Antonine Plague

1. Quaestio:Did internal or external factors play a greater role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire?NuncAgenda:Plickers on Constantine and the Church

2. Antonine Plague • Last Emperor of PaxRomana = Marcus Aurelius • Stoic Philosopher, remembered as one of the best • During war with Parthia, soldiers brought back a plague (either smallpox or measles) killing 25% of the Roman population, even more among the military • Death toll means a weaker economy (fewer buyers and sellers) and military

3. Crisis of the Third Century (235-284 CE) • Major external threat = Germanic tribes like Visigoths and Vandals

4. Fall of the Roman Empire • Rome hired Germanic soldiers as mercenaries (soldiers for hire) • Reasons: increase size of military, turn enemies into allies • Problems: mercenaries are loyal to money and their generals, not Rome itself • Result: General after general taking over as emperor by violent force • During the Crisis, 41 people claimed the title of Emperor

5. Crisis of the Third Century (235-284 CE) • Violence and instability further weakens trade • Emperors raised taxes to pay for military • Less people felt safe to trade / invest / spend their savings • Less conquering less wealth coming in • Poor urban people began to move to rural areas to work as peasant farmers (colonoi) for rich landowners who protected them (reverse urbanization)

6. Crisis of the Third Century (235-284 CE) • Attempted Solution: Emperors mix lead into the silver coins, devaluing currency, to create more coins • Result: Inflation (dramatic rise of prices), more being charged for same products • Two parts of the Empire broke away from Rome, forming the Gallic Empire in Gaul and Britannia and the Palmyrene Empire in Syria and Egypt

8. Diocletian & Constantine • Emperor Diocletian (284-305) tried to stabilize the Empire by dividing rule between four emperors (2 East 2 West), called the Tetrarchy, a system that soon collapsed • Began most severe persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire • Abandoned the title Princeps (low key) for the title Domine (high key), meaning Lord

11. Diocletian & Constantine • Emperor Constantine (309-324) reunited the Empire, and moved the capital to Byzantium, renamed Constantinople, in the more prosperous East • Empire soon split again between East and West. • Legalized Christianity, ending persecutions and beginning a series of Christian Emperors until Emperor Theodosius (379-395) made Christianity the official religion of the Empire.

12. External Problems • No new conquests of land and no money means no paying mercenaries what they were promised, which means Germans with Roman training now want to fight Rome! • PLUS a new and more powerful threat emerged from the East, the Huns!

16. Invasion and Collapse • Additionally, new groups of invaders, especially the Huns from the East, forced more and more Germanic populations to flee toward Rome as refugees, and they were often mistreated by the Romans, which led them to attack Rome as well • Under the leader Attila, the Huns became a rival Empire in the north, and Rome faced further attacks from the Huns

18. Invasion and Collapse • THE ARMY WAS HEAVILY GERMAN AT THE END AND FOR THE LAST CENTURY THE ROMAN EMPERORS WERE JUST PUPPETS OF GERMAN GENERALS/WARLORDS • 476 CE- The last emperor was removed from power by the Germanic Warlord Odoacer, who became King of Italy, but by this point, there was barely any “Rome” left to fall

19. After the Fall • The West became divided into a number of Germanic kingdoms, most people lived as farmers on large agricultural estates, and the Church grew in its influence and control under the authority of the Pope. • The Eastern Roman Empire continued on for another thousand years, known today as the Byzantine Empire, maintaining Roman and Greek culture, traditions, and learning.