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Review Sheet – History Test – The Decline and Fall of Rome

Know these important people:

  1. Commodus – emperor after Marcus Aurelius
  2. Julianus – bought the position of emperor
  3. Septimius Severus – deposed Julianus and made himself emperor
  4. Aurelian – emperor who defeated Zenobia
  5. Visigoths – barbarian tribe that invaded the Roman Empire
  6. Zenobia – queen of Palmyra
  7. Diocletian – emperor who divided empire into East and West
  8. Maximian – ruled the West half of the empire
  9. Constantine – emperor who granted tolerance in the empire to Christianity
  10. Helena – mother of Constantine
  11. Edict of Milan – law that granted tolerance to all Christians in the empire
  12. Pertinax – emperor who tried to restore order after Commodus
  13. Goths – Germanic trip
  14. Tacitus – Roman historian
  15. Huns – Asiatic people who attacked Goths
  16. Valens – emperor who fought Goths t Battle of Adrianople
  17. Alaric – leader of the Goths that captured Rome
  18. St. Augustine – bishop of Hippo; author of The City of God
  19. Attila – leader of the Huns
  20. Romulus Augustulus – last Roman Emperor

Know these important quotes:

  1. “The city which had taken all the world was itself taken…..The Roman world is falling.”

St. Jerome

  1. “Thus far shalt thou come, and no farther.”

Leo the first

Know these important terms:

  1. barbarian – community or tribe not belonging to the empire
  2. depose – to remove from office suddenly and forcefully
  3. stupefy – to make someone unable to think or feel properly
  4. papyrus – plant used in sheets for writing in ancient world
  5. parchment – animal skin that was used as a writing surface

Know these important facts:

  1. What weakened the Roman Empire?
  • Money used for fighting wars and defending frontiers
  • Civil wars over the election of emperors
  • Change in the Roman character; lost ideals of discipline, duty, self-control and self-constraint
  1. How did Diocletian divide the empire?
  • Diocletian divided the empire into four main groups: Gaul, Italy, Illyricum and the Orient.
  • Each was ruled by a “prefect” who was responsible to the emperor.
  1. What are two facts for which Constantine is chiefly remembered?
  • He had the state recognize Christianity.
  • He chose Byzantium as the Eastern capital of the empire.
  1. Describe the end of Rome.
  • Odoacer demanded that Roman emperor Romulus Augustulus give land in Italy to Germans who were serving in the army.
  • The emperor refused and Odoacer quietly deposed him.
  • After Romulus Augustulus was gone, no emperor ever ruled Rome again.
  1. How is Cassiodorus responsible for the preservation of many ancient classics?
  • He was scholar who collected a large number of Greek and Latin manuscripts from ruined libraries.
  • He then founded monasteries, where many of these manuscripts were copied and passed on over many years.
  1. How did the Latin language help preserve Roman culture?
  • Latin had been the common language in all parts of the Western Hemisphere and was still the most common when universities were founded in the thirteenth century.
  • Since educated men knew Latin and read Roman literature as they learned it, they were influenced by the patriotism, courage, discipline and obedience in the characters of the Roman heroes.
  • Church services were conducted in Latin.