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AD 395
Death of Theodosius I
Honorius, 395423 (west)
Arcadius, 395408 (east)
AD 406
AD 408
c. AD 430
AD 431
Council of Ephesus
AD 440
AD 4507
Marcian (east)
AD 451
AD 453
Death of Attila
AD 4557
Avitus (west)
Vandal sack of Rome, AD 455
Anastasius (east)
AD 493526
AD 507
Battle of Vouill
AD 524
Execution of Boethius
AD 51827 Justin I
AD 52765 Justinian
AD 52733 Justinians codification of Roman law
AD 53179 Chosroes I
AD 5334
Reconquest of Africa
AD 535
AD 540
AD 551
AD 554
AD 5635
Foundation of Iona
AD 56578 Justin II
AD 568
c. AD 570
Birth of Muhammad
AD 57882 Tiberius II
c. AD 580
Death of Cassiodorus
AD 580s
AD 582602
AD 589
Maurice
Catholicism
AD 591
AD 590604
AD 594
AD 597
AD 60210 Phocas
AD 61041 Heraclius
AD 614
AD 622
AD 626
AD 630
AD 632
Death of Muhammad
Battle of R. Yarmuk
AD 638
Ekthesis of Heraclius
AD 638
AD 640
AD 647
the western halves of the Roman Empire, ruling from 379 to 395
Following his death, the dominion of the Empire was gradually
eroded by abuses of power, civil wars, barbarian migrations and
again re-united.
The Sack of Rome in 410 by the Visigoths and again in 455 by the
Vandals accelerated the Western Empire's decay, while the
deposition of the Emperor Romulus Augustulus in 476 by Odoacer is
527-65),
Locations of governments: In Diocletians time (AD 284-305) Rome was the
seat of the senate but not administrative capital emperors moved from one
capital to another
o By the end of the 4th century the main seats of government were at Milan
changing with the Persian and Arab invasions in the early 7th.
Decline in the west: the government was already weak by the late 4th century
(Theodosius death), and landowning families were disproportionately strong.
Western provinces were hit earlier by invasions and civil arms of 3rd century
o Defeat of Roman army at Adrianople in AD 378 marked critical stage in
the weakening of the west
o Barbarian pressures grew steadily until AD 476 when the last Roman
emperor ruling from Italy was deposed and power passed to a barbarian
leader
o Justinians reconquest: In the 530s Justinian, the eastern Emperor,
launched a reconquest from Constantinople aimed at reversing the
situation
But whilst a Byzantine presence was in Italy in the exarchate, the
west was divided by the late 6th century
Kingdom of Italy)
o Lombard invasion and papal power: This was followed by a new
invasion by the Lombards, creating greater fragmentation, as a result of
which the Papacy (especially under Gregory the Great, AD 590-604)
west
Thus it bypasses AD 476, the traditional date of the fall of the
Roman empire, and invites the reader to look more broadly, both
o Major themes:
Christianisation particularly so as pagan practice had been
declared illegal only be Theodosius I, which by no means succeeded
The great church councils, with usually abortive efforts made
by successive emperors to find doctrinal compromises, are
indicative of the problems inherent in achieving some kind of
church unity over so sprawling and diverse a geographical
often argued
The late Roman economy Was it really in decline?
How much long-distance exchange continued, and if it did, in
emperors)
The partitioning of the empire post-Constantine: This division did not work
out in practice: fighting soon broke out after Constantines death, and by AD
350, with the death of the second of his three surviving sons, Constantius II
became sole emperor like his father
o Notes from Wikipedia: In 340, Constantines sons (Constantine II,
Constantius and Constans) clashed over the western provinces of the
empire. The resulting conflict left Constantine II dead and Constans as
ruler of the west until he was overthrown and assassinated in 350 by the
usurper Magnentius.
Unwilling to accept Magnentius as co-ruler, Constantius defeated
him at the battles of Mursa Major and Mons Seleucus. Magnentius
committed suicide after the latter, leaving Constantius as sole ruler
of the empire.
o Nevertheless, there were often two or more Augusti ruling together during
the later 4th century, and it was not a novelty in itself when on the death
of Theodosius I the empire was divided between his two sons Honorius
and Arcadius
o What was different now however was the fact that the two halves of the
dangers of paganism
It was only in the 5th century that church building began to take off
on a major scale, and it was as much the powerful personalities of
late-4th-century bishops such as John Chrysostom in the east and
Ambrose of Milan in the west that advanced the church at that
period
The fact that Constantinople was now an important bishopric added
century, and much of the countryside remained pagan for far longer
Growth of Constantinople:
o By the reign of Justinian in the 6th century, the population of
Constantinople had reached its greatest extent, and has even been
thought to have approached half a million
o It was from the late 4th century onwards that most of the expansion took
place the original number of recipients of the grain dole was set at only
80,000
o The walls built in the reign of Theodosius II in the early 5th century (still
standing today) enclosed a much larger area than that of the original
Constantinian city
o Though Constantinople didnt equal Rome in population, it provides a
remarkable example of urban growth taking place during the period of fall
of the Roman empire in the west
necessary
Maybe there were flaws of urban planning, but there was an
impressive extent of public investment and consequent hectic
growth
o Pagan critics of Constantine, like Zosimus, were highly critical of his
foundation, suggesting that the increasing size of Constantinople
attracted succeeding emperors and an unnecessarily large population
from all over the world, making it crowded and dangerous
Establishment of Eastern Capital: Whatever Constantines own intentions
may have been, Constantinople did gradually assume the role of eastern capital
o It had its own senate, and there were both eastern and western consuls,
and by the end of the 4th century the same basic framework of
administration existed in both east and west, and a division of the empire
into two halves posed no administrative difficulties
Contrast with the west: During this period the eastern government grew
stronger while the western one weakened
The East in AD 400
Constantinople, leaving the city and court deeply divided about how to
deal with this potentially dangerous situation