Divides the Empire – East and West

Diocletian284 - 305 A.D.

Political Fragmentation Political Fragmentation Cont’dCont’d

Constantine the Great 306-337 CE

Hagia Sophia

Political Fragmentation Political Fragmentation Cont’d.Cont’d.

Theodosius379 - 395 A.D.

•Christianity is official religion

•Advocate of the Nicene Creed (325 CE)

•Statement of Christian Faith by bishops in Nicaea

Click here to go to an English Version of the Nicene Creed

•Banned pagan worship

•Closed pagan temples

•Abolished Olympic Games 393 CE

Mass grave at Gloucester

The “Antoine Plague”165 - 180 A.D.

Farmers making olive oil in Pompeii

More Coins, more inflation

Bread and circuses

•Political Corruption

•Loss of discipline

•Use of mercenaries

Weak EmperorsWeak EmperorsBarbarian GeneralsBarbarian Generals

Romulus Augustulus

475 – 476 A.D.

General Stilicho – Tangled with the Visigoths under Alaric – ruling for Honorius

Honorius – emperor at age 10 (395-423 CE)

Alaric, King of the Visigoths, sacks Rome in 410 CE

476 CE Odoacer (Visigothic general) deposes last emperor Romulus Augustulus

End of Western Rome

Germanic PeoplesVisigoths, Saxons, Franks, Alammani, Burgundians, Vandals, Goths

Sassanid Empire (Persians)

Huns invade Rome 451CE under Attila

Theodoric the Great 493-526 CE

First Gothic King of Rome

Former Roman Empire 526 CE

LegaciesLegacies

► ChristianityChristianity

► Architecture and Architecture and TechnologyTechnology

► Law and GovernmentLaw and Government

► LanguageLanguage

► Art, Literature, PhilosophyArt, Literature, Philosophy

•Eastern Empire continues as Byzantium until 1453

•Preserves Greco-Roman knowledge

Icon of the Archangel Michael on enamel