4th century

As a means of recording the passage of, the 4th century (per the / and era) was that  which lasted from  to.

Overview
In the West, the early part of the century was shaped by, who became the first Roman emperor to convert to. Gaining sole reign of the empire, he is also noted for re-establishing a single imperial capital, choosing the site of ancient in 330 (over of the current capitals, which had effectively been changed by 's reforms to  in the West, and  in the East) to build the city soon called Nova Roma (New Rome); it was later renamed  in his honor.

The last emperor to control both the eastern and western halves of the empire was. As the century progressed after his death it became increasingly apparent that the empire had changed in many ways since the time of. The two emperor system originally established by Diocletian in the previous century fell into regular practice, and the east continued to grow in importance as a centre of trade and imperial power, while itself diminished greatly in importance due to its location far from potential trouble spots, like Central Europe and the East. Late in the century Christianity became the official state religion, and the empire's old pagan culture began to disappear. General Prosperity was felt throughout this period, but recurring invasions by Germanic tribes plagued the empire from AD onward. These early invasions marked the beginning of the end for the.

According to archaeologists, sufficient archaeological correlates of state-level societies coalesced in the 4th century to show the existence of the (AD 300/400-668) of, , and.

Events



 * : first to adopt  as
 * –:, ends persecution of in the , calls , see also ,  becomes new seat of government
 * : About this time the  begin to invade the.
 * : appear on the  and are allowed entry into the Roman Empire in their flight from the.
 * : . Roman army is defeated by Visigoth cavalry. Emperor is killed.
 * –:, Roman emperor, bans worship, Christianity is made the official religion of the Empire.
 * : in

Significant people

 * , founder of
 * , opponent of Arius
 * Saint, theologian
 * Saint ,
 * , reformer of
 * , famous Christian Church historian
 * , Apostle of Ethiopia
 * , Chinese
 * , Chinese painter
 * , Roman Historian
 * Saint
 * , founder of
 * , apostle of the Goths
 * , King of ancient Korean state who greatly expanded its territory
 * , Chinese poet
 * , Chinese poet

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

 * The was invented in, no later than 322
 * ,, earliest Christian bibles
 * ,, earliest Christian bibles