Aim: Was the decline of the Western Roman Empire preventable?

Do Now: Do you think that the United States has acted or is acting in a similar fashion to the Roman Empire?

NY Learning Standards 2, 3, 4Common Core RS 3, 6, 9, WS 1

I Was the Division of Rome a Smart or Dumb Idea?

A) Recall that the Roman Empire was divided into two parts by the Emperor Diocletian. B) Under Emperor Constantine, Rome remained the capital of the Western Empire, while Constantinople became the capital of the East. The West spoke Latin, while the East spoke Greek.

THE DIVIDED ROMAN EMPIRE

II Economic ProblemsA) As the Roman Empire grew in size, the government needed to spend more money to defend its borders. Its solution was to mint more money. This led to inflation. B) Due to inflation, trade, agriculture and manufacturing declined.C) The gap between the patricians and the plebeians widened.

Inflation is an increase in the price of goods, due to the decreased value of money.

III Did Christianity help or hurt the empire?A) Early Christians were persecuted by Romans. Christianity continued to spread despite the Roman persecution, as it promised heaven in the afterlife.B) 312 CE the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, and made it the official religion of the Roman Empire. C) Christian loyalty is to God first, and not the Emperor.

Christians buried their dead in catacombs underground so not to be found out and killed by the Romans.

IV Military Problems and CorruptionA) Members of the military, including the Praetorian Guard, often plotted against the Emperor. Between 235 and 284 CE, 26 Emperors were assassinated!B) As the Empire grew in size, it needed more soldiers. When there were not enough, Rome hired German mercenaries.

The Praetorian Guard were supposed to protect the Emperor and his family.

Blackwater“Founded in 1998 by former Navy Seals, Blackwater Worldwide says it has trained tens of thousands of security personnel to work in hot spots around the world.The company, now called Xe Services, was once the United States’ go-to contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan. It has been under intense scrutiny since 2007, when Blackwater guards were accused of killing 17 civilians in Nisour Square in Baghdad.” – NY Times, April 2011

V Lead Poisoning and MalariaA) Roman winemakers used lead pots to boil crushed grapes, the empire’s aqueducts carried water through lead pipes and many Roman foods were sweetened with lead acetate. Since lead is toxic, some historians have claimed that its use may have resulted in widespread cases of gout, low birth rates, anemia and aggressive and erratic behavior among the Roman citizenry.

Lead Poisoning and Malaria Continued…B) “The malarial DNA from a Roman site, dating from around AD 450, is the oldest definite evidence of malaria in history... David Soren is the American archaeologist behind the new theory that malaria played a key part... In the back of a Roman villa he and his team found the skeletons of 47 children in amphorae jars. The oldest was just three years old, most were much younger: over half had died in the womb. It is the largest children's cemetery ever found from Roman times. The archaeologists also found the remains of puppies. It soon became clear that these puppies had been sacrificed, they had literally been torn apart and then placed in the grave as part of the burial ritual. There were also signs of burnt plant offerings. All this was a puzzle to David Soren, because at the time of the burials most of the citizens of the Roman Empire were Christian. Soren believed that whatever it was that was killing the children must have been so terrible that the parents were afraid of it, rejected Christianity and reverted to pagan practices... The DNA work of Robert Sallares has now confirmed that malaria was a killer during late Roman times.” So how did malaria spread in the late Roman Empire? Extensive trade from northern Africa by cargo ships.

Malaria and the Fall of Rome By Andrew Thompson 2011

Lead Poisoning and Malaria Continued…

VI Barbarian Invasions

Barbarian Invasions Continued…A) The strength of the Eastern Empire served to divert Barbarian invasions to the West. Emperors like Constantine ensured that the city of Constantinople was fortified and well guarded, but Italy and the city of Rome—which only had symbolic value for many in the East—were left vulnerableB) The Barbarian attacks on Rome partially stemmed from a mass migration caused by the Huns’ invasion of Europe in the late fourth century. When these Eurasian warriors rampaged through northern Europe, they drove many Germanic tribes to the borders of the Roman Empire. The Romans grudgingly allowed members of the Visigoth tribe to cross south of the Danube and into the safety of Roman territory, but they treated them with extreme cruelty. According to the historian Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman officials even forced the starving Goths to trade their children into slavery in exchange for dog meat. In brutalizing the Goths, the Romans created a dangerous enemy within their own borders. When the oppression became too much to bear, the Goths rose up in revolt and eventually routed a Roman army and killed the Eastern Emperor Valens during the Battle of Adrianople in 378 CE. The shocked Romans negotiated a flimsy peace with the barbarians, but the truce unraveled in 410 CE, when the Goth King Alaric moved west and sacked Rome. With the Western Empire weakened, Germanic tribes like the Vandals and the Saxons were able to surge across its borders and occupy Britain, Spain and North Africa.

Barbarian Invasions Continued…C) The Empire spent the next several decades under constant threat before “the Eternal City” was raided again in 455, this time by the Vandals. Finally, in 476, the Germanic leader Odoacer staged a revolt and deposed the Emperor Romulus Augustulus. From then on, no Roman emperor would ever again rule from a post in Italy, leading many to cite 476 as the year the Western Empire suffered its “deathblow”.

Attila the Hun “Scourge of God” 406 -453 CEAttila was the fierce 5th century leader of the nomadic, barbarian group known as the Huns who struck fear in the hearts of the Romans. Attila successfully led his forces to invade the Eastern Roman Empire, in 441. In 451, in Gaul (modern France), Attila suffered a setback. Attila was ranged against the Romans and the Germanic Visigoths who were settled in Gaul. This didn't stop him, though; he made progress and was on the verge of sacking Rome when, in 452, the pope Leo I dissuaded Attila from sacking Rome.

VII … But Rome Continued in the East!A) After the fall of Western Rome in 476 CE, Eastern Rome (the Byzantine Empire) survived almost another 1000 years!B) This is due to:1.A more stable government2.Closer access to Arab traders3.Constantinople was located on a strait. This offered better protection from invaders.

VIII What Happened to the West?

A) When the Roman Empire fell in the West in 476 CE, that was the end of centralized government in Western Europe for centuries,

with few exceptions.

Imagine that I whisk all of Washington D.C. away in my UFO. Do you think life

would go on as normal tomorrow? What would

change?

What happened to the West? Continued…

B) Trade fell, as there was no army or police to protect the road system.C)People fled away from urban areas to the country for better protection from barbarians.D) Literacy fell to the point where few outside of the clergy (people within the Christian Church) could read or write.

WELCOME TO THE MIDDLE AGES!

Key VocabularyAngles and SaxonsAttila the HunBarbariansByzantine EmpireConstantineConstantinopleDiocletianHuns InflationMalaria

MercenaryMiddle AgesOdoacerPatriciansPlebeiansPraetorian GuardVandals