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Decline and fall of the roman empire summary
Why the roman empire decay
Decline and fall of the roman empire summary
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The golden age for the western Roman empire has long passed. Rome suffered a series of problem that would eventually lead to its demise. Rome was hit with a barrage of political and economic problems along crushing disease and the threat of foreign invasion. The is how the once great superpower finally came to its knees. The Roman political system was slowly starting to dissolve .Several unfit greedy rulers came to power using Rome's resources to their own personal gain. They usually came to power through inheritance and lack the ability to rule. Rome also did not have a way to replace their emperors if they were killed. This led to the assassination of emperors by the Praetorian guard. The guards auctioned off the throne to the highest …show more content…
bidder. This political instability led to civil war with legions fighting legions. The legions fought because they wanted to put their guy in power. This stability also brought civil unrest and eventually citizen revolt. The people revolted because of poor living conditions and increasing high taxes. The once great Roman economy starting to crumble. The Roman economy hurt from skyrocketing taxes because the legions demanded higher salaries. Demand for more goods led Rome into importing more than the exporting, leaving them with debt they could not pay off. High tariffs were put on imported goods to help the economy, but it only stunted Rome's economic growth. Trading also go harder for the Romans , with pirates stealing their goods, on land and in the sea. Before, Rome got its gold through conquest but now its border were fixed and there was a shortage of gold. This lead to less gold in the coins and less coins being produced. Inflation skyrocketed make the denari’s value prumit. Instead of exchanging money, people started to barter, which limited the flow of money. At this time there was a famine that wiped out the Roman crops. This caused cause financial hardships for the farmers and merchants so they migrated to the cities in search of money. Diseases plagues the cities of the empire, killing tens of thousands. In the Roman cities overpopulation is a huge issue, bringing pollution, unsanitary living conditions, illness and death.
Due to lead pipes, eating utensils and dishware, lead poisoning was a major cause of death in the cities. The Bubonic plague or the Black Death was a strain of malaria that ravage the empire and was a huge part of Rome's downfall. Attila the Hun avoided an attack on Rome in fear of retracting the deadly disease. The final blow that brought the western Roman to its knees was dealt by foreign Invasion. The empire was just to massive , so to protect the empire, Rome used natural borders, like Rhine and Danube rivers. But Rome did not have enough legionnaires to guard and control their borders. As the Roman legions weakened Rome sought more loyal warriors so they hired Germanic mercenaries, but this decision proved a fatal mistake after they were betrayed. The Roman legions were so caught up in their salaries and control over the throne that they lost focus on the enemy and that would lead to the invasion of Rome by the Germanic tribes. A crippling tactic used by the Germanic tribes was destroying the life line of Rome's cities. By destroying the aqueducts it left the Roman people with no fresh water. Crossing the rivers when they were frozen was another tactic used for invading Rome. In 410 CE chief Alaric and his Germanic allies massive a grueling blow when they invaded and burned
Rome. Rome at its peak was one of the most dominant and influential empires in all of history, but the once mighty empire was dragged down by their own ambishions. Their down fall was caused by political problem, economic hardships,and crushing dieses, and deadly forign invaders.
The government officials in Rome were military soldiers, who decided they were so important that they had authority to pick the next emperor of Rome. “...the elite bodyguards of the emperor, led to political corruption and grew to such an extent that this massive troop of soldiers decided on whether an emperor should be disposed of and who should become the new emperor!(Tribune...
First off, the foreign invasions were a primary reason of Rome’s fall because they invaded and pillaged many places in the roman empire and caused some emperors deaths. One of the tribes that had invaded much of rome was the Huns. In document C it states that they were absolutely wild and very destructive. They are completely ignorant of right and wrong and are fired with an overwhelming desire to seize the property of others so we can assume they had done quite a lot of damage to the areas that they had invaded. Their invasions took place in the north east part of the roman Empire during the 370 CE to the 451 CE.
Rome was once one of the world's greatest empire until around 200 BCE when Rome started to crumble. The Fall of Rome did not happen suddenly, it took about 1100 years to take place. The first two centuries as an empire were named the "Pax Romana", which meant the time of Roman peace. The Romans were living the life, without a worry in the world. So how and why did Rome start to collapse, if the empire was was doing so grand and magnificent? To answer that question, the primary reasons that Rome started to decline were that the Romans had difficulty with their government which caused social problems/decay, their military was falling behind on their duties and became indolent, and natural disasters.
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
During the last century of the Roman republic, the system of government was drastically changed and eventually fell apart, not only because of Marius and his military reforms, but also because of the dictatorship and proscriptions of Sulla, seven consulships of Marius, political alliances of the first and second triumvirates and the growing corruption and ineptitude of the senate.
prices on goods. There were many things that brought Rome to its down fall but the biggest one was the violence and the ruthless ambition of men such as Marius, Sulla, and of course Julius Caesar. That ultimately destroyed the Roman republic.
Since its beginning the Roman Empire has been struggling to be in control of its surroundings. However, it took over 500 years for the decline of this powerful empire. Historians have argued different factors such as the migrations of new groups for its unexpected disintegration. But, what were the real factors of its decline? Also, what is the most important factor that lead to this empire to its end? The Roman Empire, a marvelous city, was disintegrated because of the loss of traditional values, economic troubles with overreliance on slavery and military overspending caused by its overexpansion.
Some people believe that immigration in the 1900’s was a good thing, however, they would be wrong. The United States government should have restricted the immigrants around that time. Some reasons are the population, the taking of new jobs and lowering wages, and diseases spreading quickly. These all factored importantly into why they should not have been allowed in.
...attacked Western Rome, such as very weak military due to poverty of the Western Empire. The soldiers were no longer loyal to the army and their emperor. There weren't many that would risk their lives for the empire. Now there were many foreign soldiers who served for pay, that made it that much harder to be able to hold a large army. There wasn't the kind of discipline they had in the army before.
A large reason why Rome fell was because its population began to drop significantly which then led to many economic issues. A decline in population meant that
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...
After the conclusion of the Gauls sacking Rome, Rome became obsessed with the security of their empire and acutely aware of any and all potential threats. “Following the sack by the Gauls, the Romans were frightened by strong neighbors and sometimes made preemptive strikes against peoples they believed were becoming too powerful” (Kidner, 129). Rome became a walled city that would not let any foreign soldiers through its gates from the conclusion of the sacking in 390 B.C. until 410 A.D., earning it the nickname of the Eternal City. The Roman mantra of Lex Fetiale, which prohibited Rome from going to war unless under siege or asked for assistance, was suddenly much easier to justify than before.
All empires must come to an end. The Mongols, Ottomans, and Holy Roman Empires all don’t exist anymore. Even, the United Stated of America will come to its end in one point in time. Everything that goes up must come down. Even, Rome, one of the world’s greatest civilizations. To summarize, The Roman Empire fell because of ineffective leaders, the crumbling economy, and invasions by the Germanic Tribes.
In order for the Romans to invade and conquer other provinces, they had to spend heavily on their legions. The Roman armies and supply lines became over-stretched resulting in thousands of soldiers being recruited and deployed from Rome into other territories as invaders or defenders. They also depended on soldiers to defend the borders of the lands they had conquered from barbarian attacks which resulted in the increased manufacturing of weapons and more money being spent on soldiers. High military spending left the Romans with very limited resources for other essential government projects such as the building of more public houses and the development of roads and aqueducts as well as leading to inflation. The over-expenditure on the military led the citizens of Rome to refuse the policies and laws enforced by the government and riots were commonplace in Rome during its last century.... ...
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...