HIS 106 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Maximinus Thrax, Gordian Ii, Gordian I
13 Mar 2018
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Document Summary
The stirrup and the longbow: dark age warfare. Emperor constantine (r 272-337) made christianity the official religion of roman empire stopped persecution of. Split roman empire 330 ad: eastern and western halves. Eastern roman empire later known as byzantine empire. Constantinople (istanbul after 1930 ad): new capital. Roman traditions and classical learning survived in eastern empire. Byzantines adopted cyrillic alphabet (greek alphabet modified by st. cyril in 4th century) Latin romans and western europe kept roman alphabet and latin universal language. Romans had excelled infrastructure, public architecture, aqueducts, sewers, roads. Work not respected because slaves not respected: wages were kept low. Economic and social consequences: no middle class could emerge, no mass market for goods, technological innovation stagnant for new products or labour-saving techniques (want to keep people as slaves) Cost of military defense and imperial pomp rose. Insufficient new territory for retired legionaries to get land benefits. Economic policy: increase military funding to buy military loyalty.
