Transcript Fall of the Roman Empire

Fall of the Roman Empire
• Decline of the Roman Empire
• End of the Pax Romana, two centuries of peace and
prosperity for the Roman Empire
Rome’s Economy Weakens
• Hostile tribes were on the
boundaries of the empire,
and Mediterranean pirates
disrupted trade
• Rome lacked the financial
resources to stop the
attacks
• Rome raised taxes and
coined more money
• As a result of these
activities, Rome suffered
from inflation, a drastic drop
in the value of its money
• Agricultural production
within the empire declined,
and food shortages and
disease spread
Military and Political
• The military was in
disarray - soldiers had lost
loyalty to Rome
• Roman government began
the use of mercenaries, or
foreign soldiers who for
fought for money and had
little sense of loyalty to the
empire
• Roman citizens became
indifferent about the
empire’s fate
• More slaves and nonecitizens in Rome than
citizens
Empire Divided
• In 284 AD Diocletia
became the emperor
• Restored order and
increased the
military’s strength
• Split the empire into
East and West
Constantine Moves the Capitol
• Constantine gained
control of the western
part of the empire in 312
AD
• Moved the capitol from
Rome to Byzantium (later
Constantinople, present
day Istanbul, Turkey )
• The center of power
shifted from Rome to The
East
• The divide of the Eastern
and Western Empires led
to the decline of the West
Attila the Hun
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Huns united under leader Attila
and attacked Roman cities
throughout The East but did not
capture Constantinople
452 AD Attila’s forces moved
towards Rome but failed to take
it
the Germanic invasion
continued
last Roman Emperor, Romulus
Augustulus, ousted by Germanic
forces in 476 AD
the western half of the Roman
Empire disappeared
the Eastern half of the Roman
Empire, which came to be called
the Byzantine Empire, flourished
another 1,000 years until it fell to
the Ottoman Turks in 1453
Germanic Tribes
Sack of Rome
• Germanic peoples were
overrun by Mongol nomads
from Central Asia – the
Huns
• Germanic people flooded
into Roman areas fleeing
the Huns
• The Roman army was
unable to stop the march of
the Germanic peoples or
“barbarians”
• In 410 AD hordes of
Germanic tribes over-run,
sack, and plunder Rome for
days