Constantine And The Fall Of The Roman Empire

While the fall of the Roman Empire is well known, the exact causes of why it fell can be difficult to pinpoint. Many historians believe that Rome 's downfall was due to poor leadership, weakened economics, or perhaps a combination of the two along with other seemingly unrelated factors. However, there is a string of evidence suggesting that there were three main components that took place to bring about the fall of the Roman Empire. These determinant attributes did not happen all at once, and there was a domino effect with each one directly influencing the others. The fall of Rome occurred after a series of preventable events, including unacceptable emperors, the heavy reliance on slaves, and the increasingly uncontrollable borders of Rome.

This made it easier to protect their land. Western Rome controlled Europe and North Africa including the city of Rome. Eastern Rome controlled Turkey and parts of Asia and included the city of Byzantium.

Roman emperor Constantine strategically chose Byzantion, also referred to as Byzantium, as the new imperial capital for the Roman Empire. Emperor Constantine named the capital, Constantinople (“city of Constantine), after himself (Bentley, Ziegler, and Streets-Salter, p. 182). A historian of the Christian Church, Sozomen once stated:

Because Justinian has a different mindset on how to protect and construct cities, Justinian made a new Byzantine

Constantine made many contributions as a leader. One contribution that he made as a leader was after his father died. Western Rome was experiencing many civil wars at the time. Maximian’s son, Maxentius, felt entitled to the land because it had once belonged to his father. Constantine felt authorized to take the land because it had also once belonged to his father. Constantine was successful at

The fall of the Roman empire was due to many things. Three of the main reasons were that Rome was so big that the borders couldn’t be protected. Most of the emperor's were assassinated or killed and battle, the currency went downhill which destroyed trade, and many Germanic tribes attacked at around the same time and took over Rome. The end of the Roman Empire is mostly caused by these reasons. Since Rome was so massive the outskirts of the empire was not very well protected which made it easier for attacking cities to just walk on in.

Ancient civilizations, specifically Greek and Roman civilizations, played various significant roles throughout the main civilizations in the Common Era. Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman from the Ancient civilization since the Roman emperor Constantine moved the capital from Rome to Byzantium and changed its name to Constantinople, known as the center city of Christian world. The political identity of Byzantine Empire can be traced back to one of the Imperial Rome. The empire had one emperor who made all decisions in the empire. The member of senate was appointed by the Emperor to be the figure-head. However, during Justinian’s reign, he tried to revise the Roman Law code and summarized all laws so that the court can refer to. Some of the architecture style during that time was resemble to the Roman architecture. For example, The Hague Sophia was the combination of longitudinal shape of the Roman basilica with a domed central plan. Regarding the infusion of the Greek culture, it could be easily seen by looking

Founder of Constantinople, Constantine claimed the great Byzantine Empire and in turn inherited the new Holy Roman Empire. With the Edict of Milan in 313, Constantine proclaimed religious tolerance of Christians throughout the empire and soon the religion spread. Constantine then transformed the city of Byzantium into the new capital of the Roman Empire, which then was known and proclaimed as Constantinople. The new capital would profit from its location being closer to the east frontier, having then the advantage of better trading, and a militarily sound location being protected on three sides by water.

When we look back at Christianity over the years, there are several people who are remembered for their impact on the religion. The first most important figure was Jesus Christ. However, if we travel forward a bit, into the 4th Century we come across Constantine. Historians agree that Constantine served as an important component in the spread of Christianity. Although he spread the religion in a massive way, others wonder if his methods were more harmful then anything. In this paper I will be discussing Constantine in his rise to power and his impact on Christianity. Constantine provided a mean for the word of God to be spread, which is a major benefit. However, He also used violence and hate as

Ancient Rome was an empire so dominant, wealthy and economically- stable which came to a dramatic fall in the period of 250AD- 500AD. Ancient Rome faced unexplained unfortunate events which crumbled the Great Empire from the affluent empire to a impoverished society. For centuries historians have timelessly theorised and analysed many debates and research in relation to the Fall of the Roman Empire. What really caused the predominate Roman Empire to fall? Did Rome fall naturally? Was disease, such as malaria a major contributor to the Fall of the Empire, Was man -made infrastructure a problem during Ancient Roman times? Was the fall a natural event? Was the climate changing causing natural disasters? Maybe, perhaps, all the theories interweaved with each other at the same time causing a catastrophic downfall, defeating the Ancient Roman Empire. Edward Gibbon (Gibbon, 1909, pp 173-174.) quoted,

The reason that the emperor moved the capital was because Byzantium was getting very wealthy and getting a lot of trade. So everyone decided to follow the emperor and move to Byzantium and the East side of the Roman Empire. Since everyone is moving towards the capital, that left the West side with nothing. The west side now has no control and there is chaos. One last historical circumstance that led up to the Middle Ages is Germanic invaders. The West side of the Roman Empire is now without anything. This is when the invaders start to come in to the West side. The Germanic invaders made a huge plan which was to destroy and conquer the West side. They got prepared and started to attack and destroy everything in sight. The Western side was getting beaten and it was no match for these invaders. The Roman Empire has officially ended and now the people who still are alive have to go through a time called the Middle Ages. Those were the many historical circumstance that led up to the Middle

In the later half of the fourth century the Western Roman Empire fell after nearly a five hundred years of dominance and is still widely considered the world’s greatest superpower (Andrews). Many people attribute the crumbling of the empire to multiple different reasons, like corrupt and insane leaders to overspending and inflation. As J.B Bury said once “the fall of the roman empire was a series of contingent events. In this paper we are going to cover the three main reasons. Political and Economical problems plus problems with the military(Wood).

Rome then shifts from a political identity to a religious one. Meanwhile, in the Byzantine Empire, they took extra precautions to ensure what had happened in the west, does not happen in the east. The Byzantine Empire resorted to trade and agriculture to avoid poverty (Smith, pg. 233, 2012). The highly urban-networked empire believed it should maintain their Roman roots, and stray away from barbaric culture like the west. But it was useless, due to the multitude of ethnicities and cultures. By this time, the Eastern Empire attempted to unite themselves through war, but evidentially spiking tax prices and bringing discontent to the Empire (Smith, pg. 239,

In my Theatre of History class, we briefly discussed Rome and the fall of the Western Roman Empire as it related to theatre but I was intrigued to learn more. It didn’t seem sensible that the fall of the Western Empire would be placed, even a little, on the rise of Christianity during that time. It didn’t seem sensible for two reasons. The first reason is that Jesus Christ, in whom the Christians believed, had been born, lived, and crucified over 400 years before the Empire fell. His lifetime spanned only until the second emperor of the Roman Empire, before Rome’s crooked ways became noticeable and uncontrollable. The second reason is because the Western Roman Empire that fell was officially, as declared by an emperor, a Christian Rome. In this paper I will present and argue the many contributing factors of Rome’s demise, and answer the question was Christianity responsible for the decline of theatre as a practice in the Western Roman Empire and ultimately its fall?

Constantine’s most important political accomplishment was moving the permanent capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to Byzantium. He claimed that God had told him to move the capital which he renamed in his own honor as Constantinople. He also ordered the city to be rebuilt so it would be a worthy capital for the empire. The new city, which was dedicated in May of 330 CE, provided Constantine with a better location for ruling the empire. The new capital gave him easy access to the Balkan provinces and to the eastern frontier and controlled traffic through the Bosporus, the strait that separates the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Constantine also believed the move to Constantinople would help economic development in the Empire. The move left Rome as one of the wealthiest and greatest cities of the world and the capital of the western empire.