The emperor Augustus reigned from 27 bc to ad 14 and ruled with absolute power. He reestablished political and social stability and launched two centuries of prosperity called the Roman Peace (Pax Romana). Under his rule the Roman state began its transformation into the greatest and most influential political institution in European history. During the first two centuries ad the empire flourished and added new territories, notably ancient Britain, Arabia, and Dacia (present-day Romania). People from the Roman provinces streamed to Rome, where they became soldiers, bureaucrats, senators, and even emperors.
Meanwhile, Rome, as a whole, shifted it’s focus to the prosperous east, which had continued to flourish despite the continued economic struggles of the Empire. At this time, Constantine I creating a new capital at Byzantium, renaming the city to Constantinople. Once Constantinople was established as the center of the empire, the west was mostly forgotten, both by the people and the emperor. The majority of Rome’s Citizens and wealth now hailed from the east, so the western empire was soon treated as an aside by the Eastern Empire and slowly fell into further decline. Many Historians would name a specific event or chain of events that spelled the end for the western half of the Roman empire, but I would argue that the Western Roman Empire did not suddenly collapse because of any one event, rather, it slowly fell over the course of several decades as a result of a multitude of failures.
THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE HAN DYNASTY The Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty Imagine being the head of government in one or two of the most famously remembered governments in the world’s history! The Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty are two of the most famous governments in history. The Roman Empire and Han Dynasty were governed in very different ways, however both contributed greatly to Western civilization. The Roman Empire was in power between 1,000 and 1,200 years. The Han Dynasty was in power approximately 400 years, with a little break in the middle.
The 147 emperors show how long the empire lasted. The fall happened because during the end of the Empire, Rome was changing for the worst. There were good and bad times before the Roman Empire before the fall of the empire. Specific reasons of why Rome fell include Christianity becoming the religion of Rome because of the reform by Emperor Constantine, the Roman Empire became too big, and the empire decayed without problems being fixed.
There were many contributing factors to the fall of Rome including high inflation, high military costs, break down in military discipline, moral decay and people lost faith in the Roman government, and Barbarian invasion. Following these events Rome was split into 2 empires which made it susceptible to foreign invasion. In conclusion the division of the empire was the primary reason that Rome fell from its previous glory.
The Romans drove out the Etruscans in 509 B.C. By this time Rome had become a city. As the empire came to its peak it included lands throughout the Mediterranean world. Rome had first expanded into other parts of Italy and neighboring places during the Roman Republic, but made wider conquests and made a strong political power for these lands. In 44 BC Gaius Julius Caesar, the Roman leader who ruled the Roman Republic as a dictator was assassinated.
As the Roman Empire expanded to help govern it better it brought out the Western (old) Romans in Western Europe and the Eastern (new) Romans in Eastern Europe. Many in the west saw the east as Greeks, but the Eastern Romans saw themselves as the Roman Empire with its capital in Constantinople. Early on Emperor Constantine sought to keep the two united but as the fifth and sixth centuries rolled around they each had gone their separate ways. With chaos in the west, the east thrived after the west fell under Germanic tribes and the east later became known as the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire lasted from 330-1453 a thousand years longer than the Western Roman Empire.
Qin Er Shi was not as capable a ruler as his father was, soon revolts erupted and everything built by the First Emperor lay in ruins within a short time. Works Cited (Qin Dynasty). Web. 12 Nov 2013. Retrieved from http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shaanxi/xian/terra_cotta_army/qin_shihuang_1.htm (Qin Shi Huang).
While Licinius and Maximinus battled for supremacy, Constantine began a war against Maxentius. Constantine, on his march to Rome, supposedly had a ... ... middle of paper ... ... death bed. May 22, 337 AD, the great Flavius Valerius Constantinus left the empire he worked his entire life for in the hands of his offspring. Ironically, the Roman senate elevated Constantine to the rank of a pagan deity. Though perhaps not kind, Constantine was a great and powerful man; the first Roman emperor of his kind and the creator of Constantinople.
In Rome, after Julius Caesars death Gaius meets with Antony in Horti Pompeii, Gaius attempted to collect his legacy from Antony, who stole Caesar's papers and fortune. After taking control over the papers and Rome he, Antony, and Lepidus each received one third of Julius Caesar's empire. Augustus received the part that was Africa. After gaining more power, he defeated Lepidus for trying to take over Sicily. He finally defeated Marc Antony at the battle of Actium in 31 B.C.