Two Emperors 

• Diocletian
• ruled from 284 to 303 
• cool to persecute Christians
• Rome needs a big army (400,000 strong) 
• Rome  needs a big government (20,000 officials ) 
• Constantine 

• ruled from 306- 337
• it's cool to be a Christians  
• 313- his Edict of Milan proclaims freedom of worship 
• moved the capital to Byzantium (in the east) and renamed it Constantinople

The Struggle of the Peasants 

• Life in the 4th Century 
• country dwellers are getting bankrupted by endless tax collection 
• new farming system; peasants work for elite landlords on large farms 
• peasants can avoid paying taxes, but they are getting hit just as hard by the landlords 
• paying off debts and being "allowed" to live on the land in exchange for endless back breaking work 
• landowners hold local power as counts and bishops, wielding more real power then the faraway empire 
• foreshadowing feudalism 

The Western Empire Crumbles 

• Rome's power is decreasing, while nomadic barbarians gain power 
• Western Empire is too poor, being to be neglected 
• Huns migrate from China to Eastern Europe 
• Visigoths takes over Spain, and actually capture and loot Rome itself in 410
• Vandals control Carthage and the Western Mediterranean 
• other Barbarian Tribes:
• Ostrogoths in Italy 
• Franks in Gual 
• Angles and Saxons in Britian 

End of an Era

• From the Beginning  
• 500 B.C. - the monarchy is abolished 
• 450 B.C.- the Twelve Tables are established
• through the glory days... 

• 44 B.C.- end of the line for Julius Caesar
• 27 B.C.- 180 A.D.- the Roman Peace 
• to the bitter end 

• constant fifth century invasions by barbarian tribes left the Western Roman Empire shattered and crumbling 
• the last emperor was a teenage boy installed in 475 (very last emperor) by his father
• barbarians deposed Romulus Augustulus without bothering to kill him