vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
The final Gothic settlement was acclaimed with relief , even the official panegyrist admitting that these Goths could not be expelled or exterminated , nor reduced to unfree status . Instead they were either recruited into the imperial forces , or settled in the devastated provinces along the south bank of the Danube , where the regular garrisons were never fully re-established . In some later accounts , and widely in recent work , this is regarded as a treaty settlement , the first time that barbarians were given a home within the Empire in which they retained their political and military cohesion . No formal treaty is recorded , nor details of whatever agreement was actually made , and when `` the Goths '' re-emerge in our records they have different leaders and are soldiers of a sort . In 391 Alaric , a Gothic leader , rebelled against Roman control . Goths attacked the emperor himself , but within a year Alaric was accepted as a leader of Theodosius 's Gothic troops and this rebellion was over .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
A religious polemic of about this time complains bitterly of the oppression and extortion suffered by all but the richest Romans . Many wished to flee to the Bagaudae or even to foul - smelling barbarians .
Rise of the Ottoman Empire
Anatolia and the Balkans were greatly impacted by the arrival of the Black Death after 1347 . Urban centers and settled regions were devastated , while nomadic groups suffered less of an impact . The first Ottoman incursions into the Balkans began shortly thereafter . Depopulation resulting from the plague was thus almost certainly a major factor in the success of early Ottoman expansion into the Balkans , and contributed to the weakening of the Byzantine Empire and the depopulation of Constantinople .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
Julian ( r . 360 -- 363 ) launched a drive against official corruption which allowed the tax demands in Gaul to be reduced to one - third of their previous amount , while all government requirements were still met . In civil legislation Julian was notable for his pro-pagan policies . All Christian sects were officially tolerated by Julian , persecution of heretics was forbidden , and non-Christian religions were encouraged . Some Christians continued to destroy temples , disrupt rituals , and break sacred images , seeking martyrdom and at times achieving it at the hands of non-Christian mobs or secular authorities ; some pagans attacked the Christians who had previously been involved with the destruction of temples .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
In 476 , Orestes refused to grant Odoacer and the Heruli federated status , prompting an invasion . Orestes fled to the city of Pavia on August 23 , 476 , where the city 's bishop gave him sanctuary . Orestes was soon forced to flee Pavia when Odoacer 's army broke through the city walls , and his army ravaged the city . Odoacer 's army chased Orestes to Piacenza , where they captured and executed him on August 28 , 476 .
Rise of the Ottoman Empire
The foundation and rise of the Ottoman Empire is a period of history that started with the emergence of the Ottoman principality in c. 1299 , and ended with the conquest of Constantinople on May 29 , 1453 . This period witnessed the foundation of a political entity ruled by the Ottoman Dynasty in the northwestern Anatolian region of Bithynia , and its transformation from a small principality on the Byzantine frontier into an empire spanning the Balkans and Anatolia . For this reason , this period in the empire 's history has been described as the Proto - Imperial Era . Throughout most of this period , the Ottomans were merely one of many competing states in the region , and relied upon the support of local warlords and vassals to maintain control over their realm . By the middle of the fifteenth century the Ottoman sultans were able to accumulate enough personal power and authority to establish a centralized imperial state , a process which was brought to fruition by Sultan Mehmed II ( r . 1451 - 1481 ) . The conquest of Constantinople in 1453 is seen as the symbolic moment when the emerging Ottoman state shifted from a mere principality into an empire , marking a major turning point in its history .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
In 376 the East faced an enormous barbarian influx across the Danube , mostly Goths who were refugees from the Huns . They were exploited by corrupt officials rather than effectively resettled , and they took up arms , joined by more Goths and by some Alans and Huns . Valens was in Asia with his main field army , preparing for an assault on the Persians , and redirecting the army and its logistic support would have required time . Gratian 's armies were distracted by Germanic invasions across the Rhine . In 378 Valens attacked the invaders with the Eastern field army , perhaps some 20,000 men -- possibly only 10 % of the soldiers nominally available in the Danube provinces -- and in the Battle of Adrianople , 9 August 378 , he lost much of that army and his own life . All of the Balkan provinces were thus exposed to raiding , without effective response from the remaining garrisons who were `` more easily slaughtered than sheep '' . Cities were able to hold their own walls against barbarians who had no siege equipment , and they generally remained intact although the countryside suffered .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
Genseric settled his Vandals as landowners and in 442 was able to negotiate very favourable peace terms with the Western court . He kept his latest gains and his eldest son Huneric was honoured by betrothal to Princess Eudocia , who carried the legitimacy of the Theodosian dynasty . Huneric 's Gothic wife was suspected of trying to poison her father - in - law Genseric ; he sent her home without her nose or ears , and his Gothic alliance came to an early end . The Romans regained Numidia , and Rome again received a grain supply from Africa .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
Procopius mentions a story in which Honorius , on hearing the news that Rome had `` perished '' , was shocked , thinking the news was in reference to his favorite chicken he had named `` Roma '' . On hearing that Rome itself had fallen he breathed a sigh of relief :
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
So long as the Roman dominion lasted , soldiers were maintained in many towns at the public expense to guard the boundary wall . When this custom ceased , the squadrons of soldiers and the boundary wall were blotted out together . The troop at Batavis , however , held out . Some soldiers of this troop had gone to Italy to fetch the final pay to their comrades , and no one knew that the barbarians had slain them on the way .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
Although these men differ in customs and language from those with whom they have taken refuge , and are unaccustomed too , if I may say so , to the nauseous odor of the bodies and clothing of the barbarians , yet they prefer the strange life they find there to the injustice rife among the Romans . So you find men passing over everywhere , now to the Goths , now to the Bagaudae , or whatever other barbarians have established their power anywhere ... We call those men rebels and utterly abandoned , whom we ourselves have forced into crime . For by what other causes were they made Bagaudae save by our unjust acts , the wicked decisions of the magistrates , the proscription and extortion of those who have turned the public exactions to the increase of their private fortunes and made the tax indictions their opportunity for plunder ?
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Diocletian ended this long period of anarchy , but the succession of civil wars and invasions caused much suffering , disorder and crime which brought the empire into a state of moral lethargy from which it never recovered . After the plague had abated , the empire suffered from general distress , and its condition was very much like that which followed after the Black Death of the Middle Ages . Talent and art had become extinct in proportion to the desolation of the world .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
Stilicho moved with his remaining mobile forces into Greece , a clear threat to Rufinus ' control of the Eastern empire . The bulk of Rufinus ' forces were occupied with Hunnic incursions in Asia Minor and Syria , leaving Thrace undefended . He opted to enlist Alaric and his men , and sent them to Thessaly to stave off Stilicho 's threat , which they did . No battle took place . Stilicho was forced to send some of his Eastern forces home . They went to Constantinople under the command of one Gainas , a Goth with a large Gothic following . On arrival , Gainas murdered Rufinus , and was appointed magister militum for Thrace by Eutropius , the new supreme minister and the only eunuch consul of Rome , who controlled Arcadius `` as if he were a sheep '' . Stilicho obtained a few more troops from the German frontier and continued to campaign ineffectively against the Eastern empire ; again he was successfully opposed by Alaric and his men . During the next year , 397 , Eutropius personally led his troops to victory over some Huns who were marauding in Asia Minor . With his position thus strengthened he declared Stilicho a public enemy , and he established Alaric as magister militum per Illyricum . A poem by Synesius advises the emperor to display manliness and remove a `` skin - clad savage '' ( probably Alaric ) from the councils of power and his barbarians from the Roman army . We do not know if Arcadius ever became aware of the existence of this advice , but it had no recorded effect . Synesius , from a province suffering the widespread ravages of a few poor but greedy barbarians , also complained of `` the peacetime war , one almost worse than the barbarian war and arising from military indiscipline and the officer 's greed . '' The
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
At that time they say that the Emperor Honorius in Ravenna received the message from one of the eunuchs , evidently a keeper of the poultry , that Roma had perished . And he cried out and said , `` And yet it has just eaten from my hands ! '' For he had a very large cockerel , Roma by name ; and the eunuch comprehending his words said that it was the city of Roma which had perished at the hands of Alaric , and the emperor with a sigh of relief answered quickly : `` But I thought that my fowl Roma had perished . '' So great , they say , was the folly with which this emperor was possessed . --
History of the Roman Empire
The situation of the Roman Empire became dire in AD 235 , when the emperor Alexander Severus was murdered by his own troops . Many Roman legions had been defeated during a campaign against Germanic peoples raiding across the borders , while the emperor was focused primarily on the dangers from the Sassanid Persian Empire . Leading his troops personally , Alexander Severus resorted to diplomacy and the paying of tribute in an attempt to pacify the Germanic chieftains quickly . According to Herodian this cost him the respect of his troops , who may have felt they should be punishing the tribes who were intruding on Rome 's territory .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
`` To Aetius , now consul for the third time : the groans of the Britons . '' And again a little further , thus : -- `` The barbarians drive us to the sea ; the sea throws us back on the barbarians : thus two modes of death await us , we are either slain or drowned . '' The Romans , however , could not assist them ...
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
After the death of Olybrius there was a further interregnum until March 473 , when Gundobad proclaimed Glycerius emperor . He may have made some attempt to intervene in Gaul ; if so , it was unsuccessful . Tremissis
Western Roman Empire
The Western Roman Empire , less urbanized than the Eastern and with a more spread - out populace , may have experienced an economic decline throughout the Late Empire in some provinces . Southern Italy , northern Gaul ( except for large towns and cities ) , and to some extent Spain and the Danubian areas may have suffered . The East was not so destitute , especially as Emperors like Constantine the Great and Constantius II had invested heavily in the eastern economy . As a result , the Eastern Empire could afford large numbers of professional soldiers and augment them with mercenaries , while the Western Roman Empire could not afford this to the same extent . Even in major defeats , the East could , certainly not without difficulties , buy off its enemies with a ransom .
Silk Road
The Roman Empire , and its demand for sophisticated Asian products , crumbled in the West around the 5th century .
Middle Ages
The Islamic conquests reached their peak in the mid-eighth century . The defeat of Muslim forces at the Battle of Tours in 732 led to the reconquest of southern France by the Franks , but the main reason for the halt of Islamic growth in Europe was the overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate and its replacement by the Abbasid Caliphate . The Abbasids moved their capital to Baghdad and were more concerned with the Middle East than Europe , losing control of sections of the Muslim lands . Umayyad descendants took over the Iberian Peninsula , the Aghlabids controlled North Africa , and the Tulunids became rulers of Egypt . By the middle of the 8th century , new trading patterns were emerging in the Mediterranean ; trade between the Franks and the Arabs replaced the old Roman economy . Franks traded timber , furs , swords and slaves in return for silks and other fabrics , spices , and precious metals from the Arabs .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
Valentinian died of an apoplexy while personally shouting at envoys of Germanic leaders . His successors in the West were children , his sons Gratian ( r . 375 -- 383 ) and Valentinian II ( r . 375 -- 392 ) . Gratian , `` alien from the art of government both by temperament and by training '' removed the Altar of Victory from the Senate House , and he rejected the pagan title of Pontifex Maximus .
Actor
As the Western Roman Empire fell into decay through the 4th and 5th centuries , the seat of Roman power shifted to Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire . Records show that mime , pantomime , scenes or recitations from tragedies and comedies , dances , and other entertainments were very popular . From the 5th century , Western Europe was plunged into a period of general disorder . Small nomadic bands of actors traveled around Europe throughout the period , performing wherever they could find an audience ; there is no evidence that they produced anything but crude scenes . Traditionally , actors were not of high status ; therefore , in the Early Middle Ages , traveling acting troupes were often viewed with distrust . Early Middle Ages actors were denounced by the Church during the Dark Ages , as they were viewed as dangerous , immoral , and pagan . In many parts of Europe , traditional beliefs of the region and time period meant actors could not receive a Christian burial .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
Alaric 's military operations centred on the port of Rome , through which Rome 's grain supply had to pass . Alaric 's first siege of Rome in 408 caused dreadful famine within the walls . It was ended by a payment that , though large , was less than one of the richest senators could have produced . The super-rich aristocrats made little contribution ; pagan temples were stripped of ornaments to make up the total . With promises of freedom , Alaric also recruited many of the slaves in Rome .
Western Roman Empire
Maxentius was proclaimed emperor in 306 , in opposition to Valerius Severus . He succeeded in capturing the Western Empire in 307 , and had Severus killed soon after . The Western Empire was invaded in 312 by Constantine , who decisively defeated Maxentius on 28 October 312 , who drowned when his forces were pushed back into the Tiber river .
Gupta Empire
The empire gradually declined because of many factors such as substantial loss of territory and imperial authority caused by their own erstwhile feudatories , as well as the invasion by the Huna peoples ( Kidarites and Alchon Huns ) from Central Asia . After the collapse of the Gupta Empire in the 6th century , India was again ruled by numerous regional kingdoms . A minor line of the Gupta clan continued to rule Magadha after the disintegration of the empire . These Guptas were ultimately ousted by the Vardhana ruler Harsha , who established his empire in the first half of the 7th century .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
From the foundation of the city till the reign of the Emperor Gratian , the foot wore cuirasses and helmets . But negligence and sloth having by degrees introduced a total relaxation of discipline , the soldiers began to think their armor too heavy , as they seldom put it on . They first requested leave from the Emperor to lay aside the cuirass and afterwards the helmet . In consequence of this , our troops in their engagements with the Goths were often overwhelmed with their showers of arrows . Nor was the necessity of obliging the infantry to resume their cuirasses and helmets discovered , notwithstanding such repeated defeats , which brought on the destruction of so many great cities . Troops , defenseless and exposed to all the weapons of the enemy , are more disposed to fly than fight . What can be expected from a foot - archer without cuirass or helmet , who can not hold at once his bow and shield ; or from the ensigns whose bodies are naked , and who can not at the same time carry a shield and the colors ? The foot soldier finds the weight of a cuirass and even of a helmet intolerable . This is because he is so seldom exercised and rarely puts them on .
History of the Roman Empire
Aurelian reigned ( 270 -- 275 ) through the worst of the crisis , defeating the Vandals , the Visigoths , the Palmyrenes , the Persians , and then the remainder of the Gallic Empire . By late 274 , the Roman Empire was reunited into a single entity , and the frontier troops were back in place . More than a century would pass before Rome again lost military ascendancy over its external enemies . However , dozens of formerly thriving cities , especially in the Western Empire , had been ruined , their populations dispersed and , with the breakdown of the economic system , could not be rebuilt . Major cities and towns , even Rome itself , had not needed fortifications for many centuries ; many then surrounded themselves with thick walls .
History of the Roman Empire
Through his sound fiscal policy , the emperor Vespasian was able to build up a surplus in the treasury , and began construction on the Colosseum . Titus , Vespasian 's successor , quickly proved his merit , although his short reign was marked by disaster , including the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Pompeii . He held the opening ceremonies in the still unfinished Colosseum , but died in 81 . His brother Domitian succeeded him . Having exceedingly poor relations with the Senate , Domitian was murdered in September 96 .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
Galla Placidia , as Augusta , mother of the Emperor , and his guardian until 437 , could maintain a dominant position in court , but women in Ancient Rome did not exercise military power and she could not herself become a general . She tried for some years to avoid reliance on a single dominant military figure , maintaining a balance of power between her three senior officers , Aetius ( magister militum in Gaul ) , Count Boniface governor in the Diocese of Africa , and Flavius Felix magister militum praesentalis in Italy . Meanwhile , the Empire deteriorated seriously . Apart from the losses in the Diocese of Africa , Hispania was slipping out of central control and into the hands of local rulers and Suevic bandits . In Gaul the Rhine frontier had collapsed , the Visigoths in Aquitaine may have launched further attacks on Narbo and Arelate , and the Franks , increasingly powerful although disunited , were the major power in the north - east . Aremorica was controlled by Bagaudae , local leaders not under the authority of the Empire . Aetius at least campaigned vigorously and mostly victoriously , defeating aggressive Visigoths , Franks , fresh Germanic invaders , Bagaudae in Aremorica , and a rebellion in Noricum . Not for the first time in Rome 's history , a triumvirate of mutually distrustful rulers proved unstable . In 427 Felix tried to recall Boniface from Africa ; he refused , and overcame Felix 's invading force . Boniface probably recruited some Vandal troops among others .
Western Roman Empire
The trial and subsequent execution of Romanus , an Italian senator and friend of Ricimer , on the grounds of treachery in 470 made Ricimer hostile to Anthemius . Following two years of hostilities , Ricimer successfully deposed and killed Anthemius in 472 , elevating Olybrius to the Western throne . During the brief reign of Olybrius , Ricimer died and his nephew Gundobad succeeded him as magister militum . After only seven months of rule , Olybrius died of dropsy . Gundobad elevated Glycerius to Western Emperor . The Eastern Empire had rejected Olybrius and also rejected Glycerius , instead supporting a candidate of their own , Julius Nepos , magister militum in Dalmatia . With the support of Eastern Emperors Leo II and Zeno , Julius Nepos crossed the Adriatic Sea in the spring of 474 to depose Glycerius . At the arrival of Nepos in Italy , Glycerius abdicated without a fight and was allowed to live out his life as the Bishop of Salona .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
the vices of a declining empire , of which he had so long been the victim ; the cruel absurdity of the Roman princes , unable to protect their subjects against the public enemy , unwilling to trust them with arms for their own defence ; the intolerable weight of taxes , rendered still more oppressive by the intricate or arbitrary modes of collection ; the obscurity of numerous and contradictory laws ; the tedious and expensive forms of judicial proceedings ; the partial administration of justice ; and the universal corruption , which increased the influence of the rich , and aggravated the misfortunes of the poor .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
On September 4 , 476 , Odoacer forced then 16 - year - old Romulus Augustulus , whom his father Orestes had proclaimed to be Rome 's Emperor , to abdicate . After deposing Romulus , Odoacer did not execute him . The Anonymus Valesianus wrote that Odoacer , `` taking pity on his youth '' , spared Romulus ' life and granted him an annual pension of 6,000 solidi before sending him to live with relatives in Campania . Odoacer then installed himself as ruler over Italy , and sent the Imperial insignia to Constantinople .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
Alaric withdrew to Tuscany and recruited more slaves . Ataulf , a Goth nominally in Roman service and brother - in - law to Alaric , marched through Italy to join Alaric despite taking casualties from a small force of Hunnic mercenaries led by Olympius . Sarus was an enemy of Ataulf , and on Ataulf 's arrival went back into imperial service .
North Africa
North Africa 's populous and flourishing civilization collapsed after exhausting its resources in internal fighting and suffering devastation from the invasion of the Banu Sulaym and Banu Hilal . Ibn Khaldun noted that the lands ravaged by Banu Hilal invaders had become completely arid desert . 1803