Taking More Notes in Class.. Shocker.

Hello,

I don't think we have had a day for 2 weeks where we haven't had to take notes. Here are the notes for today:

Diocletian:
- Ruled from 284 - 303
- It's cool to persecute Christians
- Rome needs a big army (400,000 strong)
- Rome needs a big government (20,000 officials)

Constantine:
- Ruled from 306 - 337
- It's cool to BE a Christian
- Conversion into Christianity via a cross in the sky
- 313: his Edict of Milan proclaims freedom of worship
- Built a new capital in the East
     - Byzantine, soon to be known as Constantinople

The significance of the Edict of Milan is that it gave Christians the freedom to not be persecuted by people. It was a proclamation that gave religious toleration to Christians in the Roman Empire.

Life in the Fourth Century:
- Country dwellers are getting bankrupted by endless tax collections
- New farming system: peasants work for elite landlords on large farms
- Peasants can avoid paying taxes, but they are getting hit just as hard by the landlords
- Paying off debts and being "allowed" to live on the land, in exchange for endless back-breaking work
- Landowners hold local power as counts and bishops, wielding more real power than the faraway empire
- Foreshadowing feudalism
- Rome's power is decreasing, while nomadic barbarians gain power
- Western Empire is too poor, begins to be neglected
- Huns migrate from China to eastern Europe
- Visigoths take over Spain, and actually capture and loot Rome itself in 410
- Vandals control Carthage and the western Mediterranean
- Other barbarian tribes:
     - Ostrogoths in Italy
     - Franks in Gaul
     - Angles and Saxons in Britain

End of an Era:
500 BC - the monarchy is abolished
450 BC - the Twelve Tables are established

... Through the glory days...
44 BC - end of the line for Julius Caesar
27 BC - 180 AD - the Roman Peace (Pax Romana)

...To the bitter end...

- Constant fifth century invasions by barbarian tribes left the western Roman Empire shattered and crumbling
- The last emperor was a teenage boy installed in 475 by his father
- Barbarians deposed Romulus Augustulus without bothering to kill him