Download The Fall of Rome

The Fall of Rome
The Roman Empire
The Big Idea
The Romans made great advances in many fields that helped
keep their empire strong.
Main Ideas
• Leadership and laws helped the Romans in building the
empire.
• Roman advancements in engineering, architecture, art, and
philosophy helped shape later civilizations.
• Christianity spread quickly throughout the Roman world.
Leadership and laws helped the Romans in
building the empire.
• Rome grew from a tiny village to a huge city.
–Home to more than a million people
• The territories Rome controlled formed one of the largest
states the world had ever seen.
–Territories surrounded the Mediterranean Sea.
• The Roman Empire was ruled by emperors.
• Roman citizens understood their laws and had protected
rights.
Roman Emperor’s Powers
Declare war, raise taxes, and punish
lawbreakers
Nominate public officials and influence
meetings of the Senate
Lead religious festivals
• Pax Romana was
200 years of
peace that began
with the rule of
Augustus
• Augustus was the
first emperor of
Rome
Roman Citizenship
• Citizens were the people who could
participate in government.
• Citizens had the right to vote and hold public
office.
• Duties of citizenship included
– Paying taxes
– Serving in the army when needed
Roman Citizenship
Roman Citizenship
• Rome’s emperors gave citizenship to groups
that the Romans had conquered.
–This act helped keep people loyal to Rome.
Roman advancements in engineering,
architecture, art, and philosophy helped
shape later civilizations.
• Engineering
–Roads lasted for centuries, and bridges
spanned raging rivers.
–Aqueducts, human-made channels that
carried water from distant mountain ranges
into Rome or other cities
Rome’s Legacy
• Roman builders
were the first
people to use
concrete.
• The Romans
used aqueducts
as channels to
transport water
Roman advancements in engineering,
architecture, art, and philosophy helped
shape later civilizations.
• Architecture and Art
–Romans borrowed from Greek ideas, such
as using columns and open space, but made
their buildings larger and grander.
–Roman art borrowed ideas from the Greeks,
such as making their art look realistic.
The Romans borrowed ideas in art and
architecture from the Greeks.
Roman advancements in engineering,
architecture, art, and philosophy helped
shape later civilizations.
• Philosophy
–Wanted to show the world as it really was
–Wanted their ideas to improve people’s lives
• Latin became the
basis of many
modern
European
languages
• The languages of
French, Spanish,
and Italian all
have their roots
in Latin
• The Colosseum arena that could hold
60,000 people
Christianity spread quickly throughout the
Roman world.
Roman officials tried to stop the growth of
Christianity, but they were unsuccessful.
Later emperors increased their support for
Christianity, and it became the official religion
of the empire.
Christianity spread quickly throughout the
Roman world.
By the 300s most of Rome’s population was
Christian.
Church leaders became major figures in Roman
society.
Reasons for the decline
of Rome.
1. Bad/weak rulers or
govt.
2. Germanic Barbarians
3. Weak borders
4. social problems
5. bad economy
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
The Big Idea
Problems from both inside and outside caused the
Roman Empire to split and the western half to
collapse.
• Many problems threatened the Roman Empire,
leading one emperor to divide it in half.
• Barbarians invaded Rome in the 300s and 400s.
• Many factors contributed to Rome’s fall.
Problems in the Empire
• Emperors gave up territory because they feared the
empire had become too large. Yet new threats to
the empire were appearing.
• Because so many people were needed for the army,
there was no one left to farm the land.
• Disease and high taxes threatened Rome’s survival.
Main Idea 1:
Many problems threatened the Roman
Empire, leading one emperor
to divide it in half.
• At its height the Roman Empire included all
the land around the Mediterranean Sea.
• The empire became too large to defend or
govern efficiently.
• Emperor Diocletian divided the empire to
make it more manageable.
• When Diocletian took power in A.D. 284,
he introduced reforms.
• Both Diocletian and Constantine
introduced reforms that regulated what
jobs people had.
Division of the Empire
• Emperor Diocletian divided the empire because it
was too big for one person to rule.
• Emperor Constantine reunited the two halves
shortly after he took power. He moved the capital
east, into what is now Turkey.
• The new capital was called Constantinople. Power
no longer resided in Rome.
Many factors contributed to Rome’s fall.
• The large size of the empire made it hard to govern.
• Barbarian invasions weakened the empire.
• Corruption, or the decay of people’s values, in politics led
to inefficiency in government. Bribes and threats were used
to achieve goals.
• Wealthy citizens began to leave Rome, making life more
difficult for those who remained.
• Inflation and a weakening economy were factors.
• The military used its power to make and remove emperors.
Barbarians invaded Rome
in the 300s and 400s.
• Not long after Rome’s capital moved, German
barbarians raided the Roman Empire.
• In the late 300s, a new group, called the Huns,
invaded Europe. They were from Central Asia.
• The Goths fled from the Huns into Rome. They
moved into western Roman territory.
• Additional attacks by more invaders made the
empire weak.
The Sacking of Rome
• The Huns pushed a group called the Goths into
Rome because they had nowhere else to go.
• The Goths destroyed Rome after Rome quit paying
them not to attack.
• The Goths sacked, or destroyed, Rome in 410.
• Germanic tribes attacked Rome at the
Battle of Adrianople
• Odoacer’s overthrow of the emperor of
the Western Roman Empire in AD 476,
marked the end of the Western Roman
Empire.
Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire included Greeks,
Egyptians, Syrians, Arabs, Jews, Slavs,
and others
Main Idea 3:
Byzantine Christianity was different from
religion in the west.
• People in the East and West began to interpret
elements of Christianity differently.
–Eastern priests could get married, but Western
priests could not.
–Religious services were performed in Greek in the
East and in Latin in the West.
• The East broke away from the West and formed the
Eastern Orthodox Church.
• In the Byzantine Empire, the emperor
controlled the Church.
Mosaics are pictures made from small
pieces of colored glass or stone
Eastern emperors ruled from
Constantinople and tried but failed to
reunite the whole Roman Empire.
• Justinian wanted to reunite the old Roman Empire.
He conquered Italy and much land around the
Mediterranean.
• He examined Rome’s laws and organized them into
a legal system called the Justinian Code.
–Removed out-of-date and unchristian laws
–Simplified Roman law to give fair treatment to all
Eastern emperors ruled from
Constantinople and tried but failed to
reunite the whole Roman Empire.
• He made two enemies who would have run him
out of Constantinople had his wife, Theodora,
convinced him to stay.
–Theodora was smart and powerful, and advised
Justinian on how to end the riots.
• The Hagia Sophia was the religious
center of the Byzantine Empire
Conflict between the Eastern Orthodox
Church and the Roman Catholic
Church.
What were its origins
1. Conflict over who was in charge (Roman =
pope) (Eastern = emperor)The
2. pope received help from the Franks, and
consequently gave Charlemagne, leader of
the Franks, the title of emperor.
3. This angered the Byzantines, who believed
their leader was the only true emperor.
Conflict between the Eastern Orthodox
Church and the Roman Catholic
Church.
What was the outcome?
1. Finally in A.D. 1054 the pope and the
patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated
each other. This caused a split between the
Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox
Churches that has lasted to this day.
2. As time passed, the Byzantine Empire
became less Roman and more Greek.
The Empire after Justinian
•After his death, the eastern Roman Empire
began to decline.
•Later emperors lost all the land Justinian
had gained.
•In 1453, a group called the Ottoman Turks
captured Constantinople and ended the
eastern Roman Empire.
•The 1,000-year history of the eastern
Roman Empire came to an end.
Main Idea 2:
The people of the eastern empire created
a new society that was very different
from society in the west
How the eastern empire differed
from the western empire
• The society was called the Byzantine Empire.
• People studied Greek, not Latin.
• They traded with and were influenced by other cultures.
• Emperors had more power and were thought to be chosen by God. They
had both political and religious power.