Heritage

Rome's only hope of maintaining administrative power was by accepting the encroachers as "client states."

By the middle of the 5th century, leaders of the Germanic tribes exerted as much authority in Italy as the emperors. In 476, the last Western emperor was deposed by Odoacer, a leader of the Germanic Sciri tribe, who was soon proclaimed king of Italy by his people.

The beginning of Odoacer's rule in 476 has come to be the conventionally accepted date for the end of the Western Roman Empire.

Eastern Roman Empire
Byzantine Empire
395 to 7th century CE

The Roman Empire divided permanently in 395.

The Eastern Empire escaped the massive invasions of Germanic tribes that battered the Western Empire in the 5th century It gained and lost territory, but its core remained intact.

The Christian Church dominated both Roman politics and Roman religion, and, beginning in 479, the emperor was crowned directly by the Church.

Many of the church/state decrees of the 4th and 5th century focused on weeding out Christian sects that were deemed heretical. Increasingly, the Empire issued anti-Jewish decrees as well, and anti-Jewish pronouncements by Church officials became heated and extreme.

The weaker the empire, the more stringent became the restrictions placed on Jews. By the 8th century Jews had been excluded from many professions and forced out of many cities. (ruled 54-68). Cruel and inept provincial governors led to a revolt in Britain and then to the great Judean revolt of 66, which was not put down until 70 CE.

Western Roman Empire
5th century CE

Almost immediately after the Roman Empire divided in 395, the Western Empire began to be overrun by Germanic peoples: Suebi, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, Franks, Burgundians.

The influx of Germanic peoples was triggered by invasions from central Asia, but the German tribes had already demonstrated their penchant for migrating, having moved from their original homelands near the Baltic. Some had migrated into southeastern Europe, others into Gaul.
The migrations in the 5th century were massive and accompanied by almost constant warfare as the different peoples carved kingdoms out of Western Roman territory.

Rome

285 to 388 CE
By the late 3rd century the city of Rome was beset by economic and political troubles. Finally, the Emperor Diocletian (ruled 285-305) brought a period of relative prosperity, but, as part of his massive administrative reforms, he decentralized authority and ended the city of Rome's role as imperial capital.

Emperor Constantine (ruled 306-337) took the additional step in 330 of founding a new capital for the Empire at Constantinople, further reducing the importance of Rome, the city.

For the small Christian movement, a minority in the Empire even after Constantine's conversion to Christianity in 324, the city

remained uniquely important. Rome had been the leading Christian center since the late 1st century, and, even though its prosperity waned and its population left, many Christians saw Rome as their spiritual capital.

380 to 455 CE
In 387 and 388 a Christian mob rampaged through the streets of Rome systematically setting fire to pagan temples and, as an afterthought, burning one Jewish synagogue. In general, however, Jews in this city experienced fewer troubles than those elsewhere in the Empire. When Visigoth armies under their king Alaric first approached Rome in 408, the Senate, a vestige of the ancient Roman institution, proposed pagan sacrifice to protect the city from attack. Even the Bishop of Rome did not object, though the decision was not formally approved.

Rome was sacked by Alaric and his Visigoths in 410, and again by the Vandals in 455. According to some accounts, the Vandals carried off the treasures of the Jerusalem Temple which the Romans had seized during the Judean wars.

The damage done to the city by these attacks, however, was probably less than that inflicted by the Romans themselves. By the mid-5th century the population had dropped to perhaps 250,000, one quarter of what it had been two centuries before.
Temples and other fine buildings were stripped by inhabitants of their marble facing, and columns and stone ornamentation were stolen for reuse in other buildings.