End of the Empire

Western Roman Empire increasingly sacked by barbarians and attacked
 * Placeholder
 * 476: last date we have a Western Roman emperor
 * in 533-554 Justinian (Byzantine) tries to reclaim North Africa and Italy; is temporarily successful
 * eventually becomes too expensive, too hard to maintain
 * East continues on until 1453: fall of Constantinople
 * formal end of Roman empire (in it's entirety) falls to pieces

Edward Gibbon
Imposes a slow "rise" and "fall" to Roman empire.


 * adoption of Christianity, Christians focused on eternity not here and now (complete misunderstanding)


 * since Punic wars, expanded faster than it could keep up


 * massive inflation (big economic crises)


 * lead poisoning (everyone went crazy)

Transformation
Pirenne Thesis: empire really continued until 7th Century
 * continued until Muslim conquests, most people wouldn't notice the change
 * Charlemagne and Frankish kings really carry on continuity of Roman culture
 * transformed and different, but in essence an evolution of the same

Now back to a Fall

 * Economic and Archaeological evidence suggests, in the frontier, there was a big disastrous breakdown, not gentle
 * quality of life fell apart
 * continuity ideal was gone, life depended on local circumstances