Download Decline of the Roman Empire

The decline of the empire
As time went on, the power of the emperors increased and the people
became less politically active. The Roman Empire’s enormous size hastened
its decline. One man in Rome could no longer hold the empire together. The
far-flung armies on Rome’s borders were often more loyal to their
commanders than to the emperor. Enemies of Rome, such as the Goths in
central Europe and the Parthians in southwest Asia, mounted serious
attacks.
In 161, Marcus Aurelius became emperor and defended the Roman Empire
against attacks by Germanic tribes from the north and Parthians from the
east. His son Commodus succeeded him in 180 but was killed in 192. Many
rivals tried to claim the empire, and several emperors seized power by force.
From 235 to 284, there were 19 different emperors, many of them army
commanders whose troops named them emperor.
Diocletian, a Roman military officer, was proclaimed emperor in 284.
Diocletian attempted to stabilize the empire by reorganizing the way it was
governed. He divided the provinces into smaller units and gave each its own
government and army. Diocletian established a tetrarchy (rule of four).
Under this system, Diocletian ruled the eastern part of the empire and a coemperor, Maximian, ruled the west. In addition, two Caesars (junior
emperors), Galerius and Constantius, ruled under Diocletian and Maximian.
Diocletian tried unsuccessfully to aid Rome’s economy by standardizing
coinage and imposing price controls. He also persecuted followers of
Christianity and other religions.
After Diocletian retired in 305, several men struggled to gain power, and the
tetrarchy failed. Eventually, Constantine I, who had been a deputy of
Diocletian, came to power. He once again united the empire and, in 313
through the Edict of Milan, granted Christians freedom of worship. In 325,
at the Council of Nicaea, Constantine recognized Christianity as the chief
religion of the Roman Empire. In 330, the emperor established a new capital
at Byzantium and renamed it Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey).
After Constantine died in 337, his three sons and two of his nephews battled
for control of the empire. In 361, Julian gained control. He became known
as the Apostate—that is, the Forsaker of Beliefs—because he tried to curb
the spread of Christianity and to restore traditional Roman religious
practices. Later emperors, such as Theodosius, outlawed Roman and other
non-Christian religious practices. After the death of Theodosius in 395, the
empire was permanently split into the West Roman Empire, with its capital
in Rome, and the East Roman Empire, with its capital in Constantinople.
Map
Division of the Roman Empire
The West Roman Empire steadily weakened. A Germanic people called the
Vandals invaded Spain and later occupied northern Africa. The Visigoths,
another Germanic group, invaded and looted the city of Rome under their
leader Alaric in 410. In Britain, local peoples known as the Picts, Scots, and
Saxons attacked the Roman troops. The emperor Honorius finally gave up
Britain so he could use the troops elsewhere in the empire. A Vandal leader
named Gaiseric (or Genseric) plundered the city of Rome again in 455. The
empire’s final collapse came in 476, when the German leader Odoacer
forced the last emperor from the seat of power. Ironically, Rome’s last
emperor was named Romulus Augustulus, after the founder of Rome and its
first emperor.
The East Roman Empire survived and thrived as the Byzantine Empire. Its
people continued to call themselves Romans. The Byzantine Empire lasted
until 1453, when the Ottomans captured Constantinople and made it the
capital of the Ottoman Empire.