Title: The Fall of the Roman Empire [ushistory.org]
Headings: 6f. The Fall of the Roman Empire
6f. The Fall of the Roman Empire
Constantine and the Rise of Christianity
Why Two Empires?
Goth Rockers

Content: Finally, by this time, Romans considered their emperor a god. But the Christian belief in one god — who was not the emperor — weakened the authority and credibility of the emperor. Constantine enacted another change that helped accelerate the fall of the Roman Empire. In 330 C.E., he split the empire into two parts: the western half centered in Rome and the eastern half centered in Constantinople, a city he named after himself. Why Two Empires? This map of the Roman Empire in 476 C.E. shows the various people who invaded and how they carved up the Empire. In 324, Constantine's army defeated the forces of Licinius, the emperor of the east. Constantine became emperor of the entire empire and founded a new capital city in the eastern half at Byzantium. The city was his New Rome and was later named Constantinople (the "city of Constantine").