renames it Constantinople in 306  Several emperors try to reunite the two halves…all attempts fail

7. East and West in 395

9. Sack of Rome  Rome is sacked by the Visigoths in 410 under Alaric  Rome is sacked again in 455 by the Vandals  The Vandals were so destructive that they gave us the words vandalism and vandalize  The last Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustulus, is deposed (kicked out) on September 4, 476

10. Why Rome Fell  The empire became too big for one person to rule  Violent transitions between emperors  The Roman army became weak  The Romans came to rely on Germanic tribes that were not as loyal  The economy collapsed  The currency was devalued and there was no budgetary control over the treasury