Did Western Roman Empire Done Differently To Delay Or Prevent Its Collapse?

What could the Western Roman Empire have done differently to delay or prevent its collapse? (1800-2000 words)

Synthesis

By taking measures to ingrain respect for the Emperor and civilians in the legion, and decreasing personality cults among generals the Empire could have prevented many civil wars and thus remained strong enough to defend their lands and at the very least delay their collapse.

Introduction:

Paragraph 1: Rome was weakened due to constant civil wars started by legion generals

To be able to determine what the Western Roman Empire could have done differently to delay its collapse, it first needs to be decided how it collapsed in the first place. The Roman Empire peaked in territory size in 117 AD, spanning from Britain to Africa

and the Middle East.This didn’t last long, as the empire quickly began losing territory to the neighbouring tribes, who were referred to as Barbarians by the Romans.

The empire continued to contract as it lost territory until it was too weak to defend its capital city, Rome. A major reason for this decline was the Roman Legion’s weakness. The Legion was subject to constant civil wars between different generals, causing the army to be stuck in perpetual weakness. Every time the army recovered, a powerful general would sense an opportunity and claim the title of Emperor, igniting a civil war in the process. Over the course of the Roman Empire's life, it went through a total of seven civil wars, each one crippling the Empire’s army, infrastructure, and wealth. Because of this, the Empire was unable to defend its lands from invaders. Infighting among generals would weaken the army, allowing barbarians to take land,

concessions of territory to invading barbarians further weakened the Empire as it lost sources of income and resources, all while the civil wars still continued. This process made the decline of the Empire and the following Fall of Rome inevitable. If the Empire had been able to prevent these civil wars it would have been much better equipped militarily, financially and structurally to defend its lands from neighbouring barbarians and at the very least slow down or delay its decline and eventual fall.

Paragraph 2: Soldiers were loyal to their generals over Rome
The reason that Rome suffered many civil wars and rogue generals was that soldiers were always loyal not to Rome, but to their generals instead.

The legionnaires of the Roman Empire were almost entirely landless plebeians, so their success rested entirely on their generals shoulders. If a Roman soldier’s general was unsuccessful, so would the soldier. Legionnaires had no wealth or power of their own, so when their generals would declare themselves the Emperor of Rome, their soldiers would have no other option but to follow and fight for their general. If a soldier refused to fight for their rogue general they would either be killed by the rest of the general’s forces, or they would have to abandon the army and attempt to survive alone, with no money, resources, or help, and likely stranded far from Rome or any other major settlements. Another reason soldiers would almost always follow their generals no matter what was due to the development of personality cults among the army. When a Roman joined the legion as a soldier they were assigned a general and they stayed with that general until they died or retired. This made it incredibly easy for some generals to build a cult of personality among their forces, and soldiers were much more loyal to the general they had fought beside for years than an Emperor they’d never met, or the city of Rome which many soldiers had never even seen before as they had come from the surrounding villages or tribes, many not even being from Roman

territory at all. If the Roman legion could have found a way to prevent soldiers developing loyalty to their generals while simultaneously fostering loyalty among soldiers to the greater Empire of Rome and it’s Emperor, they would have significantly decreased the amount of civil wars, possibly preventing them altogether and therefore have a strong enough army to protect their lands from invading barbarians.

Paragraph 3: Civilian control of the military
From the information discussed in the last two paragraphs it is clear that the Roman Empire fell due to an army weakened by civil wars, which were caused by soldiers loyalty to generals over the empire of Rome. So the question “What could the Roman Empire have done differently to delay or prevent its collapse” becomes “How could the Roman Empire have fostered loyalty to Rome among its soldiers and discouraged loyalty to individual generals?”. One of the main strategies the Roman Empire could have implemented to prevent the possibility of rogue generals could have been increased civilian control of the military. This is a tactic used by many modern nations, including the US, which has one of the most powerful militaries in the world, to prevent rogue generals. In the US, the military is controlled by the President, who is a civilian, and the Department of Defense which both oversees and manages the military is controlled by a mostly civilian bureaucracy with a civilian Secretary of Defense in charge. Respect for civilian leadership is strongly ingrained into military training and culture. There are also more direct methods for civilians to keep the military in check. For example, the military doesn’t appoint or promote its own officers, the President does that. For promotions to some of the higher military ranks the permission of the Senate is also required, and the civilian leadership does occasionally go against the recommendations of the military, proving this practice is not just a formality. As a result of this every officer in every level of the military owes their job to the civilians they serve. This could have been achieved in the Roman Empire by handing over a lot of control of the military to the Senate, which was made up of civilians. The Emperor could have implemented a similar program to the US had they thought of it, with a separate Department of Defense made up of Roman citizens that managed and oversaw the military in the same way the US Department of Defense does. One huge factor in this is the military budget. In the US and many other modern nations, the military does not control its own budget, the civilian government does. This makes it incredibly difficult for any potential rogue generals to last as they would have no way of paying their soldiers. In the Roman Empire it was the opposite. Generals were extremely wealthy due to their exploits in the field, as they would often raid their enemies and keep the spoils for themselves. Generals also kept large surpluses of supplies and gold in order to pay their soldiers