1. The Roman Empire | Digitaler Ausstellungskatalog

The Roman Empire had been a superpower since the 3rd century BCE. Under Trajan (98–117 CE) the Empire reached its greatest extent, and there were even attempts to appoint the king of Persia from Rome (No. 1). Despite some successes, the Roman drive to expand ultimately reached its limits both at the Barbaricum, the region east of the Rhine and north of the Danube rivers, and at the eastern border against the Persians.

The late Roman monetary system used three coins metals: gold – the most important coin, the solidus (No. 2), continued to be struck into the 12th century, and also the rarer multiples (No. 3), silver (Nos. 4–6) and copper alloys (No. 7). Only in 498 CE did emperor Anastasius (491–518 CE) reintroduce larger copper coins in the Eastern Roman Empire (No. 8).

After the mid-4th century Hunnic rider nomads pushed both into Central Asia and toward Europe. Beginning around 375 CE they triggered the Migration Period by displacing the Germanic tribes before them, who then sought refuge in Roman imperial territory on the Balkan peninsula. The attempt to expel them ended in catastrophe for the Romans; the emperor Valens (364–378 CE) lost his life in the battle of Adrianople (No. 9). Only with difficulty was Theodosius I (379–395 CE) able to restore somewhat stabile conditions (No. 10).

In the 5th century both halves of the Roman state, having split in 395 CE, had to grapple with the Hunnic federation under Attila (r. 434–453), which stretched from the Rhine River to the Ural Mountains. They were able to keep the Huns from plundering the empire only by accepting to pay an enormous tribute. In 447 CE as Attila stood before Constantinople, the Eastern Roman emperor Theodosius II (408–450 CE) (No. 11) had to give him 6,000 pounds of gold (1,950 kg) to make peace in addition to the annual sum of 2,100 pounds (688 kg).

Despite these tremendous resources and unlike their relations in Asia, the European Huns never struck their own coinage.

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In 451 CE the power of the Huns was broken at the battle of the Catalaunian Plains, and the empire of Attila († 453 CE) crumbled as a result. Under Aetius, the general of the Western Roman emperor Valentinianus III (424–455 CE) (No. 12), the Roman side was victorious. Considerable Germanic contingents fought on both sides.

After the final conquest of the Western Roman Empire by Germanic powers in 476 CE, the self-designation Roman continued to be used in the Greek-speaking eastern half of the Roman Empire, which from the late 5th century we commonly refer to as the Byzantine Empire. The Sasanians, who had replaced the Arsacids as the ruling dynasty of Iran already in 224 CE, continued to be termed Persians by contemporaries.

Emperor Justinian I (527–565 CE) (No. 13) was able to reconquer large parts of the Western Roman empire such as Italy, North Africa and areas of Hispania (Spain). At his court in Constantinople, he received various delegations from Central Asia, among them from the Western Turks (showcase 10). The Avars, of Central Asian origin too, appeared on the Balkan peninsula from the middle of the 6th century as a opponents to the Byzantines.

In 626 CE, the Sasanian great king Chosro II (590–628 CE) together with his Avar allies besieged the capital Constantinople, but the emperor Heraclius (610–641 CE) (No. 14) managed to avert danger. Soon they were standing face-to-face with the Muslim Arabs who conquered Egypt in 642 CE, followed by North Africa and Spain. In the 8th century they pushed into France where Charles Martell, the grandfather of Charlemagne, put a stop to their advance at the battle of Tours and Poitiers in 732 CE.

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