Diocletian Attempts Reform and Divides an Empire

Background

Military Leader

Limits Freedom in the Empire

Tries to Restore order to the throne by claiming descent from Roman gods.

Diocletian Splits the Empire

Roman Empire was too large and complex for one ruler.• Splits empire into two parts

Greek speaking East comprised of Greece, Antolia, Syria, and EgyptLatin Speaking West comprised of Italy, Gaul, Britain, and Spain

• Diocletian takes the far more wealthier East for himself and appoints a co-ruler for the West.

• In A.D. 305 Diocletian retires.Civil War Breaks outCreating a weaker Military and a vulnerable western front to German invasions.

Constantine Takes Control

• After Diocletian retires Constantine takes control of the west in A.D. 312 and eventually the east in A.D. 324

• Ends persecution of Christians and grants them free religious worship and gives them reparations

• Christians were also given the right to serve in office, civil and military.

• Christians were emancipated from slavery.• Constantine weakens the empire by moving the capital

from Rome to the Greek city of Byzantium.

Constantine Continued

• Constantine changes the name Byzantium to Constantinople which meant the city of Constantine.

• After Constantine’s death the empire would remain divided and the east would survive and the west would fall.

Western Empire Falls

Causes

• Internal issues that included political, social, economic, and military

• Separation of the Western Empire from the Wealthier Eastern portion

• Outside invasions

Germanic Invasions and Attack of the Huns

• Germanic Tribes to the north coexisted with empire in peace with Rome until A.D. 370.

• Mongol nomads from central Asia, The Huns, attacked all in their path including the Germanic tribes to the North forcing these tribes to move into the Roman Empire.

• Germanic Tribes pushed into the Roman empire all the way through Gaul, Spain, and North Africa. Romans referred to these Germanic tribes as barbarians.

• Western empire did not have an army large enough to defend against these invasions and in 410 Germans overran Rome itself and plundered it for three days.

Attila the Hun

• The Huns attack both sides of the Roman empire with 100,000 soldiers under the power of a powerful chieftain named Attila.

• Attacked and plundered 70 cities in the East, failed to capture Constantinople.

• The Huns never captured Rome under Attila because of their own fight with famine and disease.

• After Attila died in 453 The Huns were no longer a threat but Germanic invasions continued.

The West Falls

• In 476 the last Roman Emperor is forced out by German invaders. A 14 year-old boy named Romulus Augustulus is the last Roman Emperor to the west. The collapse of the West signals the end of the Empire. Even though the Roman empire falls their ideas, customs, and institutions live on today.

• The eastern half of the empire changes their name to the Byzantine Empire and survives and flourishes another 1,000 years.