Christianity

o Religion founded in circa 37 A.D.

o Emperor Constantine converted to
Christianity 313 A.D.

 After the Pax Romana ended in 181 A.D.

Rome had many problems:
o The empire was too large to govern
effectively.
o The army was not what it used to be. There
was corruption in the military - dishonest
generals and non-Roman soldiers.
o Civil wars broke out between different
political groups.
o Emperors were often selected by violence,
or by birth, so the head of government was
not always a capable leader.
o The increased use of slaves put many
Romans out of work

o The rich became lazy and

showed little interest in trying to
solve Rome problems.
o The poor were overtaxed and
overworked. They were very
unhappy.
o Prices increased, trade
decreased.
o The population was shrinking
due to starvation and disease.
That made it difficult to manage
farms and government
effectively.
o The Empire starting shrinking.
The Huns, Visigoths, Franks,
Vandals, Saxons and other
barbarian tribes overran the
empire.

o The Empire Roman Empire Splits to control the Empire

o The ancient Romans tried to solve some of their problems by
splitting the Roman Empire in half, hoping that would make
the empire easier to manage.
o Each side had an emperor, but the emperor in charge was the
emperor of the western half, the half that included the city of
Rome.

o Diocletian (emperor) splits the empire into 2 parts

o Greek Speaking East = Located in Constantinople

o Latin Speaking West = Located in Rome

 Constantinople is a better place for a capital

because of Geography

o Easier to defend against foreign invaders

o In 474 a.d. The Western Roman Empire collapses

 Romes contributions

o Architecture = the three most important are the

arch, the baked brick, and the use of cement and
concrete
o Engineering aka the coliseum
o Language Latin influenced the Romantic
languages

French
Italian
Romanian
Spanish
Portuguese

The Eastern Roman Empire AKA the Byzantine Empire

becomes the next powerful empire, & its heavily
influenced by the Romans!