By the late 200s CE, the Roman Empire had become too large for one emperor to govern effectively. Invasions, civil wars, and struggles for the throne had shaken the empire for decades. Emperor Diocletian brought the sprawling empire under control by dividing responsibility for governing among four rulers, a system called the Tetrarchy. He ruled the east and held supreme authority. The Tetrarchy placed rulers closer to threatened borders to respond faster to invasions. Although Constantine briefly reunited the empire, it split again after his death, permanently separating into eastern and western halves in 395 CE.
Generals Gain Power
By the 400s CE, the Roman Empire included many cultures and ethnic groups, and being Roman no longer meant being a native Latin speaker. Franks, Vandals, Burgundians, and Goths spoke Germanic languages related to the ancestors of modern German, English, and Dutch. Many of these people served in the Roman army, and some rose to become powerful generals. Several became so powerful that emperors depended on them to remain in power. The emperor still wore the crown, but real power often rested with the Germanic generals who controlled the soldiers.
Alaric Sacks Rome
Germanic peoples were becoming part of the Roman world, but not all were loyal to Rome. In 410 CE, Alaric led an army of Visigoths into Rome and sacked the city. For three days, the Visigoths looted buildings and carried away vast wealth. The attack shocked the Roman world. Rome had not been captured by an enemy army for nearly 800 years.
Over the next decades, the Western Roman Empire steadily lost territory to Germanic-speaking peoples. The Visigoths established a kingdom in southwestern Gaul, Roman rule dissolved in Britain, and the Vandals captured Carthage in 439 CE. By 450 CE, Western emperors controlled only a fraction of their former territory.
Odoacer
In 476 CE, Odoacer, a Germanic commander in the Roman army, removed the last Western Roman emperor. Instead of declaring himself emperor, Odoacer ruled Italy as king while recognizing the emperor in Constantinople as head of the Roman Empire. Historians traditionally mark 476 CE as the end of the Western Roman Empire and the beginning of the Middle Ages.
Rome Survives in the East
While the Western Roman Empire collapsed, the Eastern Roman Empire remained wealthy and powerful. Its capital, Constantinople, was protected by massive walls and stood at the crossroads of trade routes between Europe and Asia. The empire survived for nearly a thousand years. Historians later called it the Byzantine Empire, but its people called themselves Romans and called their empire the Roman Empire.
Italy After the Empire
For centuries, Rome drew money, food, and soldiers from an empire across three continents. As the Western Empire weakened, emperors lost control of more and more territory, Italy fragmented among competing kingdoms, and the Christian church became more influential. By 476 CE, the Western imperial government was gone, but the people who lived there did not suddenly stop being Roman. They continued speaking Latin, following Roman laws and customs, practicing Christianity, and living in cities Rome had built. Roman political power disappeared from the West, but much of Roman civilization survived.
The Roman Legacy
Over the centuries, Roman civilization became part of the cultures that followed it. Latin developed into languages including Italian, French, and Spanish, while Roman law influenced later legal systems. Roman models continue to shape governments and public architecture. Roman roads still cross Europe, and Roman buildings still stand in cities the empire once ruled. The emperors and legions are gone, but more than 1,500 years after the Western Empire fell, Rome is still with us.
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Mr. Donn has an excellent website that includes a section on Ancient Rome.