Fall of the Roman Empire

Rise of Christianity
- Jesus spends three years preaching
- killed by roman leaders
- people believe he was the messiah
- Saul spread the word
- Christianity evolves from a cult to a established religion
- priest, bishops, pope
- Christians and Jews were monotheistic
- conflicted with roman beliefs
- persecution against Jews and Christians
- roman leaders embraced Christianity
- AD 313 - Constantine has a battlefield conversion
- he issues the Edict of Milan
- made it the official religion
Decline of the Roman empire
- economic problems, taxes were too high, food supply was dropping
- military was getting worse
- Diocletian divide the empire into two languages
- Greek speaking in the east
- Latin speaking in the west
- Constantine becomes emperor over both halves of the empire
- moves capital from Rome to Byzantium and renamed it Constantinople
- after his death empire divided again
- barbarian invaders, Huns, Vandals, Visigoths, Angles, Saxons, Franks
- Empire ended in 476