Rome Fades Away

• 2 emperors
• Diocletian
• he rules from 284-303
• its cool to persecute Christians
• Rome needs a big army (4,000 strong)
• Rome needs a big government (20,000 officials)
• Constantine 
• rules from 306-337
• its cool to BE a Christian
• conversion to Christianity via a cross in the sky (conquer by this!)
• 313 - his Edict of Milan proclaims freedom of worship
• built a new capital in the East
• Byzantium, soon to be known as Constantinople 
• Edict of Milan
• a proclamation that gave religious toleration for Christianity
• the political agreement concluded in Milan between the Roman emperors Constantine 1 and Licinius in February 313
• life in the Fourth century:
• country dwellers are getting bankrupted by tax collection
• new farming system: peasants work for elite landlords on large farms
• peasants can avoid paying taxes, but they are getting hit just as hard by the landlords
• paying off debts and being "allowed" to live on the land, in exchange for endless back-breaking work (such a deal!)
• landowners hold local power as counts and bishops, wielding more real power than the faraway empire
• foreshadowing feudalism
• Rome's power is decreasing, while nomadic barbarians  gain power
• Western Empire is too poor, begins to be neglected 
• Huns migrate from China to eastern Europe
• Visigoths take over Spain, and actually capture and loot Rome itself in 410
• Vandals control Carthage and the western Mediterranean 
• Other barbarian tribes:
• Ostrogoths in Italy
• Franks in Gaul
• Angles and Saxons in Britain 
• from the beginning:
• 500 BC - the monarchy is abolished
• 450 BC - the Twelve Tables are established
• through the glory days:
• 44 BC - end of the line for Julius Caesar
• 27 BC - 180 AD - the Roman Peace (pax romana)
• to the bitter end:
• constant fifth century invasions by barbarian tribes left the western Roman Empire shattered and crumbling
• the last emperor was a teenage boy installed in 475 by his father
• barbarians deposed Romulus Augustulus without bothering to kill him