Western Roman Empire

The **Western Roman Empire** was the western half of the Roman Empire, which was divided by Diocletian in 286 AD. The other half of the Roman Empire became known as the Eastern Roman Empire.

The Roman Empire had been in difficulties since 190 AD, when large Gothic tribes began moving into areas under Roman control. The Empire had weak leadership, which caused instability. Various power groups in the Roman armies kept trying to install their own emperors and killed those who belonged to other groups. That helped the invasions by the Germanic tribes.

Diocletian ended Rome's Crisis of the Third Century and tried to bring back stable government by dividing the empire into sections. The Western Empire included Iberia, France, southern Britain, Italy, North Africa and parts of Germany. The Eastern Empire included the Balkans, Turkey, the Levant and Egypt.

Rome ceased to be the capital from the time of the division. In 286, the capital of the Western Roman Empire became Mediolanum (now Milan). In 402, the capital was again moved, this time to Ravenna.
 and 530 AD

|alt=Animated map of the Roman Republic and Empire]]

The division did not help the Western Empire, which came under increasing invasions from the north: the Ostrogoths, Huns, Franks, Visigoths and Burgundians. Its armies were brought back towards Rome and abandoned Britain and France. The Empire's economy could not cope since the increased need for military spending caused inflation. Citizens were unhappy with the rising taxes and rising prices.

In AD 398, Alaric led the Visigoths and began making attacks closer and closer to the capital. By 410, he had sacked Rome. In 455, the Vandals captured the city. In 476, the Goths captured the city.

The fall of the Western Roman Empire took place in 476 AD, when the leader of the Goths, Odoacer, removed Emperor Romulus Augustus. Odoacer became King of Italy, and the Western Roman Empire ended. By then, however, the empire had existed in name only, and the Emperor no longer had military, financial or political power.

## Why the Empire Split 
By the 3rd-century, the Roman Empire was too big to be governed by an individual. It was as far as Britain to Egypt. Emperor Diocletian subdivided the empire into two to ease its management in 286 AD.

* The West: Spoke mostly Latin. It consisted of Italy, France (Gaul), Spain (Hispania), Britain and North Africa.
* The East: Spoke mostly Greek. It comprised Turkey, Greece, Egypt and the Middle East.

## Life in the West 
Rome was not necessarily the capital of Western Empire. Due to the indefensibility of Rome, the emperors shifted the capital to Mediolanum (nowadays Milan) and then Ravenna. Western Empire was largely known to be: 

* Laws: A lot of the contemporary laws in Europe and America trace their origin to Roman laws. 
* Religion: Initially the Romans had numerous gods. In future, the Roman Catholic Church was in the Western Empire. 
* Language: Latin finally became the Romance languages such as Spanish, French and Italian.

## The Fall of the Empire 
There were numerous issues that occurred simultaneously in the Western Roman Empire, and as a result, it collapsed: 

* Invasions: The Vikings, who were a tribe of the north, such as Goths, Vandals and Huns, started attacking the Roman territory. They wanted more favorable land and refuge against other enemies. 
* Poor Economy: Taxes were high and most individuals were poor in the empire. It was now too costly to afford the huge army to secure the borders. 
* Bad Leadership: Most of the emperors were feeble or slain by their soldiers. This rendered the government insecure.

## The End of the Empire 
The city of Rome was captured and looted by a tribe known as Visigoths in 410 AD. This was devoid of sensibility to the world as Rome had not been occupied by an adversary in 8 decades.

In 476 AD, the Western Empire came into its official end. The last Western emperor, a young boy called Romulus Augustulus, was overthrown by a Germanic leader by the name Odoacer. Odoacer did not claim the title of the emperor but referred to himself as the King of Italy.

## Related pages
*Holy Roman Empire
**The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire*

## References
## Other websites
*www.roman-empire.net
**De Imperatoribus Romanis*