4/12/2012
The Fall of Rome?
Crisis and Recovery of 3rd Century
Civil War (238-53 CE)
Invasions (267-9 CE)
Aurelian (270-5 CE)
• builds walls around Rome
– Carpians and Vandals (Rhine)
– Goths and Alamanni
(Danube)
• Athens sacked
• Battle of Nessus (268)
• Battle of Naissus (270)
– Sassanids (East)
Empire splits
• Gallic Empire (259-73 CE)
• Palmyrene Empire (267-74
CE)
– Finally reunited by Aurelian
Diocletian (284-305 CE)
• Tetrarchy (293 CE)
• Revolt in Britain
• Persian Invasion
• Military and Financial
reforms
Constantine (307-37 CE)
• founds Constantinople
• moves seat of govt.
258 CE
Gallic Empire
• Britannia
• Gallia
• Hispania
Milan
Aegyptus 
Syria 
Palestine 
Palmyrene Empire
260 CE
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debasement of Roman Coinage
Eight-fold rise in prices from 267-274
Emperor Aurelian (270-5 CE)
• Right-hand man (dux) of Gallienus
– helped defeat the Alamanni
– cavalry defeated Goths at Naissus
• participated in the assassination of Gallienus
– Supported Claudius II to throne
– brother was declared Emperor by Senate
– legions refused him and chose Aurelian instead
• Reunified the Empire
– Palmyra (272/3)
– Gallic Empire (274)
• Built walls around Rome
• Revalued the coinage
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Porta Appia
(San Sabastiano)
6.5 meters high
3.5 meters thick
square tower every
30 meters
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Reforms of Diocletian (284-305)
• divides empire
into four
administrative
districts
– Tetrarchy
• Strengthens
Roman
military
– discipline in
army
• persecutes
Christians
The Four Tetrarchs
• Porphyry marble (Egypt)
– ca. 300 CE
– St. Marks Cathedral,
Venice
• previously on top of a
column in Constantinople
– paludamentum (cloak)
– military belt
• shift in artistic style seen
in Late Antique Period
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4/12/2012
The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer, Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883)
Flavius Valerius Constantinus
Constantine the Great (306-337)
Battle of Milvian Bridge
Oct. 312
“In hoc signus vincus”
Constantine Reunites the Empire
Religious Reform
313 Edict of Milan
• officially marks end of persecution
• restoration of Church properties
325 Council of Nicaea
Political and Economic Reform
• Unifies Empire
324-330
Relocates Capital to Byzantium
Military Reform
• Uses Tetrarchy prefectures for military command
• Creates magister peditum and magister equitum
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Constantine relocates the
Capital of Empire
330 CE Constantine moves capital of Roman
Empire to Byzantium and renames it
Constantinople
• builds a massive fortification structure
408 CE Theodosius II builds more elaborate
defensive system
1453 CE Suleiman I “the Magnificent” builds
cannons specifically to batter gates and sacks
Constantinople
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Fortification system of Constantinople
designed and built by Theodosius II (408 CE)
Gothic Armies
• migrated to Danube region
• Divided into West (Visi) and East (Ostro) branches
– most powerful of tribes
• tribal leadership based on aristocratic structure
– comites and dux w/a 100 years of fighting for the
Romans
– 15,000 warriors
• spatha sword and fransica battle-ax
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Battle of Adrianople 378 CE
372 CE Western Goths having settled south of
Danube (Bulgaria) go to Constantinople to ask for
permission to settle.
• They are paid off every year, but then a change in
“barbarian” policy
378 CE Emperor Valens assembles an army and is
defeated at Adrianople
– New Emperor Theodosius pays them to relocate and
police Noricum in Western half of Empire (foedus)
401 CE
401-2
They ask Ravenna for payoff
first invasion turned back by Stilicho
410 ALARIC SACKS ROME
Visigoths Move Towards Italy
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4/12/2012
The Fall of Rome ?
Germanic Kingdoms
(West)
Byzantine Empire
East
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