Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, though it did not expand outside the Italian peninsula until the 3rd century BC. Then, it was an "empire" long before it had an emperor. The Roman Republic was not a nation-state in the modern sense, but a network of towns left to rule themselves (though with varying degrees of independence from the Roman Senate) and provinces administered by military commanders. It was ruled, not by emperors, but by annually elected magistrates (Roman Consuls above all) in conjunction with the Senate. For various reasons, the 1st century BC was a time of political and military upheaval, which ultimately led to rule by emperors.
Transition from Republic to Empire
Roman Empire
Roman Empire | Transition from Republic to Empire
In the 3rd century BC In 27 BC. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, though it did not expand outside the Italian peninsula until the 3rd century BC It spans  from approximately 1600–1100 BC. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland Greece with its palatial states, urban organization, works of art, and writing system.
where may have the mycenaeans ultimately ended up
user
Cyprus and the Levantine coast
assistant
where is the former place located?
user
In the Eastern Mediterranean - south of Turkey; west of Syria and Lebanon; north of Egypt, Israel, and Palestine; and southeast of Greece.
assistant
how was the place during the middle ages?
user
When the Roman Empire was divided into Eastern and Western parts in 395, Cyprus became part of the East Roman, or Byzantine Empire.
assistant
what cultural influence does it have?
user
Greek Cypriots have influences from Greece and Christianity, while Turkish Cypriots have influences from Turkey and Islam.
assistant
what is the aforesaid place which is located at the southern turkey?
user
Cyprus is an island country
assistant
where is the aforesaid eastern mediterranean located?
user
It is a loose definition of the eastern approximate half, or third, of the Mediterranean Sea.
assistant
which are the places it surrounds?
user
All of that sea's coastal zones in Southeast Europe, northern Egypt and far Western Asia.
assistant
how do you define the first one?
user
It is a geographical region of Europe, consisting primarily of the coterminous Balkan Peninsula.
assistant
what relation does it have with the cia?
user
The "CIA World Factbook" lists the countries included in this region.
assistant
what is the geography of this place?
user
Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
assistant
when did the aforesaid empire of 395 era had its transition to empire?
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For instance, entire forests were cut down to provide enough wood resources for an expanding empire. In his book "Critias," Plato described that deforestation: where there was once "an abundance of wood in the mountains," he could now only see "the mere skeleton of the land." In reality, Roman expansion was mostly accomplished under the Republic, though parts of northern Europe were conquered in the 1st century AD, when Roman control in Europe, Africa, and Asia was strengthened. During the reign of Augustus, a "global map of the known world" was displayed for the first time in public at Rome, coinciding with the composition of the most comprehensive work on political geography that survives from antiquity, the "Geography" of the Pontic Greek writer Strabo.
Roman Empire | Geography and demography
In 395, the Western Roman Empire had several regional field armies in Italy, Illyricum, Gallia, Britannia and Africa, and about twelve border armies. By about 430, two more field armies were established in Hispania and Tingitania but the central government had lost control of Britannia as well as much of Gaul, Hispania, and Africa. In the same period, the Eastern Roman Empire had two palatine field armies (at Constantinople), three regional field armies (in the East, in Thrace, and in Illyricum) and fifteen frontier armies. As Roman troops were spread increasingly thin over its long border, the Empire's territory continued to dwindle in size as the population of the empire declined.
Structural history of the Roman military | Collapse in the West and survival in the East (395–476 AD)
After 395, the emperors in the Western Roman Empire were usually figureheads, while the actual rulers were military strongmen who took the title of "magister militum", "patrician" or both—Stilicho from 395 to 408, Constantius from about 411 to 421, Aëtius from 433 to 454 and Ricimer from about 457 to 472. The year 476 is generally accepted as the formal end of the Western Roman Empire. That year, Orestes, having stolen power from the emperor Julius Nepos the year before, refused the request of Germanic mercenaries in his service for lands in Italy. The dissatisfied mercenaries, including the Heruli, revolted.
History of the Roman Empire | 395–476: Decline of the Western Roman Empire
Increasing pressure from invading barbarians outside Roman culture also contributed greatly to the collapse. Climate change has been suggested as a driver of the changes in some of these factors. The reasons for the collapse are major subjects of the historiography of the ancient world and they inform much modern discourse on state failure. In 376, unmanageable numbers of Goths and other non-Roman people, fleeing from the Huns, entered the Empire. In 395, after winning two destructive civil wars, Theodosius I died, leaving a collapsing field army and the Empire, still plagued by Goths, divided between the warring ministers of his two incapable sons.
Fall of the Western Roman Empire | Introduction
Alaric's group was never destroyed nor expelled from the Empire, nor acculturated under effective Roman domination.
Fall of the Western Roman Empire | 395–406; Stilicho
The Roman Empire was one of the largest in history, with contiguous territories throughout Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. The Latin phrase "imperium sine fine" ("empire without end") expressed the ideology that neither time nor space limited the Empire. In Vergil's epic poem the "Aeneid," limitless empire is said to be granted to the Romans by their supreme deity Jupiter. This claim of universal dominion was renewed and perpetuated when the Empire came under Christian rule in the 4th century. In addition to annexing large regions in their quest for empire-building, the Romans were also very large sculptors of their environment who directly altered their geography.
Roman Empire | Geography and demography
There was also the looming presence of the Persians which, at any time, took a large percentage of the fighting force's attention. At the same time the Huns, a nomadic warrior people from the steppes of Asia, are also putting extreme pressure on the German tribes outside of the Roman frontier, which gave the German tribes no other choice, geographically, but to move into Roman territory. At this point, without increased funding, the Roman army could no longer effectively defend its borders against major waves of Germanic tribes. This inability is illustrated by the crushing defeat at Adrianople in 378 C.E.
Empire | Roman Empire
In 400, the Visigoths invaded the Western Roman Empire and, although briefly forced back from Italy, in 410 sacked the city of Rome. In 406 the Alans, Vandals, and Suevi crossed into Gaul; over the next three years they spread across Gaul and in 409 crossed the Pyrenees Mountains into modern-day Spain. The Migration Period began, when various peoples, initially largely Germanic peoples, moved across Europe. The Franks, Alemanni, and the Burgundians all ended up in northern Gaul while the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes settled in Britain, and the Vandals went on to cross the strait of Gibraltar after which they conquered the province of Africa.
Middle Ages | Later Roman Empire
The terrain was largely swampland dotted with a few small hills that was devoid of any mineable metals or minerals. This lack of resources and the problems the Romans would face trying to defend it may explain why the Romans never annexed it as a province but left it as a client-kingdom. According to English cartographer Aaron Arrowsmith, Iazyges Metanastæ lived east (sic) of the [Roman] Dacia separating it from [Roman] Pannonia and Germania. Iazyges Metanastæ drove Daci from Pannonia and Tibiscus River (today known as Timiș River (or Tisza)).
Iazyges | Geography
On a small hill outside of the city, what is now the "quartier St. Remi", a small borough developed. The defences would not prove sufficient, however. In 406 the Vandals descended on the city and pillaged it. The inhabitants fled to the Christian cathedral, where the bishop Nicasius of Rheims was decapitated on the doorstep while trying to slow them down. In 451 the Huns attacked. Hardly anything is left from this period except some traces of fortifications and the Roman road system that had not been changed. It seems the city was burned down and rebuilt several times, but little can still be found since the inhabitants, much poorer now, used cheap and easy to work but perishable materials such as wood, straw and clay.
Durocortorum | Decline of the city during the late Roman Empire
It finally gained the rank of eastern capital when given an urban prefect in 359 and the senators who were "clari" became senators of the lowest rank as "clarissimi". As a result, Italy began to decline in favour of the provinces, which resulted in the division of the Empire into two administrative units in 395: the Western Roman Empire, with its capital at Mediolanum (now Milan), and the Eastern Roman Empire, with its capital at Constantinople (now Istanbul). In 402, the capital was moved to Ravenna from Milan, confirming the decline of the city of Rome (which was sacked in 410 for the first time in seven centuries).
Roman Italy | Characteristics
The two cities, Laodicea and Hierapolis later came under Roman rule, and with the division of the Empire in 395 were left within the boundaries of the East Roman Empire.
Denizli Province | Antiquity
When Augustus died, the commemorative account of his achievements "(Res Gestae)" prominently featured the geographical cataloguing of peoples and places within the Empire. Geography, the census, and the meticulous keeping of written records were central concerns of Roman Imperial administration. The Empire reached its largest expanse under Trajan (reigned 98–117), encompassing an area of 5 million square kilometres. The traditional population estimate of inhabitants accounted for between one-sixth and one-fourth of the world's total population and made it the largest population of any unified political entity in the West until the mid-19th century. Recent demographic studies have argued for a population peak ranging from to more than .
Roman Empire | Geography and demography
The Danube River in the middle empire. The mountains of Armenia and deserts of Syria to the East and the Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains in Africa. However, after the Battle of Adrianople and Theodosius's subsequent peace deal with the Goths the Rhine and Danube frontiers became incredibly porous. As per the peace deal, the victorious Goths retained their rights to pledge allegiance to their own King and retain their weapons, becoming in effect a separate state within the borders of the Roman Empire. Finding it harder to penetrate into the Eastern Roman Empire past the Bosporus, the Goths turned west.
Geopolitics of the Roman Empire | Natural borders of the Roman Empire
During the 4th century, the administrative structure was modified several times, including repeated experiments with Eastern-Western co-emperors. Provinces and dioceses were split to form new ones, the praetorian prefecture of Illyricum was abolished and reformed. In the end, with the rise of Odoacer in 476 and the death of Julius Nepos in 480, administration of the effectively reduced Empire was permanently unified in Constantinople. Detailed information on the arrangements during this period is contained in the "Notitia Dignitatum" (Record of Offices), a document dating from the early 5th century. Most data is drawn from this authentic imperial source, as the names of the areas governed and titles of the governors are given there.
Roman province | Late Antiquity
The population during the Roman period must have been a little more than this.
Antioch of Pisidia | Geography
Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, though it did not expand outside the Italian peninsula until the 3rd century BC. Then, it was an "empire" long before it had an emperor. The Roman Republic was not a nation-state in the modern sense, but a network of towns left to rule themselves (though with varying degrees of independence from the Roman Senate) and provinces administered by military commanders. It was ruled, not by emperors, but by annually elected magistrates (Roman Consuls above all) in conjunction with the Senate. For various reasons, the 1st century BC was a time of political and military upheaval, which ultimately led to rule by emperors.
Roman Empire | Transition from Republic to Empire
The Roman provinces of Gaul, Britain and Hispania broke off to form the Gallic Empire and, two years later in 260, the eastern provinces of Syria, Palestine and Aegyptus became independent as the Palmyrene Empire, leaving the remaining Italian-centered Roman Empire-proper in the middle.
History of the Roman Empire | 235–284: Crisis of the Third Century
In the 3rd century, the Roman Empire almost collapsed and its army was becoming increasingly Germanic in make-up, so that in the 4th century when Huns pushed German tribes westward, they spilled across the Empire's borders and began to settle there. The Visigoths settled in Italy and then Spain, in the north the Franks settled into Gaul and western Germany, and in the 5th century the Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded Britain. By the close of the 6th century the Western Roman Empire was almost completely replaced with smaller less politically organized, but vigorous, Germanic kingdoms. Although these kingdoms were never homogeneous, they shared certain common cultural features.
Migration Period art | Background
Christians rose to positions of power in the fourth century following the Edict of Milan of 313. Shortly after, the Migration Period, involving large invasions by Germanic peoples and by the Huns of Attila, led to the decline of the Western Roman Empire. With the fall of Ravenna to the Germanic Herulians and the deposition of Romulus Augustulus in 476 AD by Odoacer, the Western Roman Empire finally collapsed; the Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno formally abolished it in 480 AD. Nonetheless, some states in the territories of the former Western Roman Empire would later claim to have inherited the supreme power of the emperors of Rome, most notably the Holy Roman Empire.
Roman Empire | Introduction
During the Crisis of the Third Century, the presence of the Emperor was required near the front to both subdue any barbarian invasion and to deter any possible usurpation or dissatisfaction from the troops. While the court moved with the Emperor, during the height of the crisis the de facto capital moved to Mediolanum. The city rose as due to its proximity to the frontiers of both the Rhine and Danube rivers and as the base of an elite cavalry force (Comitatenses) founded by emperor Gallienus, which could quickly be mobilised to counter any such threat. When Diocletian became emperor and formed the tetrachy, the four cities of Nicomedia, Mediolanum, Sirmium and Trier became capitals of the Roman Empire.
Geopolitics of the Roman Empire | Location of Roman capitals
Without an authoritative ruler, the Balkan provinces fell rapidly into disorder. Alaric was disappointed in his hopes for promotion to "magister militum" after the battle of the Frigidus. He again led Gothic tribesmen in arms and established himself as an independent power, burning the countryside as far as the walls of Constantinople. Alaric's ambitions for long-term Roman office were never quite acceptable to the Roman imperial courts, and his men could never settle long enough to farm in any one area. They showed no inclination to leave the Empire and face the Huns from whom they had fled in 376; indeed the Huns were still stirring up further migrations which often ended by attacking Rome in turn.
Fall of the Western Roman Empire | 395–406; Stilicho
The empire was split into two halves: the Western Roman Empire centred in Ravenna, and the Eastern Roman Empire (later to be referred to as the Byzantine Empire) centred in Constantinople. The Roman Empire was repeatedly attacked by Hunnic, Germanic, Slavic and other “barbarian” tribes (see: Migration Period), and in 476 finally the Western part fell to the Heruli chieftain Odoacer. Roman authority in the Western part of the empire had collapsed, and a power vacuum left in the wake of this collapse; the central organization, institutions, laws and power of Rome had broken down, resulting in many areas being open to invasion by migrating tribes.
History of Europe | Late Antiquity and Migration Period
Christianity in the form of the Nicene Creed became the official religion of the empire in 380, via the Edict of Thessalonica issued in the name of three emperors – Gratian, Valentinian II, and Theodosius I – with Theodosius clearly the driving force behind it. He was the last emperor of a unified empire: after his death in 395, his sons, Arcadius and Honorius divided the empire into a western and an eastern part. The seat of government in the Western Roman Empire was transferred to Ravenna after the Siege of Milan in 402. During the 5th century, the emperors from the 430s mostly resided in the capital city, Rome.
Rome | Empire
The situation became more critical in 408, after the death of Stilicho, a general who tried to reunite the Empire and repel barbarian invasion in the early years of the 5th century. The professional field army collapsed. In 410, the Theodosian dynasty saw the Visigoths sack Rome. During the 5th century, the Western Empire experienced a significant reduction of its territory. The Vandals conquered North Africa, the Visigoths claimed the southern part of Gaul, Gallaecia was taken by the Suebi, Britannia was abandoned by the central government, and the Empire suffered further from the invasions of Attila, chief of the Huns.
Ancient Rome | Fall of the Western Roman Empire
It measures 1.12 ft high and 22.15 ft long. The tools and principles of geography used by the Romans would be closely followed with little practical improvement for the next 700 years.
History of geography | Roman period
"Beloch's 1886 estimate for the population of the empire during the reign of Augustus:" "Russell's 1958 estimate for the population of the empire in 350 CE:" Recent demographic studies have argued for a population peak ranging from (comparable to the contemporaneous and similarly sized Han empire in China), with one-tenth of them located in Italy itself, to more than .
Demography of the Roman Empire | Estimates
The Geopolitics of the Roman Empire deals with the "inalienable relationship between geography and politics of the Roman Empire". Once the Roman Empire had reached its natural borders, the location of potential threats to the empire and Roman troop locations played a major role in the elevation of Roman Emperors. Access to the troops, their location were crucial to the empire's internal politics, civil wars, and the eventual Fall of the Western Roman Empire.
Geopolitics of the Roman Empire | Introduction
The Empire established by Octavian stayed consistent in territory for most of its history, though grew to permanently add Britannia through the campaign of Claudius and Dacia through Trajan's campaigns. Octavian had previously wanted the empire to incorporate territory until the Elbe river but changed his plans after the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Trajan also conquered Mesopotamia in addition to Dacia but the territory was abandoned by the next emperor, Hadrian who felt the territory would be too difficult and expensive to maintain against the Parthian Empire. The Empire's boundaries, therefore, were Hadrian's Wall (sometimes the Antonine wall), the Rhine and Main rivers in the Western Empire.
Geopolitics of the Roman Empire | Natural borders of the Roman Empire
Instruments and principles used included sun dials for determining direction, theodolites for measuring horizontal angles, and triangulation without which the creation of perfectly straight stretches, some as long as 35 miles, would have been impossible. During the Greco-Roman era, those who performed geographical work could be divided into four categories: Around AD 400 a scroll map called the Peutinger Table was made of the known world, featuring the Roman road network. Besides the Roman Empire which at that time spanned from Britain to the Middle East and Africa, the map includes India, Sri Lanka and China. Cities are demarcated using hundreds of symbols.
History of geography | Roman period
The borders of the Roman Empire, which fluctuated throughout the empire's history, were realised as a combination of military roads and linked forts, natural frontiers (most notably the Rhine and Danube rivers) and man-made fortifications which separated the lands of the empire from the countries beyond.
Borders of the Roman Empire | Introduction
He moved into Italy, probably using the route and supplies arranged for him by Stilicho, bypassing the imperial court in Ravenna which was protected by widespread marshland and had a port, and he menaced the city of Rome itself. In 407, there was no equivalent of the determined response to the catastrophic Battle of Cannae in 216 BCE, when the entire Roman population, even slaves, had been mobilized to resist the enemy.
Fall of the Western Roman Empire | Stilicho's fall and Alaric's reaction
He now felt that he could dispense with Alaric's services and he nominally transferred Alaric's province to the West. This administrative change removed Alaric's Roman rank and his entitlement to legal provisioning for his men, leaving his army – the only significant force in the ravaged Balkans – as a problem for Stilicho. In 400, the citizens of Constantinople revolted against Gainas and massacred as many of his people, soldiers and their families, as they could catch. Some Goths at least built rafts and tried to cross the strip of sea that separates Asia from Europe; the Roman navy slaughtered them.
Fall of the Western Roman Empire | Stilicho's attempts to unify the Empire, revolts, and invasions
Each of the three largest cities in the Empire—Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch—was almost twice the size of any European city at the beginning of the 17th century.
Roman Empire | Geography and demography
According to the Cavalli–Sforza reconstruction of genetic history, there was little migration in Europe after the Iron Age. Most population growth can therefore be ascribed to the gradual expansion of local populations under conditions of improving fertility, rather than inter-regional transfer. That said, local migration from village to village may have been substantial; for the successful dedication and expansion of new settlements, it would have been necessary. The geography of the Mediterranean made this fairly convenient; at the beginning of the empire, about 750,000 Italians lived in the provinces. Julius Caesar, Mark Anthony and Octavian–Augustus settled many of their veterans in colonies, in Italy, and the provinces.
Demography of the Roman Empire | Migration
Barbarian war bands increasingly began to penetrate the Empire's vulnerable borders, both as settlers and invaders. In 451, the Romans defeated Attila the Hun, but only with assistance from a confederation of "foederatii" troops, which included Visigoths, Franks and Alans. As barbarian incursions continued, some advancing as far as the heart of Italy, Rome's borders began to collapse, with frontier forces swiftly finding themselves cut off deep in the enemy's rear. Simultaneously, barbarian troops in Rome's pay came to be "in a condition of almost perpetual turbulence and revolt" from 409 onwards. In 476 these troops finally unseated the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
Structural history of the Roman military | Collapse in the West and survival in the East (395–476 AD)
Some other notable dates are the Battle of Adrianople in 378, the death of Theodosius I in 395 (the last time the Roman Empire was politically unified), the crossing of the Rhine in 406 by Germanic tribes after the withdrawal of the legions to defend Italy against Alaric I, the death of Stilicho in 408, followed by the disintegration of the western legions, the death of Justinian I, the last Roman Emperor who tried to reconquer the west, in 565, and the coming of Islam after 632. Many scholars maintain that rather than a "fall", the changes can more accurately be described as a complex transformation.
History of Europe | Decline of the Roman Empire
No Western city would have as many again until the 19th century.
Demography of the Roman Empire | Introduction
Modern historians credit this fracturing of the Empire as the reason that the Roman Empire endured under a period of intense duress postulating that the three empires did a much better job than one Empire headed by a single Emperor would have been able to do. Indeed, the size of the empire and the inability for a single Emperor to be able to effectively address barbarian invasions as well as internal threats of usurpation is one of the reasons Diocletian created the Tetrachy and the empire eventually split into its Eastern and Western halves. The empire would continue to fracture, during 407 AD, dissatisfied troops in Britannia hailed Constantine III as Emperor of the west.
Geopolitics of the Roman Empire | Fracturing of the Empire
The history of the Roman Empire covers the history of ancient Rome from the fall of the Roman Republic in 27 BC until the abdication of Romulus Augustulus in AD 476 in the West, and the Fall of Constantinople in the East. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the Republic in the 6th century BC, though it did not expand outside of the Italian Peninsula until the 3rd century BC. Civil war engulfed the Roman state in the mid 1st century BC, first between Julius Caesar and Pompey, and finally between Octavian and Mark Antony. Antony was defeated at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC.
History of the Roman Empire | Introduction
By the 400s, Italy and Rome itself were dependent on the taxes and foodstuffs from these provinces, leading to an economic crisis. With Vandal fleets becoming an increasing danger to Roman sea trade and the coasts and islands of the western and central Mediterranean, Aetius coordinated a counterattack against the Vandals in 440, organizing a large army in Sicily. However, the plans for retaking Africa had to be abandoned due to the immediate need to combat the invading Huns, who in 444 were united under their ambitious king Attila. Turning against their former ally, the Huns became a formidable threat to the Empire.
Western Roman Empire | Escalating barbarian conflicts
George of Cyprus is known for his "Descriptio orbis Romani" "(Description of the Roman world)", written in the decade 600–610. Beginning with Italy and progressing counterclockwise including Africa, Egypt and the western Middle East, George lists cities, towns, fortresses and administrative divisions of the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire.
History of geography | Byzantine Empire and Syria
In doing so, he effectively created what would become the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire.
History of the Roman Empire | 284–301: Diocletian and the Tetrarchy
The large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the 7th century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, an Islamic empire, after conquest by Muhammad's successors. Although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire, Rome's direct continuation, survived in the Eastern Mediterranean and remained a major power. The empire's law code, the "Corpus Juris Civilis" or "Code of Justinian", was rediscovered in Northern Italy in the 11th century.
Middle Ages | Introduction
In time, an empire may change from one political entity to another. For example, the Holy Roman Empire, a German re-constitution of the Roman Empire, metamorphosed into various political structures (i.e., federalism), and eventually, under Habsburg rule, re-constituted itself in 1804 as the Austrian Empire, an empire of much different politics and scope, which in turn became the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867. The Roman Empire, perennially reborn, also lived on as the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire) – temporarily splitting into the Latin Empire, the Empire of Nicaea and the Empire of Trebizond before its remaining territory and centre became part of the Ottoman Empire.
Empire | Transition from empire
Like any other region, over the centuries "Region VI" changed its borders. These changes are reflected in the writings of the imperial geographers.
Roman Umbria | Umbria in the geographers of the empire
Rome remained the nominal capital of both parts until 476 AD, when the imperial insignia were sent to Constantinople, following the capture of Ravenna by the barbarians of Odoacer and the subsequent deposition of Romulus Augustulus. The fall of the Western Roman Empire to Germanic kings, along with the hellenization of the Eastern Roman Empire into the Byzantine Empire, conventionally marks the end of Ancient Rome and the beginning of the Middle Ages. The predecessor state of the Roman Empire, the Roman Republic (which had replaced Rome's monarchy in the 6th century BC) became severely destabilized in a series of civil wars and political conflicts.
Roman Empire | Introduction
Additionally, in northern Gaul, a British army led by one Riothamus, operated in imperial interests. Anthemius sent his son over the Alps, with an army, to request that the Visigoths return southern Gaul to Roman control. This would have allowed the Empire land access to Hispania again. The Visigoths refused, defeated the forces of both Riothamus and Anthemius, and with the Burgundians took over almost all of the remaining imperial territory in southern Gaul. Ricimer then quarreled with Anthemius, and besieged him in Rome, which surrendered in July 472 after more months of starvation. Anthemius was captured and executed (on Ricimer's orders) by the Burgundian prince Gundobad.
Fall of the Western Roman Empire | 467–472, Anthemius; an Emperor and an army from the East
Historians infer that the population appears to have diminished in many provinces—especially western Europe—from the diminishing size of fortifications built to protect the cities from barbarian incursions from the 3rd century on. Some historians even have suggested that parts of the periphery were no longer inhabited because these fortifications were restricted to the center of the city only. Tree rings suggest "distinct drying" beginning in 250. By the late 3rd century, the city of Rome no longer served as an effective capital for the Emperor and various cities were used as new administrative capitals. Successive emperors, starting with Constantine, privileged the eastern city of Byzantium, which he had entirely rebuilt after a siege.
Historiography of the fall of the Western Roman Empire | Overview of events
It was also an era in which might of the far flung Roman Empire was now beginning to experience increasing pressure on its eastern and northern borders, whereas previously the balance of military power had concentrated on defending the eastern border.
Classical Anatolia | The Empire: the years of crisis 235–284, Schism 258–274 and Gothic invasion (255)
Under Anthemius, the Western Empire, which had become increasingly isolated from the Eastern Empire, grew closer, although this collaboration came too late to save the Western Empire. Anthemius' friendly attitude towards the Eastern Empire angered Ricimer, who deposed him in March or April of 472.
Western Roman Empire | Theodosian dynasty (392–455)
Only the proconsuls and the urban prefect of Rome (and later Constantinople) were exempt from this, and were directly subordinated to the tetrarchs. Although the Caesars were soon eliminated from the picture, the four administrative resorts were restored in 318 by Emperor Constantine I, in the form of praetorian prefectures, whose holders generally rotated frequently, as in the usual magistracies but without a colleague. Constantine also created a new capital, known after him as Constantinople, which was sometimes called 'New Rome' because it became the permanent seat of the government. In Italy itself, Rome had not been the imperial residence for some time and 286 Diocletian formally moved the seat of government to Mediolanum (modern Milan), while taking up residence himself in Nicomedia.
Roman province | Late Antiquity
XXXVIII) or the auxiliary (later Legio XXII Deiotariana) after Zela. By the time of Augustus the legions consisted mostly of ethnic Latins/Italics and Cisalpine Gauls. Historian Theodore Mommsen estimated that under Hadrian nearly 1/3 of the eastern Numidia population (roughly modern Tunisia) was descended from Roman veterans.
Demography of the Roman Empire | Migration
Thus, the Vandals crossed the Rhine in 406, the Pyrenees in 409, the Straight of Gibraltar in 428, and established the Vandal Kingdom in Northern Africa and the Western Mediterranean islands by the mid-5th century; the Suebi, initially moving alongside the Vandals, established their Western Iberian kingdom in 409; the Visigothic Kingdom was initially established by treaty in 418 in the Garonne Valley, and soon expanded into the Iberian Peninsula; the Alemanni expanded into Alsace and beyond, from their initial base in the "Agri Decumates"; in the 440s, the Kingdom of the Burgundians was established around the Rhone; an autonomous Kingdom of Soissons was carved out from 457 by Roman military commanders between the Seine and Somme rivers; last but not least, the Franks, which had been established north of the Rhine in 358 by treaty with Emperor Julian, expanded into what is now Belgium and Northern France.
Succession of the Roman Empire | Political fragmentation and Imperial overlordship
Since the question of what constitutes an emperor can be ambiguous, and dating the "fall of the Western Empire" arbitrary, this list includes details of both figures.
List of Roman emperors | Emperors after 395
In 376, the Visigoths, fleeing before the Ostrogoths, who in turn were fleeing before the Huns, were allowed to cross the river Danube and settle in the Balkans by the Eastern government. Mistreatment caused a full-scale rebellion, and in 378 they inflicted a crippling defeat on the Eastern Roman field army in the Battle of Adrianople, in which Emperor Valens also died. The defeat at Adrianople was shocking to the Romans, and forced them to negotiate with and settle the Visigoths within the borders of the Empire, where they would become semi-independent foederati under their own leaders.
Western Roman Empire | Further divisions
By the beginning of 401, Gainas' head rode a pike through Constantinople while another Gothic general became consul. Meanwhile, groups of Huns started a series of attacks across the Danube, and the Isaurians marauded far and wide in Anatolia.
Fall of the Western Roman Empire | Stilicho's attempts to unify the Empire, revolts, and invasions
The Roman Empire usually refers to the post-republican, autocratic government period of Roman civilization, centered on the city of Rome on the Italian peninsula from 27 BC to 330 AD, and in Constantinople on the Bosporus from 330 to 1453 AD. Roman Empire may also refer to:
Roman Empire (disambiguation) | Introduction
The empire divided shortly after his death, but the influence of his Hellenistic successors made for an extended Hellenistic period (323–31 BCE) throughout the region.
Human history | Regional empires
But it marked huge losses of territory and of revenue; Rutilius travelled by ship past the ruined bridges and countryside of Tuscany, and in the west the River Loire had become the effective northern boundary of Roman Gaul. In the east of Gaul the Franks controlled large areas; the effective line of Roman control until 455 ran from north of Cologne (lost to the Ripuarian Franks in 459) to Boulogne. The Italian areas which had been compelled to support the Goths had most of their taxes remitted for several years. Even in southern Gaul and Hispania large barbarian groups remained, with thousands of warriors, in their own non-Roman military and social systems.
Fall of the Western Roman Empire | Settlement of 418; barbarians within the empire
Many theories have been advanced in way of explanation for decline of the Roman Empire, and many dates given for its fall, from the onset of its decline in the 3rd century to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Militarily, however, the Empire finally fell after first being overrun by various non-Roman peoples and then having its heart in Italy seized by Germanic troops in a revolt. The historicity and exact dates are uncertain, and some historians do not consider that the Empire fell at this point. The Empire became gradually less Romanised and increasingly Germanic in nature: although the Empire buckled under Visigothic assault, the overthrow of the last Emperor Romulus Augustus was carried out by federated Germanic troops from within the Roman army rather than by foreign troops.
Campaign history of the Roman military | Collapse of the Western Empire (402–476 AD)
When Emperor Constantine had reconquered Rome under the banner of the cross in 312, he soon afterwards issued the Edict of Milan in 313 (preceded by the Edict of Serdica in 311), declaring the legality of Christianity in the Roman Empire. In addition, Constantine officially shifted the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to the Greek town of Byzantium, which he renamed Nova Roma – it was later named Constantinople ("City of Constantine"). In 395 Theodosius I, who had made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, would be the last emperor to preside over a united Roman Empire.
History of Europe | Late Antiquity and Migration Period
As the central empire declined, villas became more self-sufficient and less part of a larger market economy. At the same time, a greater number of smaller villas appeared, exhibiting Roman culture and values. As Rome waned, the provinces waxed at first. From 235 AD (the death of Emperor Severus Alexander) a series of short-lived, sometime incompetent emperors ruled Rome. They generally died violently, after serving for an average of 2.6 years. The high turn-over represents the attempt to find a leader who could deal with the challenges facing the empire. Generals Postumus and Tetricu in Gaul established a separate 'Gallic' Empire 260-274 in response to an invasion of tribes in 259 which reached as far south as Tarrgona in Spain since the legitimate emperor in Rome was too pressed to respond.
Roman villas in northwestern Gaul | Evolution and decline
The "Provinces of the Roman Empire" (1885, 1886) contains thirteen chapters, namely: Northern Italy, Spain, Gaul, Germany, Britain, the Danube, Greece, Asia Minor, the Euphrates and Parthia, Syria and the Nabataeans, Judaea, Egypt, and the Africa provinces. Generally, each chapter describes the economic geography of the region and its people, before addressing how the Imperial regime adapted to its peculiarities. Regarding the North, military administration is often stressed; while in the East, the focus is more on culture and history. A quarter of the way into his short "Introduction" to the "Provinces" Mommsen comments on the decline of Rome, the capital city: "The Roman state of this epoch resembles a mighty tree, the main stem of which, in the course of its decay, is surrounded by vigorous offshoots pushing their way upward." These shoots being the provinces he here describes.
History of Rome (Mommsen) | The Provinces
He identified many deficiencies in the military, especially mentioning that the soldiers were no longer properly equipped: A religious polemic of about this time complains bitterly of the oppression and extortion suffered by all but the richest Romans. Many wished to flee to the Bagaudae or even to foul-smelling barbarians. "Although these men differ in customs and language from those with whom they have taken refuge, and are unaccustomed too, if I may say so, to the nauseous odor of the bodies and clothing of the barbarians, yet they prefer the strange life they find there to the injustice rife among the Romans.
Fall of the Western Roman Empire | 433–454; ascendancy of Aetius, loss of Carthage
The Migration Period and the attendant threat to the city of Rome itself by the Germanic tribes in AD 410 underlay the Roman military and civil administration's pullout from the Rhineland and the Province of Gaul. The power vacuum was at first filled by the Alemanni, and then after the 496 Battle of Tolbiac by the Franks (both Germanic peoples). Latin then ceased to be either the official or the vernacular language. The new one was now Frankish. Just as the original Celts had mingled with the Romans, the remaining Romans now became part of the Frankish population. Stretching from the heights of the Hunsrück far into the Palatinate in Frankish times was the Nahegau.
Raumbach | Migration Period
In Gaul, which did not really recover from the invasions of the third century, there was widespread insecurity and economic decline in the 300s, perhaps worst in Armorica. By 350, after decades of pirate attacks, virtually all villas in Armorica were deserted, and local use of money ceased about 360. Repeated attempts to economize on military expenditure included billeting troops in cities, where they could less easily be kept under military discipline and could more easily extort from civilians. Except in the rare case of a determined and incorruptible general, these troops proved ineffective in action and dangerous to civilians.
Fall of the Western Roman Empire | 313–376: Abuse of power, frontier warfare, and rise of Christianity
The Roman Empire ( ; ) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, Northern Africa, and Western Asia ruled by emperors. From the accession of Caesar Augustus to the military anarchy of the third century, it was a principate with Italy as metropole of the provinces and the city of Rome as sole capital (27 BC – 286 AD). After the military crisis, the empire was ruled by multiple emperors who shared rule over the Western Roman Empire (based in Milan and later in Ravenna) and over the Eastern Roman Empire (also known as the Byzantine Empire; centred on Nicomedia and Antioch, later based in Constantinople).
Roman Empire | Introduction
The 5th century Migration Period was a period of serious crisis for the Roman Empire. In 410, the Visigoths under Alaric sacked Rome. In 476, the general Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus traditionally considered the last Western Roman Emperor. The relative tranquility of Sicily in this period attracted many people. Just as in earlier periods, many senatorial families had been spurred to acquire vast estates of fertile land. High functionaries and religious officials (both Christian and pagan) travelled to Sicily to dedicate themselves to study, hunting and entertainment. We know that Nicomachus Flavianus the Younger, "praefectus urbi" between 361 and 362, had an estate near Enna, where he produced a revised edition of the first ten books of Livy in 408.
Sicilia (Roman province) | The fall of the Western Empire and Sicily
Between these extreme regions both the northern and southern hemispheres had a temperate belt suitable for human habitation.
History of geography | Greco-Roman world
The end result was that the Empire could not endure the blow of the capture of Emperor Valerian in 260 by the Sassanids. The eastern provinces found their protectors in the rulers of the city of Palmyra, in Syria, whose autonomy grew until the formation of the Palmyrene Empire, which was successful in defending against the Sassanid threat. The western provinces, those facing the "limes" of the Rhine, seceded to form a third, autonomous state within the territories of the Roman Empire, which is now known as the Gallic Empire. In Rome, the Emperor was occupied with internal menaces to his power and with the defense of Italia and the Balkans.
Aurelian | The Roman Empire in the 270s
The death of Theodosius I in 395 was followed by the division of the empire between his two sons. The Western Roman Empire disintegrated into a mosaic of warring Germanic kingdoms in the 5th century, making the Eastern Roman Empire in Constantinople the legal successor to the classical Roman Empire. After Greek replaced Latin as the official language of the Empire, historians refer to the empire as "Byzantine". Westerners would gradually begin to refer to it as "Greek" rather than "Roman". The inhabitants, however, always called themselves "Romaioi", or Romans. The Eastern Roman Empire aimed to retain control of the trade routes between Europe and the Orient, which made the Empire the richest polity in Europe.
Early Middle Ages | Byzantine Empire
Zeno granted Odoacer the title Patrician. Zeno told Odoacer and the Roman Senate to take Nepos back; however, Nepos never returned from Dalmatia, even though Odoacer issued coins in his name. Upon Nepos's death in 480, Zeno claimed Dalmatia for the East; J. B. Bury considers this the real end of the Western Roman Empire. Odoacer attacked Dalmatia, and the ensuing war ended with Theodoric the Great, King of the Ostrogoths, conquering Italy under Zeno's authority.
History of the Roman Empire | 395–476: Decline of the Western Roman Empire
For example, the Roman Republic, and later, the Roman Empire expanded continuously until it reached certain natural borders: first the Alps, later the Rhine river, the Danube river and the Sahara desert. From the Middle Ages onwards until the 19th century, France sought to expand its borders towards the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the Rhine River.
Natural border | Introduction
In 376, a large band of Goths asked Emperor Valens for permission to settle on the southern bank of the Danube River on terms similar to the Franks. The Goths were also accepted into the empire as "foederati"; however, they rebelled later that year and defeated the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople. The heavy losses that the Roman military suffered during this defeat ironically forced the Roman Empire to rely still further on such "foederati" troops to supplement its forces. In 382, the practice was radically extended when federated troops were signed up "en masse" as allied contingents of "laeti" and "foederatii" troops separate from existing Roman units.
Structural history of the Roman military | Adoption of barbarian allies (358–395 AD)
Meanwhile, the Eastern Roman Empire faced its own problems with Germanic tribes. The Thervingi, an East Germanic tribe, fled their former lands following an invasion by the Huns. Their leaders Alavivus and Fritigern led them to seek refuge in the Eastern Roman Empire. Valens allowed them to settle as foederati on the southern bank of the Danube in 376. However, the newcomers faced problems from allegedly corrupted provincial commanders and a series of hardships. Their dissatisfaction led them to revolt against their Roman hosts. Conflicts continued for the following two years. Valens led a campaign against them in 378. Gratian provided his uncle with reinforcements from the Western Roman army.
History of the Roman Empire | 378: Battle of Adrianople
This period also featured a shift in the Empire's "center of gravity" from the west to the east, particularly after the establishment of Constantinople; neither Diocletian nor his co-Emperor Maximian spent much time in Rome after 286, establishing their Imperial capitals at Nicomedia and Mediolanum (modern Milan), respectively.
Roman Emperor (Dominate) | Introduction
While traditional historiography emphasized this break with Antiquity by using the term "Byzantine Empire" instead of Roman Empire, recent schools of history offer a more nuanced view, seeing mostly continuity rather than a sharp break. The Empire of Late Antiquity already looked very different from classical Rome. The Roman Empire emerged from the Roman Republic when Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar transformed it from a republic into a monarchy. Rome reached its zenith in the 2nd century, then fortunes slowly declined (with many revivals and restorations along the way). The reasons for the decline of the Empire are still debated today, and are likely multiple.
Historiography of the fall of the Western Roman Empire | Overview of events
The Vandals, Franks and Alans would soon join the Goths in settling in Western Roman lands, while retaining their tribal allegiances and heritage.
Geopolitics of the Roman Empire | Natural borders of the Roman Empire
In the 430s the Huns began invading the empire; their king Attila (r. 434–453) led invasions into the Balkans in 442 and 447, Gaul in 451, and Italy in 452. The Hunnic threat remained until Attila's death in 453, when the Hunnic confederation he led fell apart. These invasions by the tribes completely changed the political and demographic nature of what had been the Western Roman Empire.
Middle Ages | Later Roman Empire
Theodosius died in Milan in 395, and was buried in Constantinople. His sons Honorius (395–423) and Arcadius (395–408) divided the empire between them and it was never again to be united. Thus the Eastern Empire was finally established by the beginning of the 5th century, as it entered the Middle Ages, while the west was to decay and Rome to be sacked under Honorius. The west limped on under a series of short lived emperors and progressively shrinking empire, in which the east frequently intervened, effectively ending with Julius Nepos (474–475). In 395 Arcadius inherited an empire that for the first time was independent, recognised as the senior partner of the Roman World and was not the subject of territorial ambition within its frontiers.
Byzantine Anatolia | Theodosian dynasty 378–457
In 296, Diocletian implemented a new territorial division of Pannonia. Instead of previous two provinces, there were four new provinces established in former territory of original Pannonia: Pannonia Prima, Pannonia Valeria, Pannonia Savia and Pannonia Secunda. Capital city of Pannonia Secunda was Sirmium. In 293, with the establishment of tetrarchy, the Roman Empire was split into four parts; Sirmium became one of the four capital cities of the Empire, the other three being Augusta Treverorum, Mediolanum, and Nicomedia (modern Trier, Milan and Izmit). During the tetrarchy, Sirmium was the capital of emperor Galerius. With the establishment of praetorian prefectures in 318, the capital of the prefecture of Illyricum was Sirmium.
Sremska Mitrovica | Ancient Sirmium
Some occasionally acknowledged a degree of Roman political control, but without the local application of Roman leadership and military power they and their individual subgroups pursued their own interests.
Fall of the Western Roman Empire | Settlement of 418; barbarians within the empire
The fortress was built by the Romans. Thermae, basilicas, floor mosaics have been uncovered.
Kyustendil | Geography
After his death in 395, he gave the two halves of the Empire to his two sons Arcadius and Honorius; Arcadius became ruler in the East, with his capital in Constantinople, and Honorius became ruler in the West, with his capital in Milan and later Ravenna. The Roman state would continue to have two different emperors with different seats of power throughout the 5th century, though the Eastern Romans considered themselves to be the only ones who were fully Roman. Latin was used in official writings as much as, if not more than, Greek and the two halves were nominally, culturally and historically, if not politically, the same state.
History of the Roman Empire | Final partition of the Empire
The region contained two flat plains, both beyond the Servian Walls – the "Campus Viminalis" and the "Campus Esquilinus". At the turn of the 5th century, the Regio contained 15 "aediculae" (shrines), 180 "domūs" (patrician houses), 22 "horrea" (warehouses), 75 "balneae" (bath houses) and 74 "loci" (fountains).
Regio V Esquiliae | Geographic extent and important features
The new capital was to be distinguished from the old by being simultaneously Christian and Greek (although was initially mainly Latin speaking like its Balkan hinterland) and a centre of culture. However the empire split again on his death, only to be reunited again by Theodosius I (379–395).
Byzantine Anatolia | Late Roman Empire
Following the provincial reorganization of Diocletian, the Pontic and Armenian territories were split off, and the province was reduced to the region of Cappadocia proper. It was headed by a "consularis" and came under the Diocese of Pontus. The province was the site of a great number of imperial estates, as contemporary legislation testifies. On the highway between Constantinople and Antioch Caesarea saw a significant number of imperial visits (Itineraries of the Roman emperors, 337-361); Valens (363-378) was particularly frequent. The future emperor Julian spent his early years at a remote estate, Macellum. Class divisions between the landowning class and the urban and rural poor were extreme, as was also the climate of this upland plateau.
Cappadocia (Roman province) | During the Dominate
At the time of the empire's maximal extension under Trajan (AD 117), Rome controlled the entire Mediterranean as well as Gaul, parts of Germania and Britannia, the Balkans, Dacia, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, and Mesopotamia. Culturally, the Roman Empire was significantly Hellenized, but also saw the rise of syncretic "eastern" traditions, such as Mithraism, Gnosticism, and most notably Christianity. The empire began to decline in the crisis of the third century.
Classical antiquity | Roman Empire (1st century BC to 5th century AD)
The adoptive son of Caesar, Octavian Augustus, defeated the killers of his father and became the first Roman Emperor ("Princeps") in 27 BC. The Roman Empire peaked during the Pax Romana, stagnated during the crisis of the third century AD and ultimately split between the Latin West and the Greek East. Both parts of the Empire abandoned pagan polytheism in order to tolerate monotheistic Christianity and finally make it the state religion. The West collapsed around 476, following centuries of attacks by Germanic and Slavic peoples and several "barbarian" kingdoms were established on its former territory. The East continued to be ruled by the Byzantine Empire for an additional thousand years.
European balance of power | Antiquity to Westphalia
In this sense had Odoacer not renounced the title of Emperor and named himself "King of Italy" instead, the Empire might have continued in name. Its identity, however, was no longer Roman – it was increasingly populated and governed by Germanic peoples long before 476 AD. The Roman people were by the 5th century "bereft of their military ethos" and the Roman army itself a mere supplement to federated troops of Goths, Huns, Franks and others fighting on their behalf. Rome's last gasp began when the Visigoths revolted around 395 AD. Led by Alaric I, they attempted to seize Constantinople, but were rebuffed and instead plundered much of Thrace in northern Greece.
Campaign history of the Roman military | Collapse of the Western Empire (402–476 AD)
In 402 AD they besieged Mediolanum, the capital of Roman Emperor Honorius, defended by Roman Gothic troops. The arrival of the Roman Stilicho and his army forced Alaric to lift his siege and move his army towards Hasta (modern Asti) in western Italy, where Stilicho attacked it at the Battle of Pollentia, capturing Alaric's camp. Stilicho offered to return the prisoners in exchange for the Visigoths returning to Illyricum but upon arriving at Verona, Alaric halted his retreat. Stilicho again attacked at the Battle of Verona and again defeated Alaric, forcing him to withdraw from Italy.
Campaign history of the Roman military | Collapse of the Western Empire (402–476 AD)
The Great Migration ("Völkerwanderung") sealed the decline of Roman power in Austria. In the First Phase (300–500 AD) the Roman Empire was increasingly harassed by Germanic tribes from the 5th Century, including Goths and Vandals. As the fabric of the Roman Empire crumbled, the ability of Raetia, Noricum, and Pannonia to defend themselves became increasingly problematic. Radagaisus overran part of the country in 405. (Géza Alföldy pp. 213–4). After several raids on Italy, the Visigoths arrived in 408, under Alaric I. As described by Zosimus, Alaric set out from Emona (modern Ljubljana) which lay between Pannonia Superior and Noricum over the Carnic Alps arriving at Virunum in Noricum, as had been agreed to by the Roman general Stilicho, following several skirmishes between the two.
History of Austria | First phase: Goths, 300–500 AD
During Antiquity, it belonged to the 9th Augustan region called "Circo Flaminio". In this area Pompey built his curia, while Domitian built his stadium and an "Odeon" ("Odeum" in Latin), for musical and poetic competitions. During the early Middle Ages it included parts of the city around San Lorenzo in Damaso. From 1200 the population kept on increasing until the 15th century, when it increased in importance due to the paving of Campo de' Fiori, so that it soon became an important economic center. Under Sixtus IV (1471–1484) the rione lost much of its chaotic look, typical of the Middle Ages, for a cleaner and tidier one, in keeping with the changes brought about by the Renaissance.
14 regions of Medieval Rome | VIII "Parionis et S. Laurentii in Damaso"
During the Gothic revolt of 376, a mixed Gothic group settled in Moesia. By the 390s Alaric had become the client king of the Visigoths under the Roman empire. Between 395 and 418, Alaric, Athawulf, and their immediate successors fought several campaigns, seeking offices for themselves and support for their followers. They transferred their base of operations from the eastern Balkans (395) to the western Balkans (397), Italy (408), and Aquitaine (c. 415). These successive movements may have divided the army from much of its population base.
Gothic and Vandal warfare | Visigothic armies (396–507)
The decline of the Roman Empire is one of the traditional markers of the end of Classical Antiquity and the beginning of the European Middle Ages. Throughout the 5th century, the Empire's territories in western Europe and northwestern Africa, including Italy, fell to various invading or indigenous peoples in what is sometimes called the Migration period. Although the eastern half still survived with borders essentially intact for several centuries (until the Muslim conquests), the Empire as a whole had initiated major cultural and political transformations since the Crisis of the Third Century, with the shift towards a more openly autocratic and ritualized form of government, the adoption of Christianity as the state religion, and a general rejection of the traditions and values of Classical Antiquity.
Historiography of the fall of the Western Roman Empire | Overview of events
The site had been acknowledged for its strategic importance already by emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla, more than a century prior. In 361, Constantius II became ill and died, and Constantius Chlorus' grandson Julian, who had served as Constantius II's Caesar, assumed power. Julian was killed in 363 in the Battle of Samarra against the Persian Empire and was succeeded by Jovian, who ruled for only nine months. Following the death of Jovian, Valentinian I emerged as Emperor in 364. He immediately divided the Empire once again, giving the eastern half to his brother Valens. Stability was not achieved for long in either half, as the conflicts with outside forces (barbarian tribes) intensified.
Western Roman Empire | Further divisions
As with many towns in the Empire, the colonia shrunk in size in the 4th century but continued to function as an important town. Although houses tended to shrink in size, with 75% of the large townhouses being replaced by smaller buildings by c. 350, in the period 275 to 325 a weak "building boom" (the "Constantinian renaissance") occurred in the town, with new houses being built and old ones reshaped. Many of the towns mosaics date from this period, including the famous Lion Walk mosaic. Late Roman robber trenches have been found at some sites for removing and salvaging tessalated floors and tiles for reuse in later houses.
Camulodunum | Late Roman town
Depending on the time, either a notable Roman or Persian military presence would be noted.
Palaestina Prima | Demographics
Further along stood the Basilica Argentaria, and although beside it stood the Basilica Aemilia, the "Aemilia" formed part of the fourth region. Across the Forum on its southern side facing the "Aemilia" was the Basilica Julia, rebuilt by Diocletian after a fire destroyed the earlier structure. This part of the Forum contained the "Vicus Jugarius", the "Graecostasis", the Temple of Castor and Pollux and the Temple of Vesta. The southern portion of the region then terminated at the Arch of Augustus. Moving north from the Arch of Septimius Severus, the region contained the collective Imperial Fora, a series of monumental public squares.
Regio VIII Forum Romanum | Geographic extent and important features