Notes on the Decline of the Roman Empire

• Christianity was growing to the point where even some Roman leaders started to embrace Christianity
• AD 313: Constantine has a battlefield conversion
• He had every person paint a cross somewhere on there gear and before the battle they prayed to the christian God and ended up winning
• After that Constantine gave all the credit to God for them winning
• AD 180: Rome has problems 
• economic (trade became risky, taxes were high, food supply wad dropping)
• Military (frontiers were hard to control, Roman generals fought for control, soldiers loyalty declined)
• Diocletian divided the empire into two
• Greek- Speaking east and the Latin- Speaking west
• Diocletian (Latin: Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus Augustus) (245–311) was Roman emperor from 284 to 305. Born to a family of low status in the Roman province of Dalmatia, Diocletian rose through the ranks of the military to become cavalry commander to the Emperor Carus. After the deaths of Carus and his son Numerian on campaign in Persia, Diocletian was proclaimed emperor. The title was also claimed by Carus' other surviving son, Carinus, but Diocletian defeated him in the Battle of the Margus. Diocletian's reign stabilized the empire and marks the end of the Crisis of the Third Century. He appointed fellow officer Maximian as augustus, co-emperor, in 286.
• AD 324 - Constantine becomes emperor over both halves of the empire
• moves the capitol from Rome to Byzantium (renamed constantinople), where asia met europe
• after his death, empire is divided again
• this time, barbarian invaders overrun the frontiers
• thats it for the Roman Empire (AD 476)
• Diocletian ruled from 284 - 303, hated christians, wanted a big army and government
• Constantine ruled from 306 - 337, liked christians, was a christian, built a new capitol in the east
• The Edict of Milan refers to the February 313 agreement to treat Christians benevolently within the Roman Empire. Western Roman Emperor Constantine I, and Licinius, who controlled the Balkans, met in Milan and among other things, agreed to change policies towards Christians.The document known as the Edict of Milan (Edictum Mediolanense) is found in Lactantius' De Mortibus Persecutorum and in Eusebius of Caesarea's History of the Church with marked divergences between the two. Whether or not there was a formal 'Edict of Milan'  is debatableThe version found in Lactantius is not in the form of an edict. It is a letter from Licinius to the governors of the provinces in the Eastern Empire he had just conquered by defeating Maximin later in the same year and issued in Nicomedia.
• Struggle of the Peasents
• Country dwellers are getting bankrupted by endless tax collection
• new farming system
• peasents 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 as counts and bishops, wielding more real power than the faraway empire
• foreshadowing feudalism
• Romes power is decreasing, while nomadic barbarians gain power
• western empire is too poor
• huns migrate to eastern europe
• visigoths take over spain, and actually capture and loot rome
• vandals control carthage and western mediterranean
• other barbarians tribes, ostrogoths, franks, and the angles and saxons
• Roman Timeline
• 500 BC - monarchy is abolished
• 450 BC - the 12 tables are established
• 44 BC - end of the line for Julius Caesar
• 27 BC - 180 AD - the pax romana
• 475 AD - the last emperor was installed, who was a teenage boy whos name was Romulus Agustulus
• BOOM! End of an empire