Question

Overview: From about 50 BCE until the year 200 CE, the Roman Empire was the superpower of the Mediterranean world. During that time, the empire's wealth, territory and international status grew. But even as the empire prospered, it was slowly starting to fall apart.

Some of its problems were internal - coming from within Rome itself - and others were external-coming from outside Rome.

PART 1:

Internal Factor#1: Overexpansion

Rome, the city that would become the center of one of the world's greatest empires, began around 750 BCE as an unremarkable settlement. As with so many empires, Rome's rise to power came with the thrust of a spear and the slash of a sword.

The enormous Roman army conquered territory from modern-day Scotland to Spain, gained control of the whole Mediterranean Sea, and established colonies in North Africa, Egypt, the Middle East and Asia Minor. By the year 44 BCE, when Julius Caesar became Rome’s virtual emperor, there were no major rivals left to defeat.



Rome's first two centuries as an empire were years of relative stability, increasing power, and great imperial wealth. It was a time known as the Pax Romana, the time of Roman peace.

But as Rome was to discover, size has its problems. The empire acquired new subjects who were not Roman and who often did not want to be Roman - in Gaul (France), in England, beyond the Danube River, in the Middle East. Controlling this expanded empire meant a larger army, which in turn meant a need for more food, clothing, weapons and supplies.

Internal Factor #2: Changing Government Structure

The increase of Rome's power happened gradually and came at a price. Romans had to fight countless wars to defend their developing territory and conquer new lands. Along the way, Rome itself transformed. The Romans had once been proud to be governed under a republic of elected leaders. Their heroes were men who had helped to preserve the republic. Leaders in different parts of the world would later be inspired by this structure of government. (Text from TCI Lesson 34: Introduction)

Political strains developed at home during Julius Caesar’s reign. Caesar used his hero status - along with bribery, beatings and even assassination - to gain political power. Rome shifted from being a republic, with elements of democratic control, to an empire with power in the hands of an emperor and the military.

Leaders in Rome focused less on debate and compromise and more on force to get their way. Having existed for centuries as a republic, Rome eventually became more like a dictatorship.
Internal Factor #3: Political Corruption

Study the chart below that shows the rulers of Rome over a 50 year time period. Then answer the questions below.

Internal Factor #4: Divided Empire

In 330 C.E., the emperor Constantine took a step that changed the future of Rome. He moved his capital 850 miles to the east to the ancient city of Byzantium (bih-ZAN-tee-uhm), in what is now Turkey. He renamed the city New Rome, which was later called Constantinople. Today, it is known as Istanbul.

Before Constantine, emperors had attempted to share power over the vast empire between co-rulers. After Constantine's reign, power was usually divided between two emperors, one based in Rome and one in Constantinople. Rome became the capital of just the western part of the empire.






External Problem #1: Invasions from Outsiders


Foreign Invasions of the Roman Empire





External Problem #2: Natural Disasters


Passage #1
In the second year of the reign of Valens (366 CE) the Roman world was shaken by a violent and destructive earthquake. The shores of the Mediterranean were left dry by the sudden retreat of the sea, but the tide soon returned with the weight of an immense [flood] which was severely felt on the coasts of Sicily,Greece, and of Egypt

Fifty thousand persons had lost their lives in the flood [in the city of Alexandria alone. This calamity astonished and terrified the subjects of Rome and their fearful vanity was disposed to [see a connection between] the symptoms of a declining empire and a sinking world.
Source: Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Strahan & Cadell, 1776-1788.



External Problem #3: Plagues

Passage #2


More important in initiating the process of decline was a series of plagues that swept over the empire... which brought diseases [from] southern Asia to new areas like the Mediterranean, where no resistance had been established even to contagions such as the measles. The resulting diseases decimated the popu­lation. The population of Rome decreased from a million people to 250,000. Economic life worsened in consequence.
Question 10: In passage #1, what two natural disasters struck the Roman Empire in 366 CE?

Answer 1

Answer:

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