The fall of the Republic and the decline of the Empire

In the 3rd century CE the crisis in the empire deepened: emperors changed often and Germanic tribes pressed on the frontiers. The Romans called them “barbarians”. In 330 the emperor Constantine made the city of Byzantium on the Bosporus his capital; it was named Constantinople. In 395, after the death of the emperor Theodosius, the empire was divided into Western and Eastern parts. The Eastern part later became known as Byzantium and lasted another thousand years. The Western part grew weak. In 410 the Goths under Alaric seized and sacked Rome: the city was not destroyed, but the event was a blow that showed the empire’s decline. In 452 the Huns under Attila invaded Italy, and in 455 the Vandals plundered Rome for two weeks. In 476 Odoacer, commander of Germanic mercenaries, deposed the last Western emperor, Romulus Augustulus. This date is taken as the end of the Western Roman Empire and, conventionally, the boundary between ancient history and the Middle Ages.