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Western Roman Empire

Western Roman Empire

7.6
The western part of ancient Rome that lasted from 395 to 476
  • proper noun
translation icon : Imperio Romano de Occidente
  • The boundaries of the Western Roman Empire included much of Western Europe, significantly shaping its historical landscape.

But one of the things that Theodoric was trying to do was put back together a Western Roman Empire.

Examples

  • Except for the substitution of bellows for piston pumps, which was done around the second century A.D., the organ continued essentially unchanged until the end of the Western Roman Empire.

    Academic text (2005)
  • In 476, with the killing of Romulus Augustulus by the barbarians, the by then moribund Western Roman Empire officially collapsed.

    Academic text (2012)
  • Much later, after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.

    Blog text (31)
  • More generally, it reflects the fact that the fall of the Western Roman Empire was a process, not a moment, an era, not an event.

  • These hunts continued for another century, outlasting the Western Roman Empire itself.

  • Rome only had one. The crisis of the third century, and finally the later total collapse of the Rhine frontier in the 5th century, did lead to a major demographic regression in the Western Roman Empire.

    Blog text (14)
  • Europe in the Early Middle Ages was marked by large-scale migrations and invasions that resulted in the establishment of new political units on the territory of the former Western Roman Empire.

    Blog text (16)
  • Upon the destruction of the western Roman Empire, the church in the West was a major factor in preserving classical civilizations; establishing monasteries, and sending missionaries to the people of far northern Europe... as far as Ireland, in the North.

  • The fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD marked the end of ancient Rome and the beginning of the Middle Ages.

  • Historians often debate the causes of the decline of the Western Roman Empire, which faced numerous invasions.

Synonyms

Western Empire
vsWestern Roman Empire
8.1

The western part of the Roman Empire after its split in 395 that ended in 476

uses AD dating rather than CE in the same description

Surface Forms

Morphology

western + Roman + empire

The meaning is fully compositional: 'western' specifies the geographic portion of the 'Roman Empire', so a learner who knows 'western', 'Roman', and 'empire' can infer it refers to the western part of the Roman Empire. The referent is a straightforward modification of a noun phrase (a proper-name designator) and similar constructions occur across languages, so no special idiomatic knowledge is required.

Etymology

Western Roman Empire comes from when the Roman world was split in 395 into two parts. It means the western half of the Roman Empire that lasted until it 'fell' in 476, so the name refers to that western half after the split.