Eastern Hemisphere at the beginning of the 4th century CE.Eastern Hemisphere at the end of the 4th century CE.
The4th century was the time period from 301 CE (represented by theRoman numerals CCCI) to 400 CE (CD) in accordance with theJulian calendar. In the West, the early part of the century was shaped byConstantine the Great, who became thefirst Roman emperor to adopt Christianity. Gaining sole reign of the empire, he is also noted for re-establishing a single imperial capital, choosing the site of ancientByzantium in 330 (over the current capitals, which had effectively been changed byDiocletian's reforms toMilan in the West, andNicomedeia in the East) to build the city soon called Nova Roma (New Rome); it was later renamedConstantinople in his honor.
The last emperor to control both the eastern and western halves of the empire wasTheodosius I. As the century progressed after his death, it became increasingly apparent that the empire had changed in many ways since the time ofAugustus. 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 Rome 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.[citation needed] General prosperity was felt throughout this period, but recurring invasions byGermanic tribes plagued the empire from 376[1][2] CE onward. These early invasions marked the beginning of the end for theWestern Roman Empire.
InChina, theJin dynasty, which had united the nation prior in 280, beganrapidly facing trouble by the start of the century due to political infighting, which led to theinsurrections of the northern barbarian tribes (starting theSixteen Kingdoms period), which quickly overwhelmed the empire, forcing the Jin court to retreat and entrench itself in the south past theYangtze river, starting what is known as the Eastern Jin dynasty around 317. Towards the end of the century, Emperor of theFormer Qin,Fu Jiān, united the north under his banner, and planned to conquer the Jin dynasty in the south, so as to finally reunite the land, but was decisively defeated at theBattle of Fei River in 383, causing massive unrest and civil war in his empire, thereby leading to the fall of the Former Qin, and the continued existence of the Eastern Jin dynasty.
According to archaeologists, sufficient archaeological evidence correlates of state-level societies coalesced in the 4th century to show the existence in Korea of theThree Kingdoms (300/400–668 CE) ofBaekje,Goguryeo, andSilla.
Historians of theRoman Empire refer to the "Long Fourth Century" to the period spanning the fourth century proper but starting earlier with the accession of the EmperorDiocletian in284 and ending later with the death ofHonorius in423 or ofTheodosius II in450.[3]
365: Anearthquake with amagnitude of at least eight strikes the EasternMediterranean. The following tsunami causes widespread destruction in Crete, Greece, Libya, Egypt, Cyprus, and Sicily.
376:Visigoths appear on theDanube and are allowed entry into the Roman Empire in their flight from theHuns.
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