The Sack of Rome (August 24th)

In the fifth century AD, Rome was in quite a bit of trouble. Barbarian tribes around the Roman Empire were starting to get stronger. The Huns attacked from the East, and the Visigoths attacked from the North. Eventually, Roman Emperor, Theodosius I, had to sign a treaty with the Visigoths. The Visigoths all became Roman citizens and fought as part of the Roman army. Alaric I, the King of the Visigoths, rode along with Theodosius, riding into battle against the Goths and the Huns, but all this changed when Theodosius died.

After Theodosius died, the peace between the Romans and the Visigoths quickly disintegrated, leading to the the top general, Flavius Stilicho, chasing the Visigoths out of Italy. When Eastern Roman Emperor Arcadius died, Honorius, the Western Emperor, decided to go to Rome. Stilicho forbade his leaving Rome and suggested that he go instead. Rumors spread that Stilicho wanted to put his own son on the throne. Olympius, a Roman politician, staged a mutiny within the army and convinced Honorius that Stilicho was a threat.

Stilicho was soon executed, and the Roman Army was soon in chaos.Much violence broke out against the slaves and barbarian soldiers residing in Italy. Many of the persecuted people fled from Italy and sided with Alaric. Alaric's army grew by several thousand, and he was soon able to attack Rome.

In 408, the Visigoths attacked the great city of Rome, and starvation and diseases rapidly spread through the city. Alaric was given 5,000 pounds of gold and 30,000 pounds of silver along with silk and pepper in order to stop the siege.

Encouraged by Pope Innocent I, Honorius decided to make an alliance with the Visigoths. When Alaric demanded the title of Magister Militium, Honorius refused and sent Alaric an insulting letter. When Alaric intercepted a force of soldiers being secretly brought into Rome, he was furious and laid siege to Rome once more.When starvation returned, the Roman Senate surrendered again, and Alaric pressured them to appoint a new military leader.

When a treaty was almost reached between Honorius and Alaric, a Gothic commander allied with Honorius attacked Alaric. Alaric defeated the Gothic raiders and traveled to Rome, laying siege to the city for a third time. On August 24, 410, slavesopened Romes gate and Visigoths looted the city for three days.

This was the first time Rome had been sacked in 800 years, and it showed Rome's growing weakness and vulnerability. The eternal city was falling. In less than seventy years from the sacking of Rome, the last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus, would be dethroned.

The Coronation of Hadrian (August 8th)

Emperor Hadrian

In the year AD 117, the Emperor Trajan was in Selinus, or modern day Turkey. During the past nineteen years, Trajan had conquered the regions of Parthia and Dacia and had started building programs in both Italy and Spain. Trajan is most famous, though, for his tolerance of Christians. This fact earned him a place in Dante's Paradiso as the only pre-Christian Roman emperor. While in Turkey, Trajan had a stroke and died at the age of 63.

On August 8th, 117, Hadrian, Trajan's adoptive son, inherited the throne. Hadrian's method of ruling was to improve rather than invade. Hadrian is responsible for many of the most recognizable buildings in all of the Roman Empire.

Among his works is the Pantheon in Rome. Though it was constructed more than a century earlier, Hadrian had the Pantheon renovated, adding the 141 foot diameter dome to the structure. Hadrian also constructed the Castel' Sant'Angelo and a villa at Tivoli, both of which still stand today.

Hadrian is most famous for his wall, which began construction in AD 122. In the north of Britain, the Picts and the Scots continuously raided cities in the Roman-controlled region of the island. To halt these raids, Hadrian began the construction of a wall, known as Hadrian's wall. This wall was ten feet wide, fifteen feet high, and stretch 73 miles from one coast of Britain to the next.. The wall also had a fort every five miles. Hadrian's Wall remains the larges construction project in Great Britain and it was the first barrier to set a distinct line between what would become England and Scotland. Hadrian continued building until his death in AD 138, at the age of 62.

Diocletian (#89)

Background

Diocles was born in Dalmatia around the year 244. Diocles came from a family of low status. Little is known about the first forty years of Diocletian's life, though many suspect he held a military rank of some sort. In January of 284, the brothers Numerian and Carinus took control over the Roman Empire from their father. Unfortunately, Numerian died later in that year. Numerian, at the time of his death, was coming back from combat in Persia. When he died, his army voted on who should be succeed him as Emperor, and Diocles was chosen. After being chosen as Emperor, Diocles changed his name to Diocletianus, making his full name Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus. Toady, we know him as Diocletian.

Gaining Power

After Numerian's army had named Diocletian as emperor, Carinus was not to happy. To Carinus, Diocletian was a usurper opposing Carinus's rule, so Carinus decided to meet Diocletian in battle. Although Carinus had a stronger army and he had control over the Roman Senate, he was unpopular. Carinus and Numerian were the sons of the unpopular Emperor Carus, and neither the sons nor the father were too popular with the people. Diocletian and Carinus met in battle at the Battle of Margus, during which most of Carinus's generals defected to Diocletian. When Diocletian won the battle, both the western and eastern armies accepted Diocletian as the Augustus, or ruler.

Dividing Power

When Diocletian came to power, Rome was filled with problems. In the East, Rome was on the brink of war with Persia and the west faced constant threat from barbarian tribes. On top of that, the entire empire seemed to be on the brink of revolt. Diocletian decided that the job of Emperor was too big for one person, so Diocletian named Maximian as co-ruler of the Roman Empire in 285. Diocletian decided to rule over the East, because that part of the Empire was the more stable of the two. Maximian was assigned the Western Roman Empire. It was this division that divided the empire in two and allowed the Byzantine Empire to survive when the Western Roman Empire fell. Unfortunately, even though the empire divided, Rome's situation worsened.  Persia had declared war on the Roman Empire and the ex-general Carausius had proclaimed himself Augustus and spurred Britain and Northern Gaul into open revolt. Though both Diocletian and Maximian had begun to retake Gaul and were winning the war in Persia, they needed more hands to deal with conflicts, so Maximian took Flavius Constantius as his second in command in 293, and Diocletian did the same with Galerius. Though Constantius and Galerius were below Diocletian and Maximian, all four had their own independent army and were pretty much independent from one another.  

Later Rule

The Tetrarchy with Diocletian, Maximian, Constantius, and Galerius added great benefit to the Empire. While Galerius was fighting battles in Persia, Diocletian was quelling revolts in the Balkans. Though this organization made the job of Diocletian easier, it also gave him time to persecute Christians. Diocletian and Galerius created a lot of persecutionary edicts towards Christians along with killing several of the Christian clergy and razing several Christian churches. Diocletian also issued an arrest for all Christian clergy. The persecutions, luckily, were for the most part unsuccessful. Most Christians escaped punishment, and people of other religions were mainly unsympathetic to the persecution. Also, Maximian and COnstantius did not apply most of the persecutionary edicts, leaving Western Christians unharmed. In 311, Galerius repealed the edicts, stating that they had failed to bring Christians back to traditional religion.

The End

In 304, Diocletian had just finished dedicating the opening of a circus when he collapsed. Diocletian's health was deteriorating, so on May 1, 305, Diocletion brought his generals, officers, and representatives to the hill, five kilometers out of Nicomedia, where he was appointed as Emperor after the death of Numerian. On that hill, he announced that he would be abdicating from his role as Augustus. Diocletian retired to Dalmatia where he created a palace for himself. After Maximian retired, Diocletian watched the political situation turn to chaos. The Tetrarchy collapsed and Maximian was forced to commit suicide after his third attempt to reclaim the throne. Diocletian died on December 3, 311, soon after Maximian. Diocletian made our list because he made the division in the Roman Empire that probably saved it for several hundred years and kept the Byzantine Empire alive after the fall of Rome in the West.

Tokugawa Ieyasu (#104)

Childhood

Matsudaira Takechiyo was born on January 31, 1543 in Okazaki Castle in Japan. Takechiyo was the son of Matsudaira Hirotada, the daimyo, or territorial ruler, of the Matsudaira clan. Takechiyo's mother was the daughter of Mizuno Tadamasa, a samurai lord. Takechiyo's mother and father later split, and Takechiyo lived with his father. The Matsudaira family split over whether to become a vassal of the Imagawa or Oda clan. Hirotada chose to side with the Imagawa clan, but in 1548, the Oda clan invaded Mikawa, and Hirotada asked the Imagawa clan for help. To get help, Hirotada agreed to send Takechiyo to Imagawa Yoshimoto, the leader of the Imagawa clan, but Oda Nobuhide, the leader of the Oda clan, learned of the agreement and kidnapped Takechiyo when he was only six. Nobuhide threatened to kill Takechiyo if Hirotada remained with the Imagawa clan, but Hirotada left his son in the hands of the Oda Clan. Nobuhide didn't kill Takechiyo and held him in Nagoya for three years instead. In 1549, both Hirotada and Nobuhide died of natural causes. With Oda Nobuhide dead, the Oda clan was weakened, and Imagawa Sessai, the military leader of the Imagawa clan, lay siege to the castle of Oda Nobuhiro, Nobuhide's son. Sessai offered to give up the siege if Nobuhiro handed over Takechiyo to the Imagawa clan.

Daimyo

When Takechiyo came of age in 1556, he changed his name to Matsudaira Jirosaburo Motonobu, and when he married his first wife a year later, he changed his name to Matsudaira Kurandonosuke Motoyasu. When Motoyasu was returned to Mikawa, the Imagawa ordered him to fight the Oda. In 1560, the Oda clan, led by Oda Nobunaga, defeated the Imagawa at the Battle of Okehazama and killed Yoshitomo. Now Motoyasu (or Takechiyo) decided to ally with the Oda clan. Motoyasu improved the state of the Matsudaira clan and also captured much of Mikawa. In 1567, Motoyasu changed his name (again) to Tokugawa Ieyasu, claiming descent from the Minamoto clan. Ieyasu led a campaign with the Oda, conquering much of Jaan, including Kyoto in 1568. When Oda Nobunga was assassinated by Akechi Mitsuhide, Ieyasu defeated and killed Mitsuhide at the Battle of Yamazaki. Now, in the Matsudaira area, only the Tokugawa and the Hojo clans remained. The other major clan in Japan at the time was the Toyotomi clan, led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In 1584, the Oda and Tokogawa clans went to war with Hideyoshi, and though the Toyotomi clan was strong, there was no clear winner and peace had to be settled through negotiations. Hideyoshi and Ieyasu, the two most powerful daiymos, then joined forces, administrating from the same city and fighting the Hojo clan together. The two did, however, rule independently, and fought certain wars alone, including the Toyotomi campaign in Korea. When Hideyoshi died, Toyotomi Hideyori took over, and Ieyasu began to make alliances with anti-Toyotomi clans, and eventually, he attacked Osaka castle, Hideyori's residence. Ishida Mitsunari, the most powerful of Hideyori's allies, became the center of the conflict, and most of the daiymos of Japan took one side or the other. On October 21, 1600, Mitsunari, Hideyori, and Ieyasu met in at the Battle of Sekigahara. With the Tokugawa victory, the Toyotomi clan was defeated and Ieyasu became the leader of all of Japan.

Shogunate and Retirement

In 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu received the title of shogun from Emperor Go-Yozei. This meant that Ieyasu was now the military leader of Japan. When Ieyasu recieved this title, he began the Edo period under which the Tokugawa shogunate would be in power. When Ieyasu had established the Tokugawa shogunate's power, Ieyasu abdicated, and Ieyasu's son, Tokugawa Hidetada, became shogun in 1605. Now retired, Ieyasu became known as Ogosho Ieyasu, and he still remained powerful after his retirement. He became an ambassador, supervising diplomatic meetings with the Netherlands, Spain, and the Roman Catholic Church. Ieyasu also wrote the Buke Shohatto to establish the future of the shogunate. Ieyasu also was still active militarily, leading the Siege of Osaka, to take the rest of the land owned by Toyotomi Hideyori, who survived the Battle of Sekigahara. 

The End

Ieyasu died in 1616, at the age of 73, probably of cancer or syphilis. After his death, Ieyasu was given the name Tosho Daigongen, or the 'Great Gongen, Light of  the East.' Tokugawa Ieyasu is on our list because he was the man who unified all of Japan and started the most powerful shogunate in Japanese history. He is also on our list because he has more names than any man I have ever heard of.