The Fall of Rome World History/Napp “During the third century A.D., several factors prompted the weakening of Rome’s economy. Hostile tribes outside the boundaries of the empire and pirates on the Mediterranean Sea disrupted trade. Having reached their limit of expansion, the Romans lacked new sources of gold and silver. Desperate for revenue, the government raised taxes. It also started minting coins that contained less and less silver. It hoped to create more money with the same amount of precious metal. However, the economy soon suffered from inflation, a drastic drop in the value of money coupled with a rise in prices.

Agriculture faced equally serious problems. Harvests in Italy and Western Europe became increasingly meager because overworked soil had lost its fertility. What’s more, years of war had destroyed much farmland. Eventually, serious food shortages and disease spread, and the population declined.

By the third century A.D., the Roman military was also in disarray. Over time, Roman soldiers in general had become less disciplined and loyal. They gave their allegiance not to Rome but to their commanders, who fought among themselves for the throne. To defend against the increasing threats to the empire, the government began to recruit mercenaries, foreign soldiers who fought for money. While mercenaries would accept lower pay than Romans, they felt little sense of loyalty to the empire. Remarkably, Rome survived intact for another 200 years. This was due largely to reform-minded emperors and the empire’s division into two parts.” ~ World History

Identify and explain the following terms: Hostile Tribes Inflation Food Shortages Mercenaries Reform-Minded Emperors Division of Empire

- Identify the main causes of the effects listed below:  Inflation  Untrustworthy army  Political Instability - What was an immediate cause of the fall of Rome?

- Why would this be an immediate cause?

Diocletian Constantine Invasions - In A.D. 284, Diocletian, a - Constantine gained control - Germanic peoples had strong-willed army leader, of the western part gathered on the northern became the new emperor of the empire in A.D. 312 borders of the empire and and continued many of the coexisted in relative peace - He restored order to the policies of Diocletian with Rome empire and increased its strength - In 324 Constantine secured - Around A.D. 370, all that control of the East, thus changed when a fierce group - Diocletian believed that the restoring the concept of a of Mongol nomads from empire had grown too large single ruler Central Asia, the Huns, and too complex for one moved into the region and ruler - In A.D. 330, Constantine began destroying all in their moved the capital from path - In perhaps his most Rome to the Greek city of significant reform, he Byzantium, in what is now - In an effort to flee from the divided the empire into the Turkey Huns, the various Germanic Greek-speaking East people pushed into (Greece, Anatolia, Syria, and - The new capital stood on Roman lands Egypt) and the Latin- the Bosporus Strait, speaking West (Italy, Gaul, strategically located for - Romans called all invaders Britain, and Spain) trade and defense purposes “barbarians,” a term that on a crossroads between referred to non-Romans - He took the eastern half for West and East himself and appointed a co- - The Western Empire was ruler for the West - With Byzantium as its unable to field an army to capital, the center of power stop them - While Diocletian shared in the empire shifted from authority, he kept overall Rome to the east - In 410, hordes of control Germans overran Rome - Soon the new capital stood itself and plundered it for - His half of the empire, the protected by massive walls three days East, included most of the and filled with imperial empire’s great cities and buildings modeled after - The last Roman emperor, a trade centers and was far those in Rome 14-year-old boy named wealthier than the West Romulus Augustulus, was - The city eventually took a ousted by German forces in - Because of ill health, new name – Constantinople 476 Diocletian retired in A.D. or the city of Constantine 305, however, his plans for - Roman power in the orderly succession failed - After Constantine’s death, western half of the empire the empire would again be had disappeared - Civil war broke out divided immediately - The eastern half of the - The East would survive; empire became the the West would fall Byzantine Empire Identify and explain the following terms: Diocletian Constantine Constantinople Crossroads Germanic Peoples Huns Barbarians 476 A.D. Byzantine Empire

- How did Diocletian succeed in preserving the empire?

- Why did so many Germanic tribes begin invading the Roman Empire?

- How do you think the splitting of the empire into two parts helped it survive for another 200 years?

- Which of Rome’s internal problems do you think were the most serious? Why?

- Why do you think the eastern half of the empire survived?

- Imagine you are a journalist in the Roman Empire. Write an editorial in which you comment – favorably or unfavorably – on Constantine’s decision to move the capital of the empire. 1. Large numbers of Germanic peoples 3. The fall of the Roman empire crossed into the lands of the Roman empire A) Marked the end of Roman civilization. in the late 300s to escape B) Ended the persecution of the Jews. A) religious persecution C) Was a long, gradual process. B) black death D) Was a sudden, unexpected event. C) invading Huns D) mass starvation 4. The Western Roman Empire fell for all of the following reasons EXCEPT 2. Which of the following was one of A) Invaders Diocletian’s reforms? B) Inflation A) Divided the empire in two C) Ineffective Emperors B) Provided free food D) The location of Constantinople C) Issued the first written law code D) Issued the Edict of Milan

- What group of invaders came the greatest distance?

- What areas of the empire were not threatened by invasion? Although the civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome fell long ago, the ideas of the ancient Greeks and Romans still survive and even influence us today.

Provide three examples of how the ancient Greeks and Romans still influence us today: