Editing Roman Empire (27 BCE–395 CE)

{{Distinguish|[[Holy Roman Empire]]}}{{Infobox country|name=Roman Empire|native_name=Imperium Rōmānum<br>Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων|year_start=27 BCE|year_end=395 CE|image_map=Roman Empire.png|map_width=290|map_caption=The Roman Empire in 280|common_languages=Latin<br>Ancient Greek|religion=[[Paganism]] (27 BCE–311 CE)<br>[[Christianity]] (321–395)|mode_of_production=[[Slavery]]|event_start=Empire established|event_end=East-West division|date_end=17 January|event_post=Fall of Western Roman Empire|date_post=4 September 476|area_km2=5,000,000|area_footnote=(117 CE)|population_estimate=56,800,000|population_estimate_year=25 BCE}}

The '''Roman Empire''' was an ancient state that existed in [[Europe]], [[West Asia]], and [[North Africa]]. It split into two parts in 395, and the western part fell to a series of Germanic kingdoms.<ref name=":0222">{{Citation|author=Neil Faulkner|year=2013|title=A Marxist History of the World: From Neanderthals to Neoliberals|chapter=European Feudalism|page=79|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacedljwr5izotdclz23o3c5p4di4t3ero3ncbfytip55slhiz4otuls?filename=Neil%20Faulkner%20-%20A%20Marxist%20History%20of%20the%20World_%20From%20Neanderthals%20to%20Neoliberals-Pluto%20Press%20%282013%29.pdf|publisher=Pluto Press|isbn=9781849648639|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=91CA6C708BFE15444FE27899217FBA8E}}</ref> While the western part of the Roman Empire fell in 476 CE, the [[Byzantium|eastern part]] would live on for nearly a thousand more years, until 1453 CE.

== History ==

=== Formation ===
The populist general Julius Caesar won the civil war of the [[Roman Republic (509–27 BCE)|Roman Republic]] in 45 BCE but was soon assassinated. [[Mark Antony]] and [[Augustus|Octavian]], the leaders of his faction defeated the pro-Senate opposition of [[Brutus]] and [[Cassius]] but then went to war against each other, with Octavian (renamed Augustus) becoming a military dictator and proclaiming himself the first emperor of Rome.<ref name=":05">{{Citation|author=Neil Faulkner|year=2013|title=A Marxist History of the World: From Neanderthals to Neoliberals|chapter=Ancient Empires|page=45|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacedljwr5izotdclz23o3c5p4di4t3ero3ncbfytip55slhiz4otuls?filename=Neil%20Faulkner%20-%20A%20Marxist%20History%20of%20the%20World_%20From%20Neanderthals%20to%20Neoliberals-Pluto%20Press%20%282013%29.pdf|publisher=Pluto Press|isbn=9781849648639|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=91CA6C708BFE15444FE27899217FBA8E}}</ref>

=== Expansion ===
In 9 CE, Germanic tribes at Teutoborg defeated 30,000 Roman soldiers. Roman expansion slowed sharply after 50 CE and almost entirely ended by the late second century. Rome's last attempt to conquer northern Britain was defeated in 211 by guerrilla warfare. In 378, Goths destroyed the entire field army of the eastern empire in [[Bulgaria|Thrace]] at the Battle of Adrianopole. The late empire became reliant on [[Barbarism|barbarian]] mercenaries from the same groups that Rome was fighting against.<ref name=":0">{{Citation|author=Neil Faulkner|year=2013|title=A Marxist History of the World: From Neanderthals to Neoliberals|chapter=The End of Antiquity|page=48–51|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacedljwr5izotdclz23o3c5p4di4t3ero3ncbfytip55slhiz4otuls?filename=Neil%20Faulkner%20-%20A%20Marxist%20History%20of%20the%20World_%20From%20Neanderthals%20to%20Neoliberals-Pluto%20Press%20%282013%29.pdf|publisher=Pluto Press|isbn=9781849648639|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=91CA6C708BFE15444FE27899217FBA8E}}</ref>

=== Decline and collapse ===
In the mid-fourth century, the Huns moved westward from the Eurasian steppe. They were skilled horse riders and archers and herded cattle, sheep, and goats. When they reached Eastern Europe, they overran the Ostrogoths and drove the Visigoths into the Roman Empire. The Huns forced Gothic [[Peasantry|peasants]] to pay tribute, which allowed them to strengthen their military. [[Attila]] became king of the Huns in 434 and attacked Gaul in 451. Celtic peasants sometimes joined forces with the Huns, but later joined with the landlords because of the Huns' predatory behavior, defeating Attila and sending him back to Eastern Europe where he died two years later.

Between 410 and 476, barbarians gradually took over parts of the [[Western Roman Empire]] until Western Europe was completely divided into various proto-states.<ref name=":0" />

== Mode of production ==
Ancient Rome was a slave society that relied on war for its supply of slaves. The wealthy ruling class lived their whole lives without working and viewed their slaves as subhuman.<ref>{{Web citation|author=[[Richard Becker]]|newspaper=[[Liberation School]]|title=Ancient Greece and Rome: Democracy for the few, slavery for the many|date=2008-05-29|url=https://www.liberationschool.org/ch-3-ancient-greece-and-rome-democracy-for-the-few-slavery-for-the-many/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922122254/https://liberationschool.org/ch-3-ancient-greece-and-rome-democracy-for-the-few-slavery-for-the-many/|archive-date=2020-09-22|retrieved=2022-08-27}}</ref> In the last two centuries of the empire, the slave mode of production began to decline. Population and production decreased and many large estates were broken into smaller ones. Slave owners freed many slaves because they could not profit from their labor and because many slaves intentionally destroyed or damaged the [[means of production]]. These people became small-scale producers called ''coloni'', who later developed into the [[Serf|serfs]] of [[feudalism]].

The Roman Empire was weakened by internal slave revolts and external invasions and eventually collapsed, ending slavery as the dominant mode of production in Europe.<ref>{{Citation|author=Institute of Economics of the Academy of sciences of the USSR|year=1957|title=Political Economy|chapter=The Slave-Owning Mode of Production|page=35–36|pdf=https://revolutionarydemocracy.org/archive/PoliticalEconomy.pdf|city=[[London]]|publisher=Lawrence & Wishart}}</ref>

== References ==
[[Category:Slavery]]
<references />
[[Category:Ancient history]]