5-16-13

• Diecletion ruled from 284-303
• Constantine ruled form 306-336
• Constantine thought that it was "cool" to be a Christian, and taught other people that
• The Edict of Milan said that it was okay to practice and religion
• In the fourth century:
• country dwellers are getting bankrupted by endless tax collection
• 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 (such a deal!)
• landowners hold local power as counts and bishops, wielding more real power than the faraway empire
• foreshadowing feudalism
• Western empire is too poor, being to be neglected
• Huns migrate from China to eastern Europe
• Visigoths take over Spain, and actually capture a lot of Rome itself in 400
• Other tribes:
• Ostrogoths in Italy 
• Franks in Gaul
• Angles and Saxons in Britain
• End of an era:
• fron the beginnings
• 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)
• 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
• 476: the last roman emperor ever.
• barbarians deposed Romulus Austulus (teenage emperor) without bothering to kill him