World History – Unit 2: Classical Era, 600 B.C.E. to 600 C.E.

Questions: Crash Course #12 – Fall of the Roman Empire… in the 15th Century.

Watch the video “Fall of the Roman Empire… in the 15th Century” World History Crash Course #12” on www.youtube.com and
answer the questions.

1. When was the city of Rome conquered by barbarians?

476 CE

2. What is the anti-imperialistic argument regarding the fall of Rome?

Rome was doomed to fall as soon as it spread outside of Italy because the further the territory is from the
capital, the harder it is to govern. Thus, imperialism itself sowed the seeds of destruction in Rome. This was
the argument put forth by the Roman historian Tacitus, although he put it in the mouth of a British
chieftain.

3. What two strategies could Rome have used to rule their vast empire? Which method did they choose?

1) First, you rule with the proverbial iron fist, the Romans couldn't do this because their whole

identity was wrapped up in an idea of justice that precluded indiscriminate violence.

2) This worked really well in the early days of the Roman Republic and even at the beginning of the Empire,
but it eventually led to barbarians inside the gates. The decline of the Roman legions started long before
Rome started getting sacked. It really began with the extremely bad decision to incorporate Germanic
warriors into the Roman Army.

4. How did Rome’s attempt to incorporate conquered people lead to problems in the later years of the Empire?
5. By the 3rd and 4th centuries CE, what was Rome forced to do?

the empire had been forced to allow the kind of riffraff into their army who didn't really care about the
idea of Rome itself. They were only loyal to their commanders. And as you no doubt remember from the
historical examples of Caesar, Pompey, Marius, contemporary Afghanistan... this is not a recipe for
domestic bliss.

6. If Rome fell in 476 CE, how did the Empire survive well into the 15th century?

7. When did Emperor Constantine move the capitol from Rome to Constantinople? Why?

In 330 CE because

8. How did this shift in power impact the demographics of Rome and Constantinople?

9. What similarities did the Western and Eastern Empires share?

10. What was one important difference between the Byzantines and the Romans?

11. What were the main political differences between the two churches? How did this impact history?