Western Civilization I / Unit 8 WC1 0726 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Sequencing the Late Empire, 235 to 493
The idea
The exam gives four late-imperial events and asks their order across two and a half centuries. The method is three anchors: two eighty-four, Diocletian; three twelve, Constantine; four seventy-six, Odoacer. Before two eighty-four is crisis; between two eighty-four and three twelve is recovery; between three twelve and four seventy-six is the Christian empire under pressure; after is the kingdoms.
In practice
Place seven events. Aurelian's walls in two seventy: crisis. The price edict in three oh one and the persecution in three oh three: recovery. Nicaea in three twenty-five and Constantinople's dedication in three thirty: Christian empire, early. Adrianople in three seventy-eight and Theodosius's decree in three eighty: Christian empire, late, in that order. Alaric in four ten and the Vandals in four fifty-five: pressure becoming collapse. Theodoric in four ninety-three: kingdoms. Read: walls, edict, persecution, Nicaea, Constantinople, Adrianople, Theodosius, Alaric, Vandals, Odoacer, Theodoric.
Where people slip
The trap is the persecution and the conversion: three oh three and three twelve are nine years apart under different emperors, and the Edict of Milan in three thirteen follows the vision, not the council. Nicaea in three twenty-five comes after all three.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
- 0701The Crisis of the Third Century: Twenty-Six Emperors
- 0703Diocletian's Tetrarchy, Dioceses, Army, and Prices
- 0705Constantine: 312, 313, the Solidus, and the First Christian Emperor
- 0715Nicaea, 325, and the Creed
- 0722The Huns, Adrianople, 378, and Alaric's Sack, 410
- 0724476: Odoacer, Theodoric, and the Kingdoms
Unlocks
- Nothing yet depends on this.
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