The end is near. The Germanic Barbarians are storming the Imperial Palace in Rome. The leader walks into the throne room and decrowns the former emperor Romulus Augustus. The end of any empire is a significant moment in history. The end of the Roman Empire defines history. Over the centuries, although the system of government has changed, the Roman spirit and desire for power remained. The Roman Empire was expansive and powerful; some people think it was too expansive and massive. For the next one hundred years, the central government of the Western Empire was too weak to protect its people. The Empire was made weak because the people were demanding too much from it and enthusiasm and population were declining. Also, it was spread too thinly …show more content…
Western provinces around the Roman Empire copied Italian products like wine and oil, which in turn hurt and weakened Italy’s declining economy. The people were getting poorer, and “in these conditions, public morality steadily declined.” In the past, taxes were levied occasionally, but now taxes were created and levied to cover new expenses to maintain empire’s survival. Food supplies were dwindling, and “Romans were being destroyed by hunger.” Simultaneously, the military was weakening and Rome’s once mighty graspe on Europe was now frail. “The central government steadily lost control of these (Northern) regions, causing the empire to shrink until there was practically nothing left.” As the Empire shrunk, barbarians pushed towards the Italian Peninsula. They “[found] that they had no hostile force to encounter them, [and] became the most cruel of all men,” said the Greek Scholar Procopius of Caesarea, about 25 years after the events. After the death of Emperor Constantine the Great in 337 AD, no peace and stability remained in the Western Empire. The Empire used its remaining military forces to defend the city until the last emperor was easily dispatched off his throne, which unsurprisingly had no immediate impact. Romulus Augustus was overthrown on September 4th, 476 AD, which marked the end of the Western Roman Empire. The city of Rome came full circle; beginning with Romulus …show more content…
The general loss of population and enthusiasm caused Rome to fall because there were not enough people to enlist in the military. Rome lost all of its land and its economy was damaged due to the fact that it could not protect its outer regions with its weakened military. Although the structure of the Empire disintegrated along with the economy, the central government, and borders, the culture within the Empire did not change greatly even after the downfall. The remains, effects, and legacy of the Empire such as the roads and walls were still felt throughout Europe for hundreds of years to follow. The decline and fall of Rome led to the Middle Ages because of the power vacuum they left in Europe. The lesson that the Roman Empire can teach modern countries is that no matter how large and great the country is, it has to be able to maintain its greatness to be
The last reason that caused the fall of Rome was the multiple natural disasters that happened in the year 336 CE. According to the article, it says that,”... the Roman world was shaken by a violent and destructive earthquake...The shores of the Mediterranean were left dry by the sudden retreat of the sea... but the tide soon returned with the weight of an immense flood which severely felt on the coasts of Sicily…” the earthquake and the sudden flood killed about 50,000 people and that was in Alexandria alone. This resulted in a decrease in population and an empire to
The year is 476 A.D. and the Roman Empire has collapsed after being overthrown by barbarians. Looking back, the causes of Rome’s decline can be separated into four categories, social, economic, military, and political. The social aspects of Rome’s fall are the rise of christianity and civil wars. The rise of christianity displaced Rome’s polytheistic roots which viewed the emperor as having a godly status. Pope and church leaders took an increased role in political affairs which further complicated governance. Civil wars also deteriorated the empire. More than 20 men took the throne in only 75 years and the empire was thrust into chaos. The economic aspects of Rome’s fall were high taxes from the government and labor deficit. The roman empire
The first signs came when Rome split into east and west and had virtually become two different states in 395 CE. In 378 the Romans tried to stop a Visigoth revolt and were crushed in battle, this lead to a series of sackings of Rome by the Visigoths in 401 and the Vandals in 455. There are numerous theories as to why Western Rome fell some include, Christianity’s emphasis on a spiritual kingdom undermined Roman military virtues and patriotism. Rome was unable to achieve a working political system. Due to lack of man power the Roman army wasn’t able to fend off hordes of people invading Italy and
A reason why the fall of Rome happened is because of the constant wars they were having and the heavy amount of military spending. All of the constant warfare that was happening required heavy military spending, the Romans army became very over well stretched because they kept on needing more and more soldiers. As they kept needing more and more soldiers, they began to let other foreigns join the army.
The Roman Empire was the most powerful Empire during Antiquity. It is traditionally considered to have “fallen” in 476, when Rome’s last emperor was deposed. Many theories have been presented as to why it fell, from unsound economic and social policies to mass lead poisoning. The actual cause of Rome’s fall is the result of many factors, but was mainly caused by Rome’s poor economic policies.
For a long period of time, Rome seemed like an unstoppable empire. It conquered the majority of the land surrounding it, including Greece, Turkey, Iraq, and many of its other neighboring countries. It seemed as though Rome would conquer the entire world, as it was the center of it, until it began to decline in 476 C.E. The very aspects that made it so successful were the ones that caused its collapse. Various political, religious, and economic reasons caused its downfall. The fact that the entire economy of Rome collapsed and money became worthless was a major reason for the empire’s collapse. In addition, the loss of a common religion and lack of efficient ruling in relation to its vast territory affected the empire. The Roman Empire did not become so successful in a short period of time, and so its decline did not just happen overnight. Over several years all of these different aspects together caused the fall of the Roman Empire.
The Romans were on one of the greatest people of all. They had power, wealth, and even a half of the world. They built one of the strongest and vast empire that world has ever seen. They came from nothing to something awesome. It started of as a city and ended up being one of the greatest empire of all. This essay is going to focus on the Roman Empire from the rise to the fall and the government, architecture, mythology, Family Structure, and Food of the Romans.
In 146 BCE, Rome had conquered its arch-nemesis, the Carthaginians, and took control of all their lands and possessions, which allowed the Romans to expand through most of Europe. The apparent conclusion derived from this success would be that Rome was now unquestionably the strongest Empire in the world and that any sort of decline would be unimaginable. However, upon closer inspection, it would seem that the newly conquered lands put Rome in a position of weakness rather than strength, almost as if it was marching toward its own death. In fact, Backman states that, "The problem was that the Romans had not exactly planned for their success. Their political system, designed to govern a compact land-based republic, unexpectedly found itself in awkward possession of a vast, scattered, sea-based empire" (183). Unfortunately, the Romans lacked a clear vision of how to integrate the newly conquered lands into their empire. The lack of preparation only grew worse with each passing day, and soon enough, it became an impossible task to solve the issue. Rome entered a phase of economic decline, which twisted the already miserable lives of citizens to an even harsher reality. More specifically, the Romans of lower class, who made up the large majority of the population, and who were also generally denied of basic needs, found themselves in the position of unemployability. This is evident in the following
One of the most common causes of the decline of an empire results from having weak military power and martial spirit. In order for an empire to be successful, that empire must present a strong will to fight or sacrifice property and life in order to defend its state. If an empire does not possess this characteristic, it often will quickly diminish. For example, the Roman Empire became successful because of the willingness of the males to defend the state. Shortly after, the males lost their willingness to defend and the empire had to recruit unreliable mercenaries to fight in war. Unlike the successful army of the past, these mercenaries did not have true loyalty to Rome. Because of constant warfare, the Romans had heavy military spending. The Roman Empire had become too large to control effortlessly. Families and soldiers in parts of the Roman Empire adopted local customs. The Roman Empire was made up not only of natives from the Italian peninsula, but it was also made up of barbarians from the conquered lands. The barbarians were very knowledgeable when it came to Roman warfare and military tactics. Corruption became widespread throughout the Em...
The decline and fall of the Roman Empire is a scholarly article written by Justin Ott about the Roman Empire and the events leading up to its fall. The article mostly focuses on the military and economy of Rome in the third century A.D. It lists in the beginning a few of the different theories people have of how Rome fell, including led poisoning and the spread of Christianity. The article seems to want to disprove these theories, showing how they are not the main causes for the collapse of Rome. “Gibbon’s arguments in these sections can be accurately summarized as “the insensible penetration of Christianity in the empire fatally undermined the genius of a great people.” The problem with this conclusion is two-fold. First of all, this explanation is too narrow as it is difficult to believe one single factor brought down the empire. More importantly, it is clear that the Eastern Roman Empire was by far more Christian than the West, therefore if Christianity was behind the fall, the East should have fallen first.” The article’s audience appears to be historians, or those who are interested in history, or just the Roman Empire. It
The fall of the Roman Empire happened after a extensive history of power. History’s biggest empire collapsed after about 1000 years. This occurred because Rome changed for the worst during the end of its time of power. Rome had 147 emperors throughout its time in control. There were also the good and corrupt times of Rome which all happened before the unexpected fall of the biggest empire in history. There are precise reasons for why the Roman Empire fell. The reasons the Roman Empire fell are that Christianity became the religion in Rome, the empire became too big, and overtime the empire decayed.
The Roman Empire was incredibly large and successful. In the prime of the empire population reached up to 56.8 million people. The land they conquered amasses to an outrageous 1 million square miles. Their influence is so great that even now people can see their imprint in architecture, law, and even helping spread Christianity, the world’s most populous religion. These amazing facts also begs a question. How did one of the world’s greatest civilization fall? Well, the fall of Roman Empire in 476 ACE was aided by ineffective rulers, the crumbling economy, and the invasion of the Germanic Tribes.
There were many reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire. Each one interweaved with the other. Many even blame the initiation of Christianity in 337 AD by Constantine the Great as the definitive cause while others blame it on increases in unemployment, inflation, military expenditure and slave labour while others blame it on the ethical issues such the decline in morals, the lack of discipline of the armies and the political corruption within the Empire. Three major contributions that led to the collapse of the once great empire were: the heavy military spending in order to expand the Empire, the over-reliance on slave labour which led to an increase in unemployment, and the political corruption and abuse of power by the Praetorian Guard leading to the unfair selection of many disreputable emperors and the assassination of those not favoured by the Guard.
The Roman Empire was one of the largest in history. At its height in 117 A.D.,it spanned from Iberia all the way to the Caspian Sea, covering over 5 million square kilometers. The Roman Empire left behind a vast legacy, consisting of art, architecture, and religion. However, like all empires, the Roman empire fell. Usually, when people think of the fall of the Roman Empire, they think of the fall of the Western Roman Empire, formed after Diocletian split the Roman Empire in 284 A.D. The three main reasons that the Western Roman Empire fell were economic problems, flaws in the military, and barbarian invasions.
As the Roman Empire shifted its center of power to the East, Rome lost much of the prestige and protection it had previously enjoyed. With Constantinople as the new seat of the empire, the West was left to stand alone, often defenseless.4 Barbarians attacked Rome in AD 410, and Rome found little help from Constantinople. With the Western Empire essentially abandoned, disease, poverty and instability were rampant. Many structures had fallen into disrepair, and famine ravaged the land. Most government officials had left Rome, leaving the churc...