Internal conflicts, economic decline and external threat from barbarian tribes meant that the future of the Roman Empire was brought into question. However, as it turned out, the western and the eastern part faced different fates.
After the assassination of Commodus in 192, the last ruler of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty, the country plunged into a bloody civil war that lasted a year. Septimius Severus, was the one who emerged as victor from the fighting and ascended the imperial throne. Although his reign lasted relatively long (193-211), it became apparent at this time that the real power belonged to those who were able to gain - or simply buy - loyalty of the army. But it was loyalty that one could not count on for too long.
The price of power
The son of Septimius, Caracalla (211-217), was murdered by his own officers, and a similar fate befell many of his successors. Discontented troops in the provinces promptly declared their commanders as their emperors, which led to a string of civil wars that raged for most of the third century. Governance has become a dangerous honor - few emperors survived longer than five years from the accession to the throne. Weakened by internal tensions, Rome also had to face external threats. In the east Persian empire had been revived, while in the north pressure from Germanic tribes was mounting - they ventured numerous raids into the country, wreaking havoc throughout the empire.
Events of the third century ruined a significant part of the empire. High taxes weakened the economy and made citizens hostile towards the state. A gradual devaluation of money, caused by successive reduction of the amount of gold and silver in the coins) undermined confidence in this tender and caused a return to barter. Soon life began to focus around mansions of large landowners, which resembled the feudal relationship that would become commonplace in Medieval Europe centuries later.
By the end of the third century the power fell into the hands of talented military emperors who reunited the empire, but could not solve the underlying problems. A particularly noteworthy ruler was Diocletian (284-305) who thoroughly reformed the state, making it also more despotic and harsh. Diocletian tried to make the empire easier to manage by dividing it into two parts, western and eastern, each ruled by two emperors - the superior augustus and lower caesar. Despite this, the empire remained united and often actually ruled by one emperor, although the division between western and eastern parts was increasingly noticeable. This was a reflection of the growing differences between the two parties, the most important being that Eastern cities prospered better than their Western counterparts.
Christian empire
The system of Diocletian, based on the rule of four emperors, collapsed after his abdication. After another series of civil wars Constantine the Great emerged as the ruler of the whole empire. This had important implications, because Constantine converted to Christianity, believing that this god of Christians had helped him to emerge victorious from the civil war.
For many centuries, Christianity continued to develop despite periods of persecution. The support the religion received from Constantine and the rulers that followed was a decisive factor behind its expansion. Finally, in 381, Emperor Theodosius the Great proclaimed Christianity the dominant religion, banning all other cults. Common faith strengthened the empire for the time being and even after its demise it served as a kind of spiritual bridge between the old and new world.
Another important development during Constantine's reign was the foundation of Constantinople and moving the capital there - this showed growing importance of the eastern part of the empire. After Constantine's death power struggles flared again. Proclaimed emperor by the army, Julian the Apostate attempted to restore and strengthen the pagan religion. These efforts ended with his death in 363.
Barbarians and vandals
The threat from barbarians became even greater after the Germanic people, the Visigoths, made their way into the empire in 376. Initially admitted as refugees fleeing from even more dangerous Huns, they soon began disputes with the Romans. In 378 they inflicted a severe defeat on the Roman army at Adrianople, where Emperor Valens was killed. Order was restored by the last ruler of a united empire, Theodosius the Great (379-395), but soon after his death more barbaric tribes began to pour into the empire - the Visigoths, Vandals, Alemanni, the Burgundians, Huns and Ostrogoths.
In the fourth century, an increasing number of tribes settled in the territory of the empire. Numerous barbaric troops served, under their own command, in the Roman army. The western Rome was becoming increasingly barbaric, even long before signs of impending disintegration of the state became obvious in the fifth century.
The barbarians invaded Gaul, and soon the last Roman troops left Britain. Stylichon, a barbarian general in the Roman service, kept mounting pressure from foreign tribes at bay, but eventually he was assassinated in 408 on the orders of the Emperor Honorius (395-423), anxious of Stychlion's power. There remained no one who could stand up to the pressure from the Visigoths led by Alaric I, who occupied and plundered the city of Rome in 410, and then moved on to conquer Spain. Vandals subjugated North Africa, conquered Sardinia and Corsica, and finally in 455 captured and looted Rome (hence the term "vandalism", meaning mindless destruction).
The last emperors of the Western Empire were merely puppets in the hands of Germanic tribal kings who held the real power in Italy. In 476, one of these kings deposed the last emperor of the West - Romulus Augustulus. This event marked the end of the Western Empire. Thr eastern part of the empire escaped that fate, so the Roman Empire - in its Byzantine form - continued to exist for the next 1000 years.
Important dates
- 192
Death of Commodus, the last emperor of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty - 284-305
The reign of Diocletian - 324
Constantine becomes the sole ruler of the empire - 378
Visigoths defeat Romans at Adrianople - 379-395
The reign of Theodosius the Great, who made Christianity the official religion - ca. 407
Romans leave Britain - 410
Visigoths loot Rome - 455
Vandals loot Rome - 476
Dethronement of the last emperor of the Western Empire
