vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was not only a political unity enforced by violence . It was also the combined and elaborated civilization of the Mediterranean basin and beyond . It included manufacture , trade , and architecture , widespread secular literacy , written law , and an international language of science and literature . The Western barbarians lost much of these higher cultural practices , but their redevelopment in the Middle Ages by polities aware of the Roman achievement formed the basis for the later development of Europe .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
The remaining troops in Britannia elevated a succession of imperial usurpers . The last , Constantine III , raised an army from the remaining troops in Britannia , invaded Gaul and defeated forces loyal to Honorius led by Sarus . Constantine 's power reached its peak in 409 when he controlled Gaul and beyond , he was joint consul with Honorius and his magister militum Gerontius defeated the last Roman force to try to hold the borders of Hispania . It was led by relatives of Honorius ; Constantine executed them . Gerontius went to Hispania where he may have settled the Sueves and the Asding Vandals . Gerontius then fell out with his master and elevated one Maximus as his own puppet emperor . He defeated Constantine and was besieging him in Arelate when Honorius 's general Constantius arrived from Italy with an army ( possibly , mainly of Hun mercenaries ) . Gerontius 's troops deserted him and he committed suicide . Constantius continued the siege , defeating a relieving army . Constantine surrendered in 411 with a promise that his life would be spared , and was executed .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
In 428 the Vandals and Alans were united under the able , ferocious , and long - lived king Genseric ; he moved his entire people to Tarifa near Gibraltar , divided them into 80 groups nominally of 1,000 people , ( perhaps 20,000 warriors in total ) , and crossed from Hispania to Mauretania without opposition . ( The Straits of Gibraltar were not an important thoroughfare at the time , and there were no significant fortifications nor military presence at this end of the Mediterranean . ) They spent a year moving slowly to Numidia , defeating Boniface . He returned to Italy where Aetius had recently had Felix executed . Boniface was promoted to magister militum and earned the enmity of Aetius , who may have been absent in Gaul at the time . In 432 the two met at the Battle of Ravenna which left Aetius 's forces defeated and Boniface mortally wounded . Aetius temporarily retired to his estates , but after an attempt to murder him he raised another Hunnic army ( probably by conceding parts of Pannonia to them ) and in 433 he returned to Italy , overcoming all rivals . He never threatened to become an Augustus himself and thus maintained the support of the Eastern court , where Valentinian 's cousin Theodosius II reigned until 450 .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
A rich senatorial aristocrat , Petronius Maximus , who had encouraged both murders , then seized the throne . He broke the engagement between Huneric , prince of the Vandals , and Princess Eudocia , and had time to send Avitus to ask for the help of the Visigoths in Gaul before the Vandals sailed to Italy . Petronius was unable to muster any effective response and was killed by a mob as he tried to flee the city . The Vandals entered Rome , and plundered it for two weeks . Despite the shortage of money for the defence of the state , considerable private wealth had accumulated since the previous sack in 410 . The Vandals sailed away with large amounts of treasure and also with the Princess Eudocia , who became the wife of one Vandal king and the mother of another .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
Alaric moved to Rome and captured Galla Placidia , sister of Honorius . The Senate in Rome , despite its loathing for Alaric , was now desperate enough to give him almost anything he wanted . They had no food to offer , but they tried to give him imperial legitimacy ; with the Senate 's acquiescence , he elevated Priscus Attalus as his puppet emperor , and he marched on Ravenna . Honorius was planning to flee to Constantinople when a reinforcing army of 4,000 soldiers from the East disembarked in Ravenna . These garrisoned the walls and Honorius held on . He had Constantine 's principal court supporter executed and Constantine abandoned plans to march to Honorius 's defence . Attalus failed to establish his control over the Diocese of Africa , and no grain arrived in Rome where the famine became even more frightful . Jerome reports cannibalism within the walls . Attalus brought Alaric no real advantage , failing also to come to any useful agreement with Honorius ( who was offered mutilation , humiliation , and exile ) . Indeed , Attalus 's claim was a marker of threat to Honorius , and Alaric dethroned him after a few months .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
Avitus , at the Visigothic court in Burdigala , declared himself Emperor . He moved on Rome with Visigothic support which gained his acceptance by Majorian and Ricimer , commanders of the remaining army of Italy . This was the first time that a barbarian kingdom had played a key role in the imperial succession . Avitus 's son - in - law Sidonius wrote propaganda to present the Visigothic king Theoderic II as a reasonable man with whom a Roman regime could do business . Theoderic 's payoff included precious metal from stripping the remaining public ornaments of Italy , and an unsupervised campaign in Hispania . There he not only defeated the Sueves , executing his brother - in - law Rechiar , but he also plundered Roman cities . The Burgundians expanded their kingdom in the Rhone valley and the Vandals took the remains of the Diocese of Africa . In 456 the Visigothic army was too heavily engaged in Hispania to be an effective threat to Italy , and Ricimer had just destroyed a pirate fleet of sixty Vandal ships ; Majorian and Ricimer marched against Avitus and defeated him near Placentia . He was forced to become Bishop of Placentia , and died ( possibly murdered ) a few weeks later .
Silk Road
The fragmentation of the Mongol Empire loosened the political , cultural , and economic unity of the Silk Road . Turkmeni marching lords seized land around the western part of the Silk Road from the decaying Byzantine Empire . After the fall of the Mongol Empire , the great political powers along the Silk Road became economically and culturally separated . Accompanying the crystallisation of regional states was the decline of nomad power , partly due to the devastation of the Black Death and partly due to the encroachment of sedentary civilisations equipped with gunpowder .
Mycenaean Greece
Alternative scenarios propose that the fall of Mycenaean Greece was a result of internal disturbances which led to internecine warfare among the Mycenaean states or civil unrest in a number of states , as a result of the strict hierarchical social system and the ideology of the wanax . In general , due to the obscure archaeological picture in 12th - 11th century BC Greece , there is a continuing controversy among scholars over whether the impoverished societies that succeeded the Mycenaean palatial states were newcomers or populations that already resided in Mycenaean Greece . Recent archaeological findings tend to favor the latter scenario . Additional theories , concerning natural factors , such as climate change , droughts or earthquakes have also been proposed . Another theory considers the decline of the Mycenaean civilization as a manifestation of a common pattern for the decline of many ancient civilizations : the Minoan , the Harrapan and the Western Roman Empire . The reason for the decline is migration due to overpopulation . The period following the end of Mycenaean Greece , c. 1100 - 800 BC , is generally termed the `` Greek Dark Ages '' .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
Nevertheless , effective imperial protection from barbarian ravages was eagerly sought . About this time authorities in Britannia asked Aetius for help :
Western Roman Empire
The final collapse of the Empire in the West was marked by increasingly ineffectual puppet Emperors dominated by their Germanic masters of the soldiers . The most pointed example of this is Ricimer , who effectively became a `` Shadow Emperor '' following the depositions of Avitus and Majorian . Unable to take the throne for himself due to his barbarian heritage , Ricimer appointed a series of `` puppet emperors '' that could do little to halt the collapse of Roman authority and the loss of the territories re-conquered by Majorian . The first of these puppet emperors , Libius Severus , had no recognition outside of Italy , with the Eastern Emperor Leo I and provincial governors in Gaul and Illyria all refusing to recognize him . Severus died in 465 and Leo I , with the consent of Ricimer , appointed the capable Eastern general Anthemius as Western Emperor following an eighteen - month Western interregnum . The relationship between Anthemius and the East was good , Anthemius is the last Western Emperor recorded in an Eastern law , and the two courts conducted a joint operation to retake Africa from the Vandals , culminating in the disastrous Battle of Cap Bon in 468 . Furthermore , Anthemius conducted failed campaigns against the Visigoths , hoping to halt their increasing expansion .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
The Vandals conquered Sicily , and their fleet became a constant danger to Roman sea trade and to the coasts and islands of the western Mediterranean .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
The Fall is not the only unifying concept for these events ; the period described as Late Antiquity emphasizes the cultural continuities throughout and beyond the political collapse .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
Theodosius had to face a powerful usurper in the West ; Magnus Maximus declared himself Emperor in 383 , stripped troops from the outlying regions of Britannia ( probably replacing some with federate chieftains and their war - bands ) and invaded Gaul . His troops killed Gratian and he was accepted as Augustus in the Gallic provinces , where he was responsible for the first official executions of Christian heretics . To compensate the Western court for the loss of Gaul , Hispania , and Britannia , Theodosius ceded the diocese of Dacia and the diocese of Macedonia to their control . In 387 Maximus invaded Italy , forcing Valentinian II to flee to the East , where he accepted Nicene Christianity . Maximus boasted to Ambrose of the numbers of barbarians in his forces , and hordes of Goths , Huns , and Alans followed Theodosius . Maximus negotiated with Theodosius for acceptance as Augustus of the West , but Theodosius refused , gathered his armies , and counterattacked , winning the civil war in 388 . There were heavy troop losses on both sides of the conflict . Later Welsh legend has Maximus 's defeated troops resettled in Armorica , instead of returning to Britannia , and by 400 , Armorica was controlled by Bagaudae rather than by imperial authority .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
Attila may not have needed any excuse to turn West , but he received one in the form of a plea for help from Honoria , the Emperor 's sister , who was being forced into a marriage which she resented . Attila claimed Honoria as his wife and half of the Western Empire 's territory as his dowry . Faced with refusal , he invaded Gaul in 451 with a huge army . In the bloody battle of the Catalaunian Plains the invasion was stopped by the combined forces of the barbarians within the Western empire , coordinated by Aetius and supported by what troops he could muster . The next year , Attila invaded Italy and proceeded to march upon Rome , but an outbreak of disease in his army , lack of supplies , reports that Eastern Roman troops were attacking his noncombatant population in Pannonia , and , possibly , Pope Leo 's plea for peace induced him to halt this campaign . Attila unexpectedly died a year later ( 453 ) and his empire crumbled as his followers fought for power . The life of Severinus of Noricum gives glimpses of the general insecurity , and ultimate retreat of the Romans on the Upper Danube , in the aftermath of Attila 's death . The Romans were without adequate forces ; the barbarians inflicted haphazard extortion , murder , kidnap , and plunder on the Romans and on each other .
Gupta Empire
The collapse of the Gupta Empire in the face of the Huna onslaught was due not directly to the inherent defects of the Gupta army , which after all had initially defeated these people under Skandagupta . More likely , internal dissolution sapped the ability of the Guptas to resist foreign invasion , as was simultaneously occurring in Western Europe and China .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
The fifth - century Western emperors , with brief exceptions , were individuals incapable of ruling effectively or even of controlling their own courts . Those exceptions were responsible for brief , but remarkable resurgences of Roman power .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
Ricimer then quarreled with Anthemius , and besieged him in Rome , which surrendered in July 472 after more months of starvation . Anthemius was captured and executed ( on Ricimer 's orders ) by the Burgundian prince Gundobad . In August Ricimer died of a pulmonary haemorrhage . Olybrius , his new emperor , named Gundobad as his patrician , then died himself shortly thereafter .
Crusades
The causes of the decline in Crusading and the failure of the Crusader States is multi-faceted . Historians have attempted to explain this in terms of Muslim reunification and Jihadi enthusiasm but Thomas Asbridge , amongst others , considers this too simplistic . Muslim unity was sporadic and the desire for Jihad ephemeral . The nature of Crusades was unsuited to the conquest and defence of the Holy Land . Crusaders were on a personal pilgrimage and usually returned when it was completed . Although the philosophy of Crusading changed over time , the Crusades continued to provide short lived armies without centralised leadership led by independently minded potentates . What the Crusader states needed were large standing armies . Religious fervour enabled amazing feats of military endeavour but proved difficult to direct and control . Succession disputes and dynastic rivalries in Europe , failed harvests and heretical outbreaks , all contributed to reducing Latin Europe 's concerns for Jerusalem . Ultimately , even though the fighting was also at the edge of the Islamic world , the huge distances made the mounting of Crusades and the maintenance of communications insurmountably difficult . It enabled Islam , under the charismatic leadership of Nur al - Din and Saladin as well as the ruthless Baibars to use the logistical advantages from proximity to victorious effect . The mainland Crusader states of the outremer were finally extinguished with the fall of Tripoli in 1289 and Acre in 1291 . Many Latin Christians were evacuated to Cyprus by boat , were killed or enslaved .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
The losses of income from the Diocese of Africa were equivalent to the costs of nearly 40,000 infantry or over 20,000 cavalry . The imperial regime had to increase taxes . Despite admitting that the peasantry could pay no more , and that a sufficient army could not be raised , the imperial regime protected the interests of landowners displaced from Africa and allowed wealthy individuals to avoid taxes .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
In 410 , the Roman civitates of Britannia rebelled against Constantine and evicted his officials . They asked for help from Honorius , who replied that they should look to their own defence . While the British may have regarded themselves as Roman for several generations , and British armies may at times have fought in Gaul , no central Roman government is known to have appointed officials in Britannia thereafter .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
Constantius died in 421 , after only seven months as Augustus . He had been careful to make sure that there was no successor in waiting , and his own children were far too young to take his place . Honorius was unable to control his own court and the death of Constantius initiated more than ten years of instability . Initially Galla Placidia sought Honorius 's favour in the hope that her son might ultimately inherit . Other court interests managed to defeat her , and she fled with her children to the Eastern court in 422 . Honorius himself died , shortly before his thirty - ninth birthday , in 423 . After some months of intrigue , the patrician Castinus installed Joannes as Western Emperor , but the Eastern Roman government proclaimed the child Valentinian III instead , his mother Galla Placidia acting as regent during his minority . Joannes had few troops of his own . He sent Aetius to raise help from the Huns . An Eastern army landed in Italy , captured Joannes , cut his hand off , abused him in public , and killed him with most of his senior officials . Aetius returned , three days after Joannes ' death , at the head of a substantial Hunnic army which made him the most powerful general in Italy . After some fighting , Placidia and Aetius came to an agreement ; the Huns were paid off and sent home , while Aetius received the position of magister militum .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
Theodosius died a few months later in early 395 , leaving his young sons Honorius ( r . 395 -- 423 ) and Arcadius ( r . 395 -- 408 ) as emperors . In the immediate aftermath of Theodosius 's death , the magister militum Stilicho , married to Theodosius 's niece , asserted himself in the West as the guardian of Honorius and commander of the remains of the defeated Western army . He also claimed control over Arcadius in Constantinople , but Rufinus , magister officiorum on the spot , had already established his own power there . Henceforward the Empire was not under the control of one man , until much of the West had been permanently lost . Neither Honorius nor Arcadius ever displayed any ability either as rulers or as generals , and both lived as the puppets of their courts . Stilicho tried to reunite the Eastern and Western courts under his personal control , but in doing so achieved only the continued hostility of all of Arcadius 's successive supreme ministers .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
The empress Maria , daughter of Stilicho , died in 407 or early 408 and her sister Aemilia Materna Thermantia married Honorius . In the East , Arcadius died on 1 May 408 and was replaced by his son Theodosius II ; Stilicho seems to have planned to march to Constantinople , and to install there a regime loyal to himself . He may also have intended to give Alaric a senior official position and send him against the rebels in Gaul . Before he could do so , while he was away at Ticinum at the head of a small detachment , a bloody coup against his supporters took place at Honorius 's court . It was led by Stilicho 's own creature , one Olympius .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
The fleet was burned by traitors , and Majorian made peace with the Vandals and returned to Italy . Here Ricimer met him , arrested him , and executed him five days later . Marcellinus in Dalmatia , and Aegidius around Soissons in northern Gaul , rejected both Ricimer and his puppets and maintained some version of Roman rule in their areas . Ricimer later ceded Narbo and its hinterland to the Visigoths for their help against Aegidius ; this made it impossible for Roman armies to march from Italy to Hispania . Ricimer was then the effective ruler of Italy ( but little else ) for several years . From 461 to 465 the pious Italian aristocrat Libius Severus reigned . There is no record of anything significant that he even tried to achieve , he was never acknowledged by the East whose help Ricimer needed , and he died conveniently in 465 .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
Alaric then moved south , intending to sail to Africa , but his ships were wrecked in a storm and he shortly died of fever . His successor Ataulf , still regarded as an usurper and given only occasional and short - term grants of supplies , moved north into the turmoil of Gaul , where there was some prospect of food . His supergroup of barbarians are called the Visigoths in modern works : they may now have been developing their own sense of identity .
Rise of the Ottoman Empire
The Balkan states of Byzantium , Bulgaria , and Serbia were fearful of the Ottomans ' conquests in Thrace , and were ill - prepared to deal with the threat . Byzantium 's territory was fragmented mostly among the capital at Constantinople and its Thracian environs , the city of Thessaloniki and its immediate surroundings , and the Despotate of the Morea in the Peloponnese . Contact between Constantinople and the two other regions was possible only by means of a tenuous sea route through the Dardanelles , kept open by the Italian maritime powers of Venice and Genoa . The weakened Byzantine Empire no longer possessed the resources to defeat Murad on its own , and concerted action on the part of the Byzantines , often divided by civil war , was impossible . The survival of Constantinople itself depended on its legendary defensive walls , the lack of an Ottoman navy , and the willingness of Murad to honor provisions in the 1356 treaty permitting the city to be provisioned .
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
In 410 Alaric took Rome by starvation , sacked it for three days ( there was relatively little destruction , and in some Christian holy places Alaric 's men even refrained from wanton wrecking and rape ) , and invited its remaining barbarian slaves to join him , which many did . The city of Rome was the seat of the richest senatorial noble families and the centre of their cultural patronage ; to pagans it was the sacred origin of the empire , and to Christians the seat of the heir of Saint Peter , Pope Innocent I , the most authoritative bishop of the West . Rome had not fallen to an enemy since the Battle of the Allia over eight centuries before . Refugees spread the news and their stories throughout the Empire , and the meaning of the fall was debated with religious fervour . Both Christians and pagans wrote embittered tracts , blaming paganism or Christianity respectively for the loss of Rome 's supernatural protection , and blaming Stilicho 's earthly failures in either case . Some Christian responses anticipated the imminence of Judgement Day . Augustine in his book `` City of God '' ultimately rejected the pagan and Christian idea that religion should have worldly benefits ; he developed the doctrine that the City of God in heaven , undamaged by mundane disasters , was the true objective of Christians . More practically , Honorius was briefly persuaded to set aside the laws forbidding pagans to be military officers , so that one Generidus could re-establish Roman control in Dalmatia . Generidus did this with unusual effectiveness ; his techniques were remarkable for this period , in that they included training his troops , disciplining them , and giving them appropriate supplies even if he had to use his own money . The penal laws were reinstated no later than 25 August 410 and the overall trend of repression of paganism continued . Inscription