The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Volum... by Edward Gibbon

And not only does he set that up, but he sets up what's called a tetrarchy. 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. It's hard for one emperor toĪdminister the whole thing, so he splits it into East and West from an administrative point of view. One of the main causes of the Third Century Crisis is that the empire has gotten too vast. He's most famous for splitting the empire. He's known as the last emperor that really persecuted the Christians because they didn'tįollow the Roman religion, they did not worship the emperor as a god, but he's also, or maybe Now the Third CenturyĬrisis is considered to end in 284 with the ascension of Diocletian, and Diocletian is viewed as a somewhat, or a reasonably strong emperor. The Rhine and the Danube from Germanic tribes.

There's attacks from theĮast from the Sassanids, the Sassanian Empire, And over this 50 years, there'sĢ6 claimants to emperor. Into a 50-year crisis called the Third Century Crisis because it happened in the third century. 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 downwardĮven further, in 235 CE when the emperor SeverusĪlexander is assassinated, and this throws the empire Of a succession of emperors who are less and less competent. His son, Commodus, takes over, and Commodus is the beginning But things only get worse after the death of Marcus Aurelius, who's viewed as the last 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 thisĪs such a good time.

If you're one of the tribes that are still fighting It's a relatively stable, relatively peaceful time for Rome. Last video we talk about the first 200 years of Romeīeing 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.

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Volum... by Edward Gibbon