HI101 Lecture Notes - Basiliscus, Taurus Mountains, Romulus Augustulus
Document Summary
The fall of the western empire and the survival of the east. Land tenure (east small land holders, west large land holders hyper rich ) Difference in peasant status (more class mobility in east) East peasant had land leases, could leave for better land. Wage labour, so you have options (save money) East less imperiled militarily, but they have constantinople and its walls *** Later roman authors think the split was permanent. Thought it was okay to split if you had concrete boundaries. One was child (in this system not good to be child-emperor in this system) Reliance on foederati once more, more germanic peoples needed. This is a practical decision (rome too big) Not roman (thought that a non-roman should not be roman emperor) In cities used lead pipes so the generations got stupid. Men and money sucked out of the west into the east to deal with constant assault of.
