THE RISE OF EUROPEAN ROME & COLLAPSE UNDER PERSIAN BYZANTIUM -Roman Monarchy …

THE RISE OF EUROPEAN ROME & COLLAPSE UNDER PERSIAN BYZANTIUM

-Roman Monarchy … 753 – 510BCE

-Roman Republic ….. 510–27BCE

Historians traditionally date the end of the Roman Republic in 27BCE, when Octavian is proclaimed Augustus (the defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the battle of Actium takes place in 31BCE).

-Roman Empire……… 27BCE-395CE

The beginning of the crisis of the Roman Republic that culminated in the advent of the Roman Empire is usually dated in 134BCE, with the inauguration of Gracchus as tribune.

69CE is named “the year of the four emperors”, in which four emperors ruled in succession: Galba, Otho, Vitelius and Vespasian. It is the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, after the suicide of Nero in 68CE, and the beginning of the Flavian dynasty.

In 285CE, Diocletian introduces the Tetrarchy (four emperors at once). This arrangement is unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I, who defeated his rivals and became once again sole ruler of the Empire.

The Roman Empire splits permanently into Eastern and Western halves in 395CE, after the death of Theodosius I, the last emperor to rule over both parts of the Roman Empire and who made Christianity the official religion of the Empire (Edict of Thessalonica).

I don’t like the expression ‘Roman Federation’ for that period of the Roman Empire. I haven’t found any historian using it.

-Roman Church………306CE is not properly the year the Roman Church forms, but Constantine is proclaimed Emperor on that date.

-Roman Tolerance …. 313CE (Edict of Milan).

-Forcible Conversion…..380CE (Edict of Thessalonica).

-Roman Fall …………… In 476CE Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus.

Note: Why do you quote Evan Andrews? He doesn’t seem to favor the theory that the spread of Christianity was a major factor in the fall of Rome.

Also on the question of the decline of Ancient Rome, have you read about the research conducted in Rome by Tenney Frank at the beginning of the XXth century? He was one of the first classical scholars arguing that Roman expansion brought in masses of foreign peoples and slaves that over time changed the ethnic make-up of the Roman populace and contributed to the empire’s ruin.