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.
One of the main reasons of the collapse of the Roman Empire was the over expenditure on the military to constantly fund wars abroad. 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 th...
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...on military expansion as it put strain on the Roman government as it cost them many economic and military casualties as they were losing a load of money hiring soldiers to invade and often replace them when they died without gaining from the lands they conquered. In my opinion, this is the major factor pertaining to the collapse of the Roman Empire. The political corruption allowed the Praetorian Guard to be above the law and announce whoever they wanted as Emperor regardless of whether they were capable of the task. The dependence on slave labour caused high unemployment and the stagnation of technology for the last 400 years of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire is said to have completely collapsed when the German barbarians overthrew the last Emperor, Romulus Augustus in 476 and introduced a more democratic form of government which was very short-lived.
The Roman empire was a very large and successful empire, although like many things it had to come to an end. The three primary reasons that had most contributed to Rome's fall is foreign invasions, military weakness , and weak leadership.
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
The fall of Rome occurred over many centuries and was caused by several factors including military decay, barbarian invasions, and the failure of the government to respond to these problems.
The economics of the Roman Empire soon hit rock bottom due to the high taxation to support the army. Gold was also eroding since Rome was no longer bringing new resources through the expansion. Emperors then tried to mint coins out of silver and copper instead and the end result was inflation and dramatic rises in Noochintra 2 prices on goods. There were many things that brought Rome to its downfall, 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.
The Roman Empire spent money on the poor citizens of their nation. However, no, this did not deplete necessary funds that were for running the nation. The Roman Empire tried to hide the problem of all their poor citizens with the “bread and circuses”. In theses circuses the roman citizens would go to be entertained by blood fights and other events, such as chariot racing and mock sea battles.
Emperor Diocletian thought that he could restore the Roman government out of the crisis by changing the tax system to try to increase revenue. However, this maneuver wasn’t so successful because he imposed price and wage controls that put pressure on both wealthy and poor people. Also, he put restrictions on people’s right to select their jobs. The gold available was sent to the orient to pay for luxury goods instead of using it for making Roman coins. Consequently, it led to the devaluation of the Roman currency and to the return of the trading system. On the other hand, historians think that slavery work was also part of this economical crisis. The number of slaves increased during the first 2 centuries of the empire. They mostly depended on slaves to do manual labor, so they ceased the search for new technologies to produce their goods more efficiently and faster. Consequently, the slaves couldn’t take it no more and it led to a revolt led by the gladiator slave, Spartacus. Further, the attitude towards slaves changes due to Christianity. All these things led to a decreased of power and resources for the Roman Empire to stay stable and
Because Rome had grown massively, the government had to inflate many prices and impose mass taxation to pay
These strengths were a strong foundation, standardization of many elements across the empire, and strong leaders who were able to effectively rule. The loss of these strengths would ultimately lead to the downfall of the Roman Empire. As time passed, the empire grew further from its original foundation, losing sight of many of its original attributes inherited from the Republic. In addition, they grew over-extended as an empire, making standardization very difficult if not virtually impossible. As future emperors attempted to extend aspects of the empire to these outlying areas, their power to do so was challenged by external influences. All of this caused an erosion of the cohesion which the standardization had brought, especially when the empire was divided between East and West. Lastly, as emperors stopped effectively using the strengths which had been used by past emperors, specifically the manipulation of the upper class and the Senate, the empire grew gradually weaker. Unable to manage such a massive empire virtually alone, even strong emperors were often left in weak positions, unable to deal with the frequent Germanic intrusions and military revolts. In short, many of the things which enabled the Roman Empire to survive for over 400 years were also the things which ultimately led to or enabled its
There are many political, economic, sociological causes to the growth and expansion of the Roman republic and later the Roman Empire, but one major factor of expansion that the Romans are most famous for is there Army. There Army was famous for their harsh discipline amongst their own ranks and there mercifulness brutality amongst their enemies. According to our text Roman warfare was characterized by great ferocity and the Roman pursuit of victory was relentless. The Romans had a pragmatic view towards atrocity and massacre that viewed almost any act as justifiable if it eased the path of victory (Goldsworthy 2000) p. 24. The hoplite phalanx which originated by the Greeks and later adopted by the Roman army, demanded great discipline and adherence to orders in order for this group of soldiers...
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,
The fall of the Western Roman Empire was a major problem, and the political aspects were partly to blame. One reason why the political demeanor of the Western Roman Empire was partially the cause of the fall, was that Western Rome had several unfit rulers. The emperors were greedy, and cruel enough to do unfair actions for power. These emperors inherited the throne, and that led to these ability lacking rulers. In addition, there was no cycle for the Emperors. In the United States Of America, if the president is no longer able to rule, the vice president takes over.
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...
Ultimately, the Roman Republic’s downfall lay in its lack of major wars or other crises, which led to a void of honor and leadership. War united all of Rome’s people, and provided the challenge to its leaders to develop honor and leadership by their causes and actions. The lack of war allowed the Roman Republic to stagnate and become self-indulgent. By the end of the Punic Wars, which combined these elements, Rome was sure to fail. Without a common thread uniting its society, the Roman Republic unraveled because it had nothing left holding it together.
Ineffective leaders are one reason why the Roman Empire came to its demise. After the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Empire started to decline. His son, Commodus, was next in line for the throne. Commodus managed government affairs horrendously. One major mistake he made, was to sell government offices to the highest bidder(Fsmitha). This allowed for corrupt and overall bad people to gain positions of power in the government. He also gave the guards the freedom to be abusive and torment the citizens(Fsmitha). These actions did not make him very popular with the senate or the masses. He tried to rectify this mistake by holding gory public performances to win him popularity. He also often went in the arena, to fight and club animals that were tied down(Gibbon 118). While he did win some popularity, most thought that himself fighting was demeaning of the Emperor position. Commodus was also concerned about military governors contending for his position. He was so paranoid that he had their children under his care( Fsmitha). Essentially, he had military governor’s children held hostage. This, instead of fixing his problem, led t...