Rome fades away

Diocletian:

• ruled from 284-303
• persecuted christians
• said rome needs a big army
• said rome needs big government
• divided empire

Constantine:

• ruled from 306-337
• said christianity was legal
• converted to christianity (cross in the sky)
• 313 edict of Milan proclaims freedom of worship
• built a new capital in the east 
• Byzantium - Constantinople
•  

A struggle for the peasants. (14 century)

• country dwellers are getting bankrupt by endless tax collection
• new farming system peasants work for others on big farms rather than owning their own farm
• when peasants find a way to avoid taxes, they pay just as much to a land lord
• paying off debts and being "allowed" to live on the land, in exchange for back-breaking work
• landowners hold local power as bishops wielding more real power than far away emperors 
• this foreshadows feudalism

West empire crumbles

• rome's power is decreasing while nomadic barbarians gain power
•  western empire is too poor, begins to be neglected
• huns migrate from china to eastern europe 
• visigoths take over spain, and actually capture and loot Rome itself in 410 
• vandals control carthage and the western mediterranean
• other barbaric tribes:
• ostrogoths in italy
• franks in Gaul (france)
• angles and saxons in Britain

Important dates:
500 BC- monarchy is abolished
450 BC- the twelve tables
44 BC- julius caesar murdered
27 BC- 180 AD-  The Roman peace (pax romana)

• constant fith century invasions by barbarion tribes left the western roman empire to crumble
• the last emperor was a teenage boy installed in 475 by his father who then died
• barbarians deposed Romulus augustulus without bothering to kill him
• 476- power given up in rome