The Fall of the Romans... DunDunDunDun!

      In about the year of A.D 200, the Roman Empire had already started to weaken. The Roman armies started to choose their own leaders; which then led to a lot of fighting between the armies. Then the Roman Empire was being attacked by the Germanic tribes,called germani or 'barbarians' by the Romans, in the northeast. These were the two main reasons why the Roman Empire was beginning to crumble very slowly.

     The person who became the new Roman emperor in the year of A.D 284 was Diocletian. Diocletian reorganized the army to make it bigger to defend Rome from invasions by the Germanic tribes. He also realized that the whole Roman Empire is way too big for one person to control. So he split the Empire into two, but not officially. The Eastern side was ruled by him, and the Western side was ruled by a general named Maximian. This wasn't exactly the best decision since some of you guys might know that the two sides would officially split in another 200 years.

      The person who replaced Diocletian as emperor (after Diocletian retired) was Constantine. Constantine became the emperor of the Eastern side. He moved the Roman capital to a town called Byzantium. He rebuilt the town by making it bigger and better. He then renamed the town's original name Byzantium to Constantinople. 

      Now, we are nearing the end of the Roman Empire. The Huns had invaded the Germanic tribes' lands, so the Germani moved onto Roman lands. Some of the Romans allowed some of the Germani (e.g: Visigoths)  to stay on their land. However, in return the Germani would have to help the Romans defend the land from invasions. In about the year of A.D 395, the Roman empire officially separated into two Empires. The Western Empire got attacked by Visigoths in A.D 410 (the plan to let the Visigoths stay and defend Rome backfired terribly right?), and then got attacked once again by the Vandals in A.D 415. Then in A.D 476, the Visigoth leader Odoacer claimed himself king of Italy. The Western Empire then got split into Germanic tribe Kingdoms. Well, that marked the end of the Western Empire. 

- ThePersonFromMars