1. CAUSES OF THE ROMAN COLLAPSE  Marcus Aurelius (180 AD) ended Pax Romana.  Next wave of emperors….completely incapable of ruling Rome.

2. ROME’S ECONOMY FAILS  Hostile tribes outside boundaries and pirates on Mediterranean Sea disrupted trade!  Reached limit of expansion, could not get new resources (gold and silver)  Desperate for revenue, taxes are raised and coins minted not worth their face value  INFLATION: drop of value of $ and increase in prices  Agriculture: harvest suffer due to overworked land and war  Food shortages and disease spread.

3. MILITARY AND POLITICAL TURMOIL  Soldiers less disciplined and loyal, fight for general not Rome.  Mercenaries: foreign soldiers hired to fight, had less loyalty to empire  Citizen loyalty drops, indifference emerges  Lack of motivated, worthy emperors

4. ATTEMPTS AT REFORM  DIOCLETIAN SPLITS THE EMPIRE  **Splits Empire: -EAST: Greek Speaking (Greece, Anatolia, Syria, Egypt) - WEST- Latin Speaking (Italy, Gaul, Britain, Spain)  DIOCLETIAN takes the east! Co-ruler takes West!  284 AD: limited citizens personal freedoms, restored the empire, doubled army, fixed priced goods.  First Emperor worshipped as a god – act of treason if you didn’t  Continued persecution of Christians  Retires 305 AD: Civil War breaks out 311 AD, 4 rulers fight over Rome!!

6. CONSTANTINE  312 AD: Constantine Gains control of Western half  324 AD: Constantine Gains control of entire empire  Milvan Bridge - conversion to Christianity  Edict of Milan – Tolerance of Christianity  330 AD: Moves Capital of Roman Empire from Rome to Byzantium: Greek City in Anatolia.  -SIGNIFICANCE: center of power shifts from west to east!  -soon Byzantium becomes a wonder like Rome  -CONSTANTINOPLE: Byzantium is renamed to honor emperor. (City of Constantine)  After death of Constantine: Empire splits again: West Crumbles, and East survives!!!!

7. THE EMPIRE CRUMBLES!!!  GERMANIC INVASIONS:  -370 AD: Mongol Nomads called HUNS moved into regions outside empire forcing Germanic People to migrate

8. ATTILA THE HUN!!!  -Huns indirectly responsible for Germanic Invasion!  444 BC: Huns became a direct threat- United under Attila: 100,000 Huns terrorize both halves of empire! -attack 70 cities (not Constantinople or Rome) Bishop of Rome Leo I begins exerting control – beginning of papacy Attila the Hun invades Italy – persuaded by Leo I to leave Italy

9. Germanic Tribes Run From The Huns  GERMANIC TRIBES:  -tribes of Germans who lived along Northern Frontier of Roman Empire  - Roman called them Barbarians!  NAMES OF BARBARIAN TRIBES:  Goths: Italy  Vandals: Italy, Spain, & N. Africa  Angles, Saxons, and Jutes: Britain  Franks: Gaul (France)

11. Visigoths made peace with Emperor Theodosius Theodosius makes Christianity the Official religion of the Empire Theodosius Saint Ambrose converts Theodosius to Christianity

12. Papal Power Continues to Grow – Vandals attack Rome – convinced by Leo I to not kill anyone Vandalism Roman Empire continues in the East as the Christian Byzantine Empire until 1453 The Papacy and Odoacer German Odoacer becomes Western Emperor ending Roman rule of the west 476 AD – Generally accepted as the Fall of Rome

13. LEGACIES OF ROME  GRECO-ROMAN CULTURE: mixing of elements of Greek, Hellenistic, and Roman Cultures (classical civilization)  Fine Arts  Pompeii: many preserved  Learning and Literature  Language: Latin: Romance languages  Architecture  Colosseum  Pantheon  Aqueducts  Roads