The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

The primary reason for the Roman Empires decline and eventual fall was the

dwindling of the Roman Empire's economic might. This affected nearly every aspect of

Roman life, from the decline of the population to the lack of maintenance of foundation.

There were also some military aspects that led to there demise and because people

became disinterested in joining the Roman army Rome was left unprotected against all of

their enemies.

The primary cause of the deterioration of the economy was the lack of circulating

currency in the Western Empire. Two reasons for the lack of funds were wholesale stock

piling of bullion by Roman citizens, and the widespread looting of the Roman treasury by

the barbarians. These two factors, combined with the massive trade deficit with Eastern

Regions of the Empire extinguished the growth of wealth in the west.

The changing rainfall patterns and climate in the Mediterranean began to alternate

annually between hot droughts and cold rainy seasons. This decreased the number of crops

during the harvest time and forced the Romans to undergo widespread irrigation projects

on land The huge quantities of water needed for this project had to be contained in large

reservoirs, and the standing water soon became stagnant, and stagnant water is the ideal

environment for breeding mosquitoes who are the carriers of malaria. Malaria began to

manifest the empire at epidemic levels and started weakening and killing a large

percentage of the population.

A man by the name of Edward Gibbon believes that the Roman Empire met its

demise because of its decaying infrastructure and because Rome's buildings were severely

distorted throughout the years by time and nature and they began to topple and decay.

Nero's fire which lasted about six days also caused mass amounts of damage on the Roman

city because the countless buildings acted as a fuel for the flames. When the fire was over

only four of the fourteen regions were left, three were totally destroyed, and seven were

destroyed by the remains of the smoking structures.

The Roman empire crumbled due to insufficient economic power, which came about

for a variety of reasons. It lacked the resources necessary to keep such a vast empire

intact. The empire reached such a point that it could no longer support itself becoming top

heavy, and crashed down like a tower that had grown too high for its own foundation.