Fall of the Roman Empire

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Fall of the Roman Empire발음듣기

[Instructor] In the last video we talk about the first 200 years of Rome being an official empire starting with Augustus in 27 BCE going all the way to Marcus Aurelius and that time period is referred to as Pax Romana, Roman Peace.발음듣기

It's a relatively stable relatively peaceful time for Rome.발음듣기

Now all of that is relative.발음듣기

If you're one of the tribes that are still fighting with the Roman legions if you're one of the roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of the population that is a slave you might not view this as such a good time.발음듣기

But things only get worse after the death of Marcus Aurelius who's viewed as the last of the five good emperors so to speak.발음듣기

His son, Commodus, takes over and Commodus is the beginning of a succession of emperors who are less and less competent.발음듣기

The Empire becomes more and more corrupt less and less stable and things really come to a head and start to decelerate even further or I guess accelerate downward even further.발음듣기

In 235 CE when the emperor Severus Alexander is assassinated and this throws the empire into a 50-year crisis called the Third Century Crisis because it happened in the third century.발음듣기

And over this 50 years, there's 26 claimants to emperor.발음듣기

The empire is temporarily split into three different states.발음듣기

There's attacks from the east from the Sassanids the Sassanian Empire, they're the successors to the Parthians.발음듣기

You have attacks across the Rhine and the Danube from Germanic tribes.발음듣기

All of that makes this a very unstable period for Rome.발음듣기

Now the Third Century Crisis is considered to end in 284 with the ascension of Diocletian and Diocletian is viewed as a somewhat or a reasonably strong emperor.발음듣기

He's known as the last emperor that really persecuted the Christians because they didn't follow the Roman religion they did not worship the emperor as a god but he's also, or maybe he's most famous for splitting the empire.발음듣기

He decides that probably one of the main causes of the Third Century Crisis is that the empire has gotten too vast.발음듣기

It has too many borders.발음듣기

It's hard for one emperor to administer the whole thing so he splits it into East and West from an administrative point of view.발음듣기

They don't become separate empires but he decides that he is going to rule from the East and that he will have a co-emperor who rules from the West.발음듣기

And not only does he set that up but he sets up what's called a tetrarchy.발음듣기

Beyond himself and his co-emperor they each have a second-in-command that if any one of them were to die or would have to retire somehow that that second-in-command could take over and once again.발음듣기

This is to address some of the issues of the Third Century Crisis where the wars for succession, and this isn't just during the Third Century Crisis.발음듣기

We've seen it in multiple videos.발음듣기

Rome is famous, even during the Pax Romana for these really ugly succession battles but as we'll see, the splitting of the empire into East and West.발음듣기

Even though it started as an administrative thing, over time it's going to become a real split and they're going to turn into two different empires.발음듣기

Now after Diocletian, you have another significant emperor.발음듣기

You have Constantine and Constantine is known for many things.발음듣기

Maybe most famously, he embraced Christianity as opposed to Diocletian who persecuted Christians you have the Council of Nicaea and the Nicaean Code where there's now a uniform church doctrine around Christianity.발음듣기

He has the Edict of Milan, which makes Christianity legal under Roman rule.발음듣기

Maybe most famously on his deathbed he gets baptized.발음듣기

He becomes the first Christian emperor.발음듣기

He also moves the capital to officially moves the capital of the entire empire to what at the time was Byzantium but then he renames it to Constantinople named after him.발음듣기

Now it was still one unified empire even Diocletian who co-ruled with a co-emperor he had veto power over the emperor to the West.발음듣기

Now as we get further into the fourth century here and especially into the fifth century we'll see that the empire further and further fragments and gets diluted, and really just breaks down.발음듣기

One major factor in that breakdown is in that fourth century, in the fourth and fifth centuries.발음듣기

You have a group called the Huns coming in from Central Asia coming in from Northern Europe right over here and they are fierce, nomadic conquerors.발음듣기

And they're so fierce that they start pushing more of the Germanic tribes across the Rhine and the Danube, and a lot of these Germanic tribes at first.발음듣기

Even though their history has been fighting the Romans, a lot of them try to seek refuge in the Roman Empire.발음듣기

And they're given refuge in the Roman Empire but while they have that refuge they're treated very badly and all of that comes to a head in the well.발음듣기

I guess you could say, the last quarter of the fourth century with the Gothic Wars and the Gothic Wars really have a decisive battle at Adrianople, originally Adriano polis named after the Emperor Adrian.발음듣기

And at Adriano polis, at Adrianople the Gothic tribes in particular and when we say Gothic.발음듣기

We're really talking about Germanic tribes, and this one in particular as you can see from this legend right over here this is the Visigoths.발음듣기

Or Western Goths they're able to decisively defeat the Eastern Roman Emperor Valens.발음듣기

He's actually killed at Adrianople and then the Visigoths just continue to hang out here in the Roman Empire.발음듣기

They continue to move forward.발음듣기

In 410, they're able to actually sack Rome and they eventually settle in the Iberian Peninsula and in Southern Gaul.발음듣기

Now after the Battle of Adrianople you have another significant emperor.발음듣기

Theodosius because what you'll see is that Diocletian persecuted Christians Constantine now embraces Christianity he becomes a Christian, he says Christianity is legal.발음듣기

Theodosius now, right as we are about to enter into the fifth century, he makes Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.발음듣기

So in roughly 100 years, the Roman Empire went from persecuting Christians to making it the official religion and actually going the other way starting to persecute some of the pre-Christian religions or rituals.발음듣기

The other thing that happens as we enter into the fifth century now, as we go into the fifth century, you have the capital of the Western Empire is moved from Rome to Ravenna.발음듣기

With the idea, the emperor see all of these Germanic tribes, they feel threatened by them that Ravenna is easier to defend.발음듣기

It's surrounded by kind of marshy, swampy area.발음듣기

The other thing of note about Theodosius and as we move into really the last century of the Western Roman Empire, is Theodosius was the last Roman Emperor to rule all of Rome.발음듣기

After that, the East and West are going to be ruled essentially independently.발음듣기

They're essentially going to be separate empires.발음듣기

Then as we get into the fifth century we already talked about the Visigoths sacking Rome then in 455, you have the Vandals which is another Germanic tribe that was similarly originally pushed out by the Huns.발음듣기

You see them in blue right over here.발음듣기

They make it down the Iberian Peninsula to North Africa.발음듣기

They eventually get to Carthage and they become a little bit of a naval power and they eventually are able to, in 455, sack Rome as well.발음듣기

So Rome is really taking a hit multiple times.발음듣기

And then finally, the end of the Roman Empire or the Western Roman Empire that most historians consider the end of the Roman Empire is when the Germanic ruler General Odoacer or Odoacer depending on how you pronounce it is able to oust the emperor in Ravenna.발음듣기

And so then you have the official and just to be clear, this is, let me write Roman Empire and so Odoacer is able to essentially end the Western Empire as we know it.발음듣기

And after that, the Western Empire becomes more and more fragmented into these kingdoms that are ruled by essentially Germanic kings, and then we are now entering into the Middle Ages.발음듣기

Now the big question that historians have a lot of fun thinking about is why did all of this happen?발음듣기

Why did the Roman Empire fall?발음듣기

And before we even talk about why it fell we should give them a little bit of credit.발음듣기

Even in this video where I talk about the fall of the Roman Empire I'm covering 300 years of history.발음듣기

And if you start with the founding of the republic until Odoacer takes over Ravenna, ousts the emperor we're talking 1,000 years.발음듣기

Most civilizations, most empires don't last anywhere near that long.발음듣기

So to some degree, it's surprising that it lasted so long.발음듣기

But in terms of the causes of its decline we've talked about several of them in this video.발음듣기

The empire got divided.발음듣기

The East and West stopped viewing themselves so much as the same empire.발음듣기

Trade sometimes broke down.발음듣기

They didn't support each other militarily.발음듣기

The Eastern Empire was generally stronger so it allowed invading tribes to focus on the weak point in the West.발음듣기

Some historians would say that the Roman Empire stopped expanding, and it needed that expansion in order to keep getting more land and more slaves that really drove its economy.발음듣기

One major factor probably was the Huns that caused this great migration in the fourth and fifth centuries.발음듣기

It caused the Germanic tribes to cross the Rhine and cross the Danube and become either settled as part of the Roman Empire or threatened the Roman Empire.발음듣기

Another theory, and all of these are probably contributors is that as the Germanic tribes settled they actually became more and more part of the Roman military.발음듣기

And some of them were officially part of the military some of them were mercenaries, soldiers for fortune paid soldiers, and so you can imagine their allegiance to Rome was not as strong.발음듣기

Some folks say Christianity may have been a factor.발음듣기

That the empire might have lasted especially when people were doing what their traditional rites, rituals they worshiped an emperor, but now Christianity wasn't about worshiping an emperor anymore.발음듣기

A lot of people think it's corruption, instability and we've talked a little bit about that.발음듣기

It could've been invasions, not just from the Germanic tribes and the Huns but also the Sassanids on the East.발음듣기

So I'll leave you there, and to think about what was the cause or maybe what allowed the Roman Empire to survive for so long?발음듣기

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