Social Studies: Decline and Fall of Rome

  Problems and Upheavals In the course of the third century, the Roman Empire came near collapse. Following a series of civil wars, a  military government under the Severan rulers restored order. Septimius Severus told his sons “enrich the soldiers, and ignore everyone else,” setting the tone for the new dynasty. After the Severan rulers, there was more disorder. For almost 50 years, from 235 to 284, the Roman throne was occupied by whomever had the military strength to seize it. During this period, there were 22 emperors, most of whom died violently. At the same time, the empire was troubled by a series of invasions, no doubt encouraged by the internal turmoil. In the east, the Sassanid  Persians made inroads into Roman territory. Germanic tribes poured into the Balkans, Gaul, and Spain. Invasions, civil wars, and plague almost caused an economic  collapse in the third century. A labor shortage created by plague —an epidemic disease—affected both military recruiting...

 Reforms by Diocletian and Constantine Constantine II Yet it would be a mistake to consider Constantine a revolutionary or to overlook those areas in which, rather than innovating, he followed precedent. Earlier emperors had sought to constrain groups of men to perform certain tasks that were deemed vital to the survival of the state but that proved unremunerative or repellent to those forced to assume the burden   Such tasks included the tillage of the soil, which was the work of the peasant, or  colonus ; the transport of cheap bulky goods to the  metropolitan   centres of Rome or Constantinople, which was the work of the shipmaster, or  navicularius ; and services rendered by the  curiales , members of the municipal senate charged with the  assessment  and collection of local taxes. What were the effects of the political and military reforms of Diocletian and Constantine? Diocletian military power still enabled him to claim a higher status and to hold the ultimate authori...

 Reforms by Diocletian and Constantine  How did the economic and social reforms of Diocletian and Constantine affect the Roman Empire?   Economic and social reforms by Diocletian and Constantine included a new government structure, a rigid economic and social system and a new state religion. They  divided the empire into prefectures to enable them govern well . Constantine constructed himself a new capital city .   There are many similarities between them, not the least being the range of problems to which they addressed themselves: both had learned from the 3rd-century anarchy that one man alone and unaided could not hope to control the multiform Roman world and protect its frontiers; as soldiers, both considered reform of the army a prime necessity in an age that demanded the utmost mobility in striking power; and both found the old  Rome and Italy . Each Augustus then adopted a young colleague, or Caesar, to share in the rule and eventually to succeed the senior ...

Keypoints & What was the fall of the Western Roman Empire? Keypoints Throughout the 5th century, the empire’s territories in western Europe and northwestern Africa, including Italy, fell to various invading or indigenous peoples, in what is sometimes called the Migration Period. By the late 3rd century, the city of Rome no longer served as an effective capital for the emperor, and various cities were used as new administrative capitals. Successive emperors, starting with Constantine, privileged the eastern city of Byzantium, which he had entirely rebuilt after a siege. In 476, after being refused lands in Italy, Odacer and his Germanic mercenaries took Ravenna, the Western Roman capital at the time, and deposed Western Emperor Romulus Augustus. The whole of Italy was quickly conquered, and Odoacer’s rule became recognized in the Eastern Empire. Four broad schools of thought exist on the decline and fall of the Roman Empire: decay owing to general malaise, monocausal decay, catastro...

 Reasons and Theories of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire In 476 Odoacer, a new Master of the Soldiers, himself of German origin, deposed the Roman  emperor, the boy Romulus Augustulus. To many historians, the deposition of Romulus signaled the end of the Roman Empire in the west. Of course, this is only a symbolic date because much of direct imperial rule had already been lost in the course of the fifth century.  Many theories have been proposed by historians to explain the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. They include the following: Christianity's emphasis on a spiritual kingdom weakened Roman military virtues. Traditional Roman values declined as non-Italians gained prominence in the empire. Lead poisoning through leaden water pipes and cups caused a mental decline in the population. Plague wiped out one-tenth of the population. Rome failed to advance technologically due to slavery. Rome could not create a workable political system. There may be an el...

  The End of the Western Roman Empire Constantine had reunited the Roman Empire and restored a semblance of order. After his death, however, the empire continued to divide into western and eastern parts as fighting erupted on a regular basis between elements of the Roman army backing the claims of rival emperors. By 395, the western and eastern parts of the empire became virtually two independent states. In the course of the fifth century, the empire in the east remained intact under the Roman emperor in Constantinople. At the same time, the administrative structure of the empire in the west collapsed and was replaced by an assortment of Germanic kingdoms. The process was a gradual one, beginning with the movement of Germans into the empire.   Although the Romans had established a series of political frontiers along the Rhine and Danube Rivers, Romans and Germans often came into contact across these boundaries. Until the fourth century, the empire had proved capable ...