The Fall of the Roman Empire

427 Words1 Page

There are many reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire, and all of them are related to one another. The Christian religion that was adopted by the Romans made them more passive people than before, which in turn made it difficult against attackers. Money was being used for lavish parties for the governs which could have been used for the people. The people became lazy and glutinous and didn't care about the republic. First the morals and values of the people were at a rapid decline towards the end of their empire. Crime was running ramped through streets of Rome and made it unsafe for the common folk. There were about 32,000 prostitutes that were readily available for senators, generals and basically all the big wigs of the empire. The emperors like Nero and Caligula became infamous for wasting money on lavish parties where guest ate and drank until they became ill.(http://kileenroos,com/1/Romefall.htm). The amusement was watching gladiatorial combats in the Colosseum. These events brought all classes of people; the rich and the poor sat in the same arena, which very rarely did this. This shows that the people of Rome were changing into this people that stop caring about what they once were. There were many public health and environmental problems. The wealthy people had water brought to their homes through led pipes. The wealthy death rates were very high because of the lead poising. The blood shed from all the death was a big cause of the spread of disease. Alcohol use was becoming a big problem; this led to the incompetence of the public. The next problem was the political corruption. This was especially present in selecting a emperor; unlike other emperors Rome never had a set way to delegate that is going to be emperor. The old emperor, the senate, or the Praetorian Guard, and the army. The Guard eventually ended up gaining complete control of the choosing of the emperor. The Guard started to take the highest bid for the emperor because of their greed. The unemployment during the latter years of the empire; farming was done on large-scale estates called latifundia that were owned by wealthy men who used slave labor.(http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/romans/fall.com). A farmer who had to pay workmen couldn't get profit of the land, so they had to sell their farms.

Open Document