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Italy

In the western Roman Empire there was a complex picture of recovery and decline, literary activity and sterility, political pomp and military decay. Gaul's 20,000,000 people prospered and threatened Italian leadership in every field. There were 6,000,000 Italians while in the empire there were another 44,000,000 Greek-speaking orientals and Rome, itself, was an oriental city with a great middle class now weakened by economic decline and rising taxes. Among both pagans and Christians alike there was an immorality rarely known in history. Until the last third of the century the western emperors were military men who kept strong holds chief ly through their armies. These included Julian, who as a Caesar, had fought the Alamanni and Franks in 355 and then marched against Emperor Constantius of the East, to become emperor overall in 360. He was succeded almost immediately in the west by Valentinian I and then by Gratian (367-383), a bookish adolescent who lost control and the barbarians soon crashed through the borders. Initially Gratian had served as co-emperor with his father Valentinian but upon the death of the latter he was joined by his half-brother, Valentian II.

Magnus Maximus usurped the emperor's army and murdered Gartian in 383 and then ruled the western empire with the child emperor Valentian assisted by the boy's mother, Justina, and a pagan general Bauto, a Frank. In 387 Maximus' army was needed to repel barbarian invaders from Panonnia and he took the opportunity to also swoop down and take Italy itself, running Valentian II and his mother to the East. This was the time when the eastern Emperor Theodosius marched with an eastern army chiefly of Gothic mercenaries, and defeated and killed Maximus in 388. Arbogast, a German and pagan was then the chief minister to the restored Valentinian II, but conflict soon developed and the emperor was killed or committed suicide. Thus, in 392 Flavious Eugenius, a nominal Christian, but having pagan sympathies, became emperor. He also was defeated in northern Italy by Theodosius in 394 and paganism as a political force almost disappeared. The son of Theodocius, the child Honorius, was set up to rule under the administration of Stilicho, the son of a German officer and husband of Theodocius' niece.

All historians are pretty well agreed on a certain sequence of events which led to the fall of the western Roman Empire, this including the western movement of the Huns, who in turn, put great pressure on the Germanic tribes, who in turn, then invaded the empire which was already decaying from its own inadequacies and problems. But each historian may have his own concept of the relative importance of each of these factors in the down- fall. There are those who think that the "barbarian" advance was the major factor, and there is no doubt that the Germans had already heavily infiltrated the ranks of the Roman army, particularly the cavalry units and the lesser officialdom. Furthermore, the German soldier had a better sword, made of better steel. Richard Lewinsohn (Ref. 122 ) insists that the horse brought the collapse of the empire. Cavalry had always been a neglected part of the Roman army and in Rome, the horse was more a symbol of affluence than of real power. The mounted troops of the barbarians cut the Roman legions to pieces and cavalrymen became the conquerors and for 1,000 years retained mastery over Europe.

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Source:  OpenStax, A comprehensive outline of world history. OpenStax CNX. Nov 30, 2009 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10595/1.3
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