Two Emperors

Diocletian
- he rules from 284-303
- its cool to persecute Christians
- Rome needs a big army
- Rome needs a big government
- divided into the west and east
Constantine
- rules from 306-337
- its cool to be a christian
- conversion to Christianity
- 313 - his edict of Milan proclaims freedom of worship
- built a new castle in the east
- Byzantium, soon to be known as Constantinople
Life in the Fourth Century
- country dwellers are getting bankrupted by endless tax collection
- new farming systems; 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
- landowners hold local power counts and bishops, wielding more real power than the faraway empire
- foreshadowing feudalism
The Western Empire Crumbles
- Romes 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
- Ostrogoth in Italy
- franks in Gaul
- Angles and Saxons in Britain
End of an Era
- 500 BC - the monarchy is abolished
- 450 BC - the Twelve Tables are established
- 44 BC - end of the line for Julius Caesar
- 27 BC-180 AD - the Roman peace
- constant fifth century invasions by barbarians 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