East and West

Southern Italy Series

-----East and West-----

After the days of Trajan, the Empire ceased its growth. The new emperor, Hadrian, instead set about creating a series of walled defenses on the most wild of Rome’s borders. The Empire continued on well until its emperor Commodus was assassinated in 192 AD. The winner of the civil war [link] was Septimius Severus who became emperor in 193. During his reign Severus defeated the Parthians, an enemy of Rome that stood beyond its eastern borders. The defeat of the Parthians had the unlikely result of ushering in the Sasanian Empire in Persia in 226. The Severan Dynasty ended in 235 with the assassination of the emperor. This lead to another series of civil wars [link] which almost destroyed the Empire. The emperor Aurelian saved the Empire by pushing back the barbarians and reunifying the factions.

The emperor Diocletian reformed the Empire, reorganizing it as a Tetrarchy [link] , essentially two halves with two emperors as well as two deputies who were next in the line of succession. Among his other reforms was the elevation of the office of Emperor [link] ; henceforth the Emperor was no longer just First Citizen but to be addressed as Lord and God. After the death of Diocletian civil war again divided the Empire. Order was restored in 306 when Constantine became emperor. After legalizing Christianity Constantine refounded the city of Byzantium as Constantinople and moved the capital of the Empire out of Rome.

The Empire continued to rest with the fate of the Emperor. The death in battle of emperors Julian in 363 and Valens in 378 each greatly weakened the Empire. The conversion of the Empire from Paganism to Christianity was finally completed in 391 by emperor Theodosius, the last emperor to rule the entire Empire.

From the death of Theodosius in 395 the division of the empire into Eastern and Western halves became permanent. Then in 402 when the capitol of the Western Roman Empire was moved to Ravenna, a site closer to Rome’s armies stationed on the northern frontier.

Southern Italy Series

500 BC [link] Origins
264 BC [link] The Punic Wars
115 AD [link] The Roman Empire
405 East and West
526 [link] Collapse of the West
565 [link] Reconquest
572 [link] Lombard Invasion
751 [link] Lombard Italy
814 [link] Charlemagne's Italy
1000 [link] Italy and the Holy Roman Empire
1095 [link] The Norman Conquest
1154 [link] The Kingdom of Sicily
1250 [link] Hohenstaufen Italy
1280 [link] Anjou Sicily
1300 [link] War of the Vespers
1400 [link] Black Death
1492 [link] Renaissance Italy
1559 [link] Italian Wars
1715 [link] Habsburg Italy
1780 [link] Bourbon Italy
1799 [link] Revolutionary Italy
1812 [link] Napoleonic Italy
1860 [link] United Italy

2/19/12 EDIT:
map base source [link]
map base created by Citypeek [link]