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The Western Roman Empire is the name given to the western half of the Roman Empire after its division by Diocletian in 286 . It would exist intermittently in several periods between the 3rd Century and the 5th Century , after Diocletian's Tetrarchy and the reunifications associated with Constantine I . Theodosius I was the last Roman Emperor who ruled both in the East and the West. After his death in 395 the Roman Empire was definitively divided and the Western Roman Empire ended officially with the abdication of Romulus Augustus under pressure of the Germanic Chieftain Odoacer on September 4 , 476 . Despite brief periods of reconquest by its counterpart, the Eastern Roman Empire (also called Byzantine Empire), the Western Roman Empire would never rise again. The Eastern Roman Empire would survive for another Millennium . As Western Roman Empire fell, a new era would begin in . Influenced by the last institutional remnant of the Western Roman Empire, the Roman Catholic Church , the new warlike "barbarian kingdoms" would rise from the ashes and ruins of the Western Roman Empire and would eventually adopt the Roman Catholic faith, Roman culture, and Roman Law . Increasingly, these "barbarians" also saw themselves more and more as the "true heirs" of Rome. EARLY DIVISIONS AND CULTURAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN EAST AND WEST As the Roman Republic expanded, it gradually reached a point in which the central government in Rome could not expect to rule effectively the distant provinces. This was due to slow communications and relatively slow transportation methods. The news of an enemy invasion, a revolt, an epidemic outbreak or of a natural disaster was carried by ship or by mounted postal service (similar to the Pony Express ) and therefore needed "quite some" time to reach Rome and required a similar amount of time until a response and a reaction reached the Trouble-spot . Therefore the provinces were administrated by Governor s who De Facto ruled them. Shortly before the Roman Empire , the territories of the Roman Republic had even been divided between the members of the Second Triumvirate composed by Octavian , Mark Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus . This division would be repeated much later. Antony received all the provinces in the East, namely Achaea , Macedonia and Epirus (region) (roughly modern Greece ), Bithynia , Pontus and Asia (roughly modern Turkey ), Syria , Cyprus and Cyrenaica . This part had been previously conquered by Alexander The Great in the 4th Century BC and a large portion of the local Aristocracy were of Greek and Macedonian origin. The majority of the ruling dynasties were in fact descendants of his generals. This region had been assimilated (to a large degree) by the Greek culture and Greek was the Lingua-franca in most of the larger cities. Octavian on the other hand obtained the Roman provinces of the West: Italia (modern Italy ), Gaul (modern France ), Gallia Belgica (parts of modern Belgium , the Netherlands and Luxembourg ) and Hispania (modern Spain and Portugal ). This part had also many Greek and Carthaginian colonies on the coastal areas, but by the large had been culturally dominated by the Celtic tribes, like the Gauls and the Celtiberians . Lepidus was given the minor province of Africa (modern Tunisia ) to govern. After some political and military developments Octavian took the province of Africa away from Lepidus and also took possession of the much Greek-colonized island of Sicilia (modern Sicily ). After the defeat of Mark Antony, the victorious Octavian controlled the whole Roman Empire from Rome, through governors chosen by himself or, if the province was relatively unimportant, chosen by the Senate. During his reign, his friend Agrippa would temporarily rule over the eastern provinces as his personal representative. This happened again during the rule of Tiberius who sent his Heir-apparent Germanicus to the east. One has to be careful in order not to exaggerate, and see this early cultural East - West division as something unsurpassable and see the latter political division as something which was somehow "bound to happen" and unavoidable. The Roman Empire had many different cultures and all of them were subject to a gradual process of Romanization . Greek was spoken in the West and Latin was also spoken the East. Greek culture as a whole was hardly an antagonist to Latin culture, in fact it helped to unify culturally the Roman Empire and both of them were equal partners in the Greco-Roman world. Nevertheless, later military developments with its political consequences would divide the Roman Empire, and much later the East would later regroup around the Greek culture. TWO MILITARY "DANGER ZONES", REBELLIONS, UPRISINGS AND POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES In peacetime, it was relatively easy to rule the empire from its capital city Rome. An eventual Rebellion was expected, and would happen from time to time: a general or a governor would gain the loyalty of his officers through a mixture of personal charisma, promises and simple bribes. A conquered tribe would rebel, or a conquered city would revolt. This would be a bad, but not a catastrophic event. The legions were spread around the borders and the rebel leader would in normal circumstances, have only one or two legions under his command. Loyal legions would be detached from other points of the empire and would eventually drown the rebellion in blood. This happened even more easily in case of a small local native uprising as the rebels would normally have no great military experience. Unless the emperor was weak, incompetent, hated, and/or universally despised, these rebellions would be a local and isolated event. During real wartime however, which could develop from a rebellion or an uprising, like the massive Great Jewish Revolt , this was totally and dangerously different. In a full-blown Military Campaign the legions under the command of generals like Vespasian , were of a much greater number. Therefore, a paranoid or wise emperor would hold some members of the general´s family as Hostages , to be certain of the latter's loyalty. In effect, Nero held Domitian and Quintus Petillius Cerialis the governor of Ostia , who were respectively, the younger son and the brother-in-law of Vespasian. This would in normal circumstances be quite enough. In fact, the rule of Nero only ended with the revolt of the Praetorian Guard who had been bribed in the name of Galba . It became all too obvious that the Praetorian Guard was a sword of Damocles , whose loyalty was all too often bought and who became increasingly greedy. Following their example the legions at the borders would also increasingly participate in the Civil War s. This was a dangerous development as this would weaken the whole Roman Army. The main enemy, in the West, were arguably the "barbarian tribes" behind the rivers Rhine and Danube . Octavian had tried to conquer them, but ultimately failed and these "barbarians" were greatly feared. But by the large, they were left in peace, in order to fight amongst themselves, and were simply too divided to pose a serious threat. , the arch-rival of Rome, at its greatest extent, c. 60 BC .]] Parthia , in the East, on the other hand, was simply too far away to be conquered. Any Parthian invasion was confronted and usually defeated, but the threat itself was ultimately impossible to destroy. In the case of a Roman civil war these two enemies would seize the opportunity to invade Roman territory in order to raid and plunder. The two respective military frontiers became a matter of major political importance due to the high number of legions stationed there. All too often the local generals would rebel, starting a new civil war. To control the western border from Rome was reasonably easy, as it was relatively close. To control both frontiers, at the same time, during wartime, was hard. If the emperor was near the border in the East, chances were high that an ambitious general would rebel in the West and Vice-versa . It was no longer enough to be a good administrator, emperors were increasingly near the troops in order to control them, and no single emperor could be at the two frontiers at the same time. This problem would plague the ruling emperors time and time again, and many future emperors would follow this path to power. ECONOMIC STAGNATION IN THE WEST Rome and the Italian Peninsula began to experience an economic slowdown as industries and money began to move outward. By the beginning of the second century the economic stagnation of Italia could easily be seen in the Provincial born Emperors such as Trajan and Hadrian . Economic problems Late Empire in strength and frequency. CRISIS OF THE 3RD CENTURY Starting on the March 18 235 , with the assassination of the Emperor Alexander Severus , the Roman Empire fell into a period of fifty years of civil war, today known as the Crisis Of The Third Century . The rise of the warlike Sassanid Dynasty in Parthia had created a major threat to Rome in the east. Demonstrating the increased danger, Emperor Valerian was captured by Shapur I in 259 . His eldest son and heir-apparent, Gallienus succeeded and was in the Eastern Frontier, fighting. The son of Gallienus, Saloninus and the Praetorian Prefect Aurelius Heraclianus were residing in Colonia Agrippina trying to maintain the loyalty of the local legions. Nevertheless, the local governor of the German provinces, Marcus Cassianius Latinius Postumus rebelled and assaulted Colonia Agrippina, killing Saloninus and the prefect, and created an independent state today known as the Gallic Empire . Its Capital was Augusta Treverorum , and in a short amount of time it expanded its control not just over the German and Gaulish provinces, but also over all of Hispania and Britannia . It had its own Senate , and a partial list of its Consul s still survives. It maintained Roman religion, language, and culture, and was far more concerned with fighting the Germanic Tribes than other Romans. However, in the reign of Claudius Gothicus (268 to 270), large expanses of the Gallic Empire were returned to Roman rule. At roughly the same time, the eastern provinces seceded as the Empire of Palmyra , ruled by Queen Zenobia . One should see the tacit acceptance of the Gallic Empire and the Empire of Palmyra and other later breakaway empires at the beginning of any civil war through a Real-politik perspective. The "rightful" Emperor would slowly deal with all the "Rebels or/and Usurpers" , one by one in due time. In fact, many Emperors we today take for "rightful" were former "Rebels or/and Usurpers" who simply won their respective civil war. In 272 , Emperor Aurelian finally managed to subdue Palmyra and reclaim its territory for the empire. With the East secure, he turned his attention to the West, and in the next year, the Gallic Empire also fell. Due to a secret deal between Aurelian and the Gallic Emperor Tetricus I and his son Tetricus II , the Gallic army was swiftly defeated. In exchange, Aurelian spared their lives and went so far as to give the two former rebels important positions in Italy. THE TETRARCHIES AND THE CONSTANTINIAN DYNASTY See Also: Tetrarchy The external borders were largely quiet for the remainder of the Crisis Of The Third Century , although between the death of Aurelian in 275 and the accession of Diocletian ten years later, at least eight Emperors or would-be Emperors were killed, many assassinated by their own troops. It was under Diocletian that the political division of the Roman Empire would start. In 286 , through the creation of the Tetrarchy , he gave the western part to Maximian as Augustus , and named Constantius Chlorus as his subordinate ( Caesar ). This system effectively divided the empire into four parts, and created separate capitals besides Rome as a way to avoid the civil unrest that had marked the 3rd Century . In the West the capitals were Maximian's Milan and Constantius' Trier . On May 1 , 305 , the two senior Augusti stepped down and were replaced by their respective Caesars. CONSTANTINE THE GREAT , betterknown by Chi Rho adopted by Constantine]] See Also: Constantine I (emperor) The system of the Tetrarchy quickly ran aground as the Western Empire's Constantius died unexpectedly in 306 , and his son Constantine I was proclaimed Augustus of the West by the legions in Britain. A crisis followed as several claimants attempted to rule the Western half. In 308 , the Augustus of the East, Galerius arranged a conference at Carnuntum which revived the Tetrarchy by dividing the power between Constantine and a newcomer named Licinius . Constantine was far more interested in reconquering the whole empire. Through a series of battles in the East and the West, Licinius and Constantine had stabilized their respective parts of the Roman Empire by 314 , but they now competed for sole control of a reunified state. Constantine emerged victorious in 324 after the surrender and the murder of Licinius following the Battle Of Chrysopolis . The Tetrarchy was dead, but the idea of dividing the Roman Empire between two Emperors, one of them in the East and the other in the West, had been proven too good to be simply ignored and forgotten. Very strong Emperors would reunite it under their single rule but with their death the Roman Empire would be divided again and again between the East and the West. ORIGINS OF THE THEOLOGICAL GREAT EAST-WEST SCHISM See Also: East-West Schism At the beginning of ) had origin and developed in these initial 300 years. The Christian faith was loosely guided by the patriarchs of the Pentarchy who were "more-or-less" considered a council of equals. Only as Constantine legalized the Christian faith, began a process of clarification, reorganization and unification. Beginning with the First Ecumenical Council of Nicea in 325 , were several theological questions clarified and a unity slowly enforced. The Bishops of Rome began, slowly, to impose their own authority over the whole church as Primus Inter Pares - first among equals in their perceived quality of theological successors of St. Peter , the founding stone of the church. This gradual development was largely successful in the west, but was naturally resisted by the other patriarchs, who did not want to be ruled by a former equal. First amongst them, the Patriarchs Of Constantinople , who were logically supported by the Eastern Roman Emperors . This conflict very slowly escalated and resulted in the Great Schism , a separation between the Catholic Church ( Catholic meaning universal) and the Orthodox Church ( Orthodox meaning true) whose exact dating is much debated but normally dated at 1054 , as Pope Leo IX and Patriarch Michael I Excommunicated each other. This gradual theological division would also only deepen the cultural division between the East and the West and would be, much later, reinforced by the Crusade rs, who were envious of the Byzantine wealth and felt themselves betrayed by the Surrender Of Nicaea solely to the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus , who even had friendly diplomatic relations with Arab-conquered Egypt. The Crusaders simply could not understand why the Byzantines fought the " Heathens " - Turks and Arabs - without the customary violence and began to see them as all-too lax defenders of the Christian faith. All this would culminate in the Fourth Crusade in which the city of Constantinople was sacked, the Byzantine Empire partially conquered and a Latin Empire was founded by the crusaders. Upon arrival of these nefarious news Pope Innocent III reacted with horror, for this act had not been planned or sanctioned by him and in fact only reinforced the "true" enemy. SECOND DIVISION, REUNIFICATION AND EASTERN FOCUS The Roman Empire was ruled by a single Emperor, but with the death of Constantine in 337 , civil war erupted among his three sons, dividing the empire into three parts. The West was reunified in 340 , and the complete reunification of the whole empire occurred in 353 , with Constantius II . Notably, Constantius II focused most of his power in the East, and he is often regarded as the first Emperor of the Byzantine Empire . Under his rule, the city of Byzantium , only recently refounded as Constantinople , was fully developed as a capital. In 361 , Constantius II took ill and died, and Constantius Chlorus' grandson Julian , who had served as Constantius II's Caesar, took power. Julian was killed carrying on Constantius II's war against Persia in 363 , and was replaced by Jovian who ruled only until 364 . FINAL DIVISION Following the death of Jovian the empire fell again into a new period of civil war similar to the Crisis Of The Third Century . In 364 , Valentinian I emerged. 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 the barbarians intensified, especially with the Huns and the Goths . A serious problem in the West was a political reaction caused by paganism against the Christianizing emperors. In 379 , Valentine I's son and successor Gratian declined to wear the mantle of Pontifex Maximus and in 382 he rescinded the rights of pagan priests, as well as removing the pagan altar from the Roman Curia . In 388 a powerful and popular general named Magnus Maximus seized power in the west, and forced Gratian's son Valentinian II to flee to the east and ask for the aid of the Eastern Emperor Theodosius I who quickly restored him to power, but also caused a ban on paganism to be implemented in the west in 391 , enforcing Christianity . In 392 , the Frankish and pagan '' Magister Militum '' Arbogast assassinated Valentinian II, and a senator named Eugenius was proclaimed emperor until he was defeated in 394 by Theodosius I, who, having ruled both East and West for a year, died in 395. This was the last time in which a single ruler ruled over both parts of the Roman Empire. A short period of stability under the puppet emperor Flavius Augustus Honorius controlled by Flavius Stilicho ended at Stilicho's death in 408 . After this, the two empires truly diverged, as the east began a slow recovery and consolidation, while the west began to collapse entirely. ECONOMIC FACTORS While the West was experiencing a huge economic decline throughout the late empire, the East was not so economically decadent, especially as Emperors like Constantine The Great and Constantius II began pouring vast sums of money into the eastern economy. The economic decline of the West, especially following the Crisis of the Third Century in the end helped to aid in the eventual collapse of this area of the empire. Without sufficient taxes, the state could not maintain an expensive professional army and resorted to hiring unreliable mercenaries. As the central power weakened, the State also lost control of its borders and provinces and the vital control over the Mediterranean Sea . To the last Roman Emperors tried to keep the 'barbarians' away from it, but once the Vandals conquered North Africa the imperial authorities had to cover too much ground with too few resources. Decisive intervention from the East could have reversed the situation. The Roman institutions collapsed along with the economic stability. Most barbarian invaders required a third of the land they conquered from their Roman subjects, and this could turn into much more, as different tribes conquered the same province. Tens of square kilometres of carefully developed land was abandoned due to lack of economic viability and political stability. Because most of the economy of Classical Antiquity was based upon agriculture, this was a severe economic blow. This occurred because most plots of land require a certain investment of time and money in simple maintenance to maintain production. Unfortunately, this meant that any attempt to recover the West by the East was very difficult, for the huge decline in the economy made these new reconquests too expensive to maintain. CONQUEST OF ROME AND FALL OF THE WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE With the death of Stilicho in 408 , Honorius was left in charge, and although he ruled until his death in 423 , his reign was filled with usurpations and barbarian invasions, particularly by the Vandals and Visigoths . In 410 , Rome was sacked by barbarians for the first time since the Gallic invasions of the 4th Century BC . The instability caused by usurpers throughout the Western Empire helped the barbarians in their conquests, and in the 5th Century the barbarians became usurpers themselves. In 475 , Orestes , a former secretary of Attila The Hun drove the Emperor Julius Nepos out of Ravenna and proclaimed his son Romulus Augustus as Emperor. Although some pockets of Roman civilization continued, (in north-western Gaul under Syagrius and Britannia , with Ambrosius Aurelianus ) the rule of Rome over the West had effectively ended. In 476 , Orestes refused to grant the Heruli led by Odoacer federated status, and Odoacer sacked Rome and sent the imperial insignia to Constantinople, installing himself as King over Italy. The last hope for a reunited Empire came in 493 , when Odoacer was replaced by the Ostrogoth Theodoric The Great . Theodoric had been recruited by the Eastern Emperor Zeno to retake the western portion of the empire, Rome most importantly. De Jure he was a subordinate, a Viceroy of the Emperor of the East. De Facto Theodoric was an equal. It was in this period while Rome was under direct barbarian control for the first time that the collapse started to become final in the West. Barbarian tribes flooded into the western provinces and began to take control, and without an organized Roman Army to stop them they had free reign. Following Theodoric's death in 526 , the west no longer resembled the east, as both had transformed. The west was now fully controlled by barbarians, while the east retreated and hellenized. While the East would make some further attempts to recapture the West, it would never more be the old Roman Empire. BYZANTINE RECONQUEST in 550 . The re-conquest of Justinian I is in green.]] Several times throughout the Middle Ages , the eastern Byzantine Empire managed to reconquer large areas of the West which had been occupied by several barbarian tribes. The greatest success were the campaigns of the Byzantine generals Belisarius and Narses on behalf of the Emperor Justinian I from 535 to 554. Much of the then Vandal occupied former Roman territory in North Africa was regained, particularly the territory centred around the city of Carthage . The campaign eventually moved into Italy itself, eventually reconquering it completely, with some minor territory being taken as far west as the southern coast of the Iberian Peninsula . It appeared at the time that perhaps Rome could be saved. Throughout the empire's history, there had been times when great losses of territory were later reversed. However, the barbarian influence had caused far too much damage to these former Roman provinces, both economically and culturally. Not only were they extremely costly to maintain, the invasion and propagation of the barbarian tribes throughout these territories meant that much of the Roman cultural influence that had held the empire together had been destroyed, or at the very least severely damaged. Although some eastern emperors would occasionally attempt to reconquer the West, none would be as successful as Justinian. The division between the empires would only grow as the influence of the Pope on the former territories of the West grew, resulting in a growing rivalry. While the Eastern Roman Empire continued, after Justinian, the eastern emperors focused mainly on defending its traditional territory. The East itself no longer had the military strength like it had in the early days, spelling the end of any hope for reunification. THE LEGACY AND THE FINAL CONQUEST OF ROME As the Western Roman Empire crumbled, the barbarian warlords who had conquered the provinces felt compelled to uphold many Roman laws and traditions. These "barbarians" were already Christians, but most of them were followers of Arianism . Wisely, they quickly converted to the Roman Catholic faith gaining more loyalty by the local Romanized population and at the same time recognition and support by the powerful Roman Catholic Church . Although they initially continued to obey tribal laws they were more and more influenced by Roman Law and began gradually to use it. in Europe.]] , French , Spanish , Portuguese , Romanian and Romansh and even influenced English and German to a certain extent. It survived in its "purer" form as the language of the Roman Catholic Church (the Mass was spoken in Latin until 1970) and was used as a Lingua Franca between many nations. It remained the language of medicine, law, diplomacy (most treaties were written in Latin) , of intellectuals and scholarship. Another Roman legacy is the also continue to be used, but were largely replaced by Arabic Numerals . The ideal of the Roman Empire, as a mighty Christian Empire with a single Ruler, continued to seduce many powerful rulers. Charlemagne , King of the Franks and Lombards , was even crowned as Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III in 800 , Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire like Frederick I Barbarossa , Frederick II and Charles V , and mighty Sultans like Suleiman The Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire . All of them (and some others) tried to a certain extent to resurrect it, but it was a hopelessly impossible task and none of their attempts were successful. The most important remnant of the Western Roman Empire is the Roman Catholic Church. The Church slowly began to replace Roman institutions in the West, even helping to negotiate the safety of Rome during the late 5th Century . As the barbarians invaded, many converted, and by the middle of the medieval period (ca. 9th and 10th Centuries ) the central, western and northern parts of Europe had been largely converted to the Roman Catholic Faith and acknowledged the Pope as the Vicar of Christ. Ironically, Rome's final victory and conquest of the Germans and Slavs came after her fall as an Empire through the church-sponsored missionaries spreading ever further north, until Paganism was stamped out throughout Europe. LIST OF WESTERN ROMAN EMPERORS Gallic Emperors (259 to 273)
Tetrarchy (293 to 313) ''Augusti'' are shown with their ''Caesares'', regents, etc., further indented
Constantinian dynasty (313 to 363)
Non-Dynastic (363 to 364)
Valentinian dynasty (364 to 392)
Non-Dynastic (392 to 394)
Theodosian dynasty (394 to 455)
Non-Dynastic (455 to 480)
Orestes was killed by revolting Barbarian Mercenaries . Their leader Odoacer assumed control of Italy as a De Jure representative of Julius Nepos and Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno . SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS |