MMW 12 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Odoacer, Romulus Augustulus, Migration Period
23 Jan 2017
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Mmw 12 lecture 6 rome, constantine, and christianity. Emperors adopted relative to choose him as heir, sometimes bypassing actual sons. Praetorian guard: emperor"s private army, often assassinated emperors, altered succession plans: established by augustus, originally stationed outside of rome to keep out of politics, moved inside of. Augustus"s dynasty ended in year of four emperors, which led to general vespasian taking power: dynasty of military strongmen. Five good emperors (98-184) stabilized empire, ending when marcus aurelius chose actual son commodus (r. 184-192) as heir: commodus angered senate. Won over the praetorian guard to have him assassinated. Praetorian guard assassinated commodus, leading to series of strong generals taking throne and weak emperors overthrown: praetorian guard selling off throne to the highest bidder. In struggling roman empire, christians scapegoat: blaming troubles on turning away from roman gods, last great dissenter of christians. Starting in 303, banned christian worship, razed churches, burned scriptures.
