Did Rome Fall To Barbarians Essay

For Augustine, the question is did Rome fall to barbarians because it renounced paganism and embraced Christianity, or is it simply a coincidence in which even if the opposite had been true, the result would have been the same? Augustine takes up this issue in de Civitate Dei and I agree with his argument that Christianity was not responsible for the fall of Rome. Augustine uses a series of reductio ad absurdum to defend Christianity against claims that it is responsible for the downfall of Rome. In Book IV, 3, Augustine asks “what reason . . . there is in wishing to glory in the greatness and extent of the empire, when you cannot point out the happiness of men who are always rolling . . . in blood” (IV, 3, 111). He furthers the comparison by comparing a rich, violent man (Rome) with poor, virtuous man (Christianity); he then asks who would not prefer to be the virtuous man and thus proves that Christianity is not responsible for the sacking of Rome.

“He . . . Himself gives earthly kingdoms both to good and bad . . . according to the order of things and times, which hidden from us, but thoroughly known to Himself” (IV, 33, 140). With this, Augustine sees Rome’s downfall as part of God’s mysterious plan and Christianity is not responsible as it could not delay nor hasten Rome’s sacking. For Rome’s Eastern decisions, I think through Frankopan’s writing it is clear that in attempting preservation, Rome actually replaced itself. “United by a common interest in repelling the barbarian hordes, Persia and Rome now formed a remarkable alliance (Frankopan 47); this alliance shows that Rome is no longer able to protect itself by itself and thus signals the hastening decline of