西方文明史复习整理

, beginning of The Middle Ages

Why did Rome fall?

Increasing power of the

military,

leading to increasing instability

To meet the increasing demands of the military, Emperors would

debase the currency.

Prices skyrocketed as a result, leading to more instability.

(economy)

A vicious circle.

Almost every Emperor was assassinated towards the end of the Western Roman Empire.(

politics

)

Increasingly difficult to defend the borders of the Empire from

barbarians.

The barbarians themselves, mainly Germans, became more

organized and successful.

By the time of Rome?s collapse, barbarian armies may have had better

weapons and tactics

than

their Roman enemies.

Roman influence on the barbarian world also taught

fighting skills

to the barbarians who became

strong enough to challenge Rome itself.

Additionally, an economy based upon agriculture, slavery and looting

抢劫

was unsustainable.

Diocletian

戴克里先

split

the

Empire

into

2

halves(try

to

restore,

but

failed.

Persecution

of

Christianity)

Constantine

康士坦丁

responsible for shifting the imperial capital to the East.

He is also well

known

for

converting

to

Christianity

and

ensuring

that

the

religion

spread

with

the

Roman

Empire.

Constantinople

君士坦丁堡

–

“the city of Constantine”, became the new capital of the Empire, and

focus of Christianity.

The rising power of Christianity

shaped the empire.

Bishops became powerful and the Bishop of

Rome

–

or Pope, was considered the leader of the whole Christian Church.

Various tribes from the East invaded Rome

, the Huns

匈奴人

, the Vandals

< br>汪达尔人

(

古代日耳曼

民族的一 支，公元

5

世纪侵入高卢及西班牙，于

455

年攻占罗马

) , the Goths

哥特族

(

古代日

耳曼族的一支

)

and

Visigoths

西哥特人

(

西部 日耳曼人一支族，公元

5

世纪曾入侵意大利、

< br>法国和西班牙

) are the most well known.

By 410AD Rome itself was captured by Barbarians.

Roman armies left the far reaches of the empire, modern day France, Britain and Spain were

overrun by Germanic tribes, and even Italy itself.

This is considered the en

d of “Antiquity”

and

the beginning of the “Middle Ages”

in Western history.

While

the

West

was

“barbarized”

the

East

remained

“civilized”,

and

the

Byzantine

Empire

claimed to be the continuation of the Roman Empire.

Justinian

查士丁尼大帝

< /p>

拜占庭帝国的

“

第一次黄金时代

”

〔

First Flowering period

〕

。

The Byzantine Empire had a very powerful, advanced civil service

The Constantinople itself finally fell in 1453 to an Islamic army.(

crusaders

)

Why the Republic of Rome came to an

end?

?

In the late period of the Republic of Rome, many crises arose. After the Punic

Wars and the Macedonian War, Massiv

e influx of

slav

es

caused an economic crisis.

The unfair div

ision of wealth was especially serious as the rich

used slav

es to farm

vast estates and the poor farmers migrated to the cities to join

the unemployed.

The slav

es were bad treated. So, slav

e revolts became a common phenomenon,

which lead to a social chaos.

to

contest for power, different generals began to use their own army as a military

tool. Since most soldiers were the poor people, and they saw being recruited into

the troop as a guarantee for their life; therefore, they showed their loy

alty and

were willing to fight for their leader. Thus, sev

eral civ

il wars

added to political and

social instability.

When Rome ruled in oligarchy was no longer practical, the triumvirate came to

effect. Howev

er, this kind of ruling method also couldn

’

t surv

iv

e for good when

contest for the throne alway

s caused endless assassination among

different power

groups.

?

?