Rise and Fall of Rome

The Decline of the Roman Empire & Rise of the Byzantine Empire

Mr. Mains

Open Ended

Do you think that all civilizations will eventually end? Explain why or why not

Objectives:

• Understand what factors led to the fall of the Roman Empire

• Understand how the rulers and those in government responded to this end

• Understand what happened to the two halves of the Roman Empire

Multiple Choice

Review: What does Pax Romana mean?

• Roman peace

• time of civil war in Rome

• time only when gladiators fought to the death

• time in which slavery no longer existed

With the Romans no longer able to gain new territories...

• They were unable to gain new forms of income

• Additionally, the separation between the rich and poor grew even more

• The idea of depending too much on slave labor impacted Rome

• Large amounts of corruption

• Poor education

• Civil wars were becoming more common. Commanders were challenging other commanders (or even emperors) for power

Multiple Choice

Why are civil wars dangerous

• makes the area more prone to being attacked by outside invaders

• destruction of farmland

• distrust with your neighbors

• all of the answers

Multiple Choice

One emperor, Septimius said "Enrich the men, scorn the rest". What do you think this means?

• win over the people first

• win over control over the Senate & elected officials

• gain favor with the military

• all of the answers

Septimius believed...

• If you were able to gain favor with the military, then you could force control

• This is similar to ruling like a tyrant

• He saw previous rulers try to gain favor with the Senate & people but this always seemed to fail

As more and more civil wars arose...

• This time was called the Imperial Crisis

• This caused the cost to gain/maintain control to grow

• Wars are expensive so trying to raise funds for it impacted society

• This caused the government to raise taxes. Reaction by the people?

• Bribes were constantly being used to gain favor as well

• One of the biggest economic tolls of this situation was inflation. What is inflation?

Open Ended

What is inflation?

The economy still struggled

• Inflation is the general rise in the cost of goods and services

• This was directly caused by emperors trying to pay for favor

• They began to make coins out of metals that were less in value than gold and silver (such as copper)

• When merchants realized that the coins had less metal in them, they rose the prices for everyone (regardless if they had the original gold or silver coins)

But there was an even greater danger lurking.....

• With everyone still fighting each other, they were neglecting their enemies

• Foreign invader raids increased

• Communication throughout the empire was extremely slow so trying to deal with invasions quickly was difficult

• Example: 260 the Persians captured & executed the emperor Valerian & gained control over the eastern portion of the Roman Empire

Open Ended

But why would all of these outside invaders want to take over Rome? That is, what did Rome have that the invaders wanted. Land is obvious so be more specific

Yes, the foreign invaders wanted land, but they also wanted to

• Live in an area with amazing living conditions (farmland & climate)

• Many of these invaders were part of the Germanic tribes

• These tribes adopted several of the Greco-Roman culture

• The Romans saw these Germanic tribes as barbarians

Multiple Choice

What are barbarians?

• extremely intelligent people

• word used for those who don't share one's culture

• word for those who move from one area in search of food

• all of the answers

Multiple Choice

Why was it difficult for the Romans to defend against the invanders

• Communication throughout the empire was slow

• War was expensive

• Romans were more concerned about fighting each other

• all of the answers

It wasn't until 284 when things started to get sorted out

• Military commander, Diocletian was able to gain and maintain control & named himself emperor

• He focused on establishing stability (gain back lost land & reorganized gov.)

• However, he did persecute the Christians-used them as a scapegoat

• Divided the empire into two parts (East & West)

• Co-emperors: Diocletian would rule the west, Maximian would control the east

Some of Diocletians reforms..

• Big issue to fix: inflation

• Reduced the cost of goods to reset the economy

• Established the first minimum wage

• Focus of rule more on the legal texts, than on human beings (they can make mistakes or be corrupted)

• Created provinces to bring governors closer to him

Though Diocletian was able to hold power for several decades..

• His reforms (changes for good) failed

• Some saw it as trying to gain too much control

• His death caused history to repeat itself...no surprise

• This once again led to a fight for power among the military leaders

• As a result, Constantine rose to power & became emperor in the west

• One of the biggest things that Constantine was known for during his rule was...

Multiple Choice

• One of the biggest things that Constantine was known for during his rule was...

• making Christianity legal

• making Buddhism legal

• making polytheism (Roman gods) the official religion of Rome

• all of the answers

Open Ended

How do you think the people received the news that Christianity was legal? Remember, this doesn't mean that it wasn't a "choose or die" situation

What was Constantine like as a Christian emperor?

• It is believed that his family could have been Christians; even during a time when Christians were being persecuted

• Statue of Constantine was said to have him holding a cross and saying "By this saving sign, I have delivered your city from the tyrant and restored liberty to the Senate and the people of Rome"

• What do you think this tells us about what kind of person Constantine was?

Constantine saw his quest as one that was divine

• He had the mentality that through the divine power of God, he had come to bring peace and prosperity to all lands

• Legends of him having dreams and putting a Christian sign on the soldier's shields; another one of him seeing a Christian sign in the clouds & took this as an omen

• This idea that God "destined" me to do this has been a constant mentality throughout history-will see it very clearly during Medieval Europe

• Do you think this all was just a ploy or do you think he really believed this?

Poll

• Do you think this all focus on religious signs was just a ploy or do you think he truly believed it?

• He truly believed this and it wasn't politically motivated

• No way! He didn't really believe this and it was only to advance him politically

Constantine completely believed in Christianity

• Constantine was dedicated to the Church

• He believed that any division would cause great problems so it was his mission to practice the religion and set an example

• He even refused to partake in a pagan ritual (wasn't outlawed) and those in attendance didn't like this. He never returned to this city

• Before his death, he established a new capital in the East "New Rome" and it was called Constantinople (present day Turkey)

• After 31 years as emperor, he got ill and died while on a military campaign

Guess what, history repeats itself..

• With Constantine dead, invaders took advantage and caused it to collapse

• How?

  • The Huns attacked Rome, China, Persia and India

  • The halted the trade on the Silk Road

  • Led by their leader Attila-easily be one of the top 10 most ruthless warriors of all time

  • Romans defeated them but this didn't stop all of the invasions

German Goths...

• The German Goths entered Rome looking for refuge but they were met with hostility and were attacked by the Romans

• The Romans were defeated, causing more invasions to follow

• Theodosius was the last person to rule both the eastern and western parts of the Roman Empire-just too much

• When Theodosius died, the German Goths began to seize more provinces & they eventually lost power overall

Open Ended

One tactic the Romans used during their fight against the German Goths was to hire mercenaries. What are mercenaries?

After the German Goths, the Visgoths & Vandals swooped in...

• With one last western emperor (Romulus Augustus) being removed from power by a German Goth, it was over for Rome

• The Vandals plundered Rome

• Anyone pick up the significance of the word Vandal?

• The western Roman Empire collapsed with the government under attack and people moved to the country for safety

• Big impact: Latin was nearly annihilated

• However, eastern Rome survived 1,000 years after the western side fell

Open Ended

<---------Look at this map. How did the foreign invasions differ between the two halves of the empire?

Open Ended

Final question: In your opinion, what was the biggest cause that led to the Fall of Rome? Explain why

Your task:

• Be sure that you answered the document questions about why the Romans persecuted the Christians (from Monday)

• Be sure that you wrote a strong paragraph, with one piece of supportive evidence, to explain why the Romans persecuted the Christians (from Tuesday)

• Complete the 4 minute Edpuzzle on the Fall of Rome