Emperors Attempt Reform

Emperors Attempt Reform

- In A.D. 284, Diocletian, a strong-willed army leader, become the new emperor
- He divided the empire into the Greek-speaking East (Greece, Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt) and the Latin-speaking West (Italy, Gaul, Britain, and Spain)
- When he retired in AD 305 his plans for succession failed
- Civil War broke out immediately
- Constantine gained control of the western part of the empire in AD 312
- He moved the capitol from Rome to the Greek city of Byzantium (what is now called Turkey)
- Constantinople: the city of Constantine

The Western Empire Crumbles

- Around AD 370, all that changed when a fierce group of Mongol nomads from central Asia, the Huns, moved into the region and began destroying all in their paths
- Romans called all invaders "barbarians" (a term that they used to refer to non-Romans)
- In 444, they united for the first time under a powerful chieftain named Attila
- The last Roman emperor, a 14-year-old boy named Romulus Augustus