When Rome’s Empire fell, many Romans were left jobless, homeless, and devastated. Few remained stable after the amount of distress and despair Rome was put through. There is a long list of reasons of which people could assume from why Rome fell, but out of the many reasons, Laziness, Invasion, and Environmental threats were certainly the three most important. The most important reason for the Fall of Rome is by far the Laziness the Romans had obtained after a couple centuries of being extremely strong and powerful. The romans’ downfall started to make an impact when some of the littlest things Romans stopped caring about began to make a big difference. “It is easy to get lazy. The evidence for this was a love of luxury, a decline in the quality …show more content…
of literature, even a decision by upper- class Romans to have fewer children because child-raising was a bother.”(background essay) Therefore, Romans became so prone to important things like having children simply because of their laziness, that eventually the Roman empire suffered in result of it. Roman armies suffered because of this too. As it states in Document B, “But when, because of their negligence and laziness, parade ground drills were abandoned, the customary armor began to seem heavy since the soldiers rarely ever wore it. Therefore, they first asked the emperor to set aside the breastplates… and then the helmets. So our soldiers fought the goths without any protection for chest and head and were often beaten by archers.” As a result, many soldiers died because of the sheer fact that they became too lazy to carry out some of the simplest tasks such as wearing their army gear to protect them from attack. In addition, I think that Document A shows how lazy Rome really was to have to spontaneously change leaders every 2-3 years on average. On the chart shown, you can see that between the years of 235-285 CE, there was a total of 22 leaders that ruled Rome, showing the lack of enthusiasm Rome in keeping their leaders. Consequently, Rome’s empire was too lazy to keep a leader, which caused a great amount of chaos and disorder towards the people of Rome. Laziness is definitely the most important reason for why Rome’s empire fell. Besides Laziness, another reason for the fall of Rome is Invasion.
Invasion of opposing armies impacted the Roman empire with great force. As the author states in the background essay, “Controlling this expanded empire meant a larger army, which in turn meant a need for more food, clothing, weapons and supplies. Political strains developed at home. Leaders in Rome focused less on debate and compromise and more on force to get their way. Having existed for centuries as a republic, Rome eventually became more like a dictatorship.” To sum up, having to expand their armies in result of massive invasions, Rome began to lose most of their power and money when they needed more food, clothing, weapons, etc., and political problems began to rise. As it is shown in Document C, you can clearly see the amount of overwhelming invasion directed towards Rome. When all different armies started to invade from different directions, it took Rome by surprise. As a result, Roman armies weren’t prepared and many were defeated, causing the Roman empire to lose many soldiers and great deals of power. The huns were probably one of the most destructive armies towards the Roman empire. “Fired with an overwhelming desire for seizing the property of others, these swift-moving and ungovernable people make their destructive way amid the pillage and slaughter of those who live around them.” (Doc D) Thus, Rome suffered greatly following the attack of the Huns. The invasion of the Huns towards Rome was one …show more content…
of the main reasons why invasion impacted the fall of the Roman empire. Although Laziness and Invasion are extremely important topics for the fall of Rome, Environmental Threats are equally important.
Throughout the downfall of the Roman empire, these threats kept Rome in debt and despair. Rome began to have Economical issues as well. “The condition of Roman subjects in time of peace is worse than war. Taxes are severe, and unprincipled men inflict injuries on others. A wealthy lawbreaker is not punished for his injustice while a poor man undergoes the legal penalty. The climax of misery is to have to pay in order to obtain justice.He said that the laws and constitution of the Romans were fair, but deplored that the governors, not possessing the spirit of former generation, were ruining the state.” (Doc E) Then, the Roman empire endured some tough conditions as a result of this happening. As stated in Document F, “More Important in initiating the process of decline was a series of plagues that swept over the empire, which brought diseases from southern Asia to new areas like the mediterranean where no resistance had been established even to contagions such as the measles. The resulting diseases decimated the population.” This shows how the amount of plagues passing through Rome strongly affected it’s fall. Also, as the author states in Document F, “The Roman world was shaken by a violent and destructive earthquake… The shores of the Mediterranean were left dry by the sudden retreat of the sea… but the tide soon returned with the weight of an
immense flood which was severely felt on the coasts of Sicily, Greece, and Egypt.” Therefore, Rome’s fall was mainly caused because of the natural disasters happening during the time. Environmental threats were among the list of reasons for Rome’s fall. The idea remains that Rome fell because of the three most important reasons which are Laziness, Invasion, and Environmental threats. Although Rome was a strong empire for over a century, eventually Rome began its descent downwards as things started to stagger. The people of Rome were completely taken by surprise and were devastated. Although the demise was unfortunate, It isn’t necessarily all bad, because nothing gold can stay.
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 first reason for the fall of Rome were the Roman Emperors. For example, in Document A there was a chart of Roman Emperors from 235-285 CE. The chart was
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.
Essay: Why was it possible for Rome to become an empire and last so long. What were the reasons for it's fall?
“He is said to have been tall of stature… except that towards the end.” What was it that really led to the fall of the Roman Republic? There are a lot of different factors to consider when trying to determine what caused the collapse. By examining The Rubicon, The Life of Julius Caesar, and some accompanying handouts from class, this paper will discuss how the Roman Republic did not collapse because of one factor. The collapse of the Roman Republic was like that of a game of Jenga. Factors were pulled out of the Republican system just like a game of Jenga until the Republic could not stand anymore.
In 146 BCE, Rome had conquered its arch-nemesis, the Carthaginians, and took control of all their lands and possessions, which allowed the Romans to expand through most of Europe. The apparent conclusion derived from this success would be that Rome was now unquestionably the strongest Empire in the world and that any sort of decline would be unimaginable. However, upon closer inspection, it would seem that the newly conquered lands put Rome in a position of weakness rather than strength, almost as if it was marching toward its own death. In fact, Backman states that, "The problem was that the Romans had not exactly planned for their success. Their political system, designed to govern a compact land-based republic, unexpectedly found itself in awkward possession of a vast, scattered, sea-based empire" (183). Unfortunately, the Romans lacked a clear vision of how to integrate the newly conquered lands into their empire. The lack of preparation only grew worse with each passing day, and soon enough, it became an impossible task to solve the issue. Rome entered a phase of economic decline, which twisted the already miserable lives of citizens to an even harsher reality. More specifically, the Romans of lower class, who made up the large majority of the population, and who were also generally denied of basic needs, found themselves in the position of unemployability. This is evident in the following
There were many contributing factors to the fall of Rome including high inflation, high military costs, break down in military discipline, moral decay and people lost faith in the Roman government, and Barbarian invasion. Following these events Rome was split into 2 empires which made it susceptible to foreign invasion. In conclusion the division of the empire was the primary reason that Rome fell from its previous glory.
The Roman Empire will always be known as one of the largest, most influential, and most powerful civilizations in history. Ancient Rome gave the world many things essential to our daily lives even today from concrete to sewage systems. Because of the magnitude of Ancient Rome, it’s collapse was a watershed moment in the history of the world. The primary cause of Rome’s fall is widely debated but what is clear is that there were many factors, internal and external, that eventually caused Rome to collapse. The factors which were the most impactful to Rome’s downfall were the rise of Christianity, overexpansion and a failing economy. The diverse impact of these three causes were combined too much for the empire to overcome and Rome fell in 476
The Fall Of The Roman Empire Rome was one of the biggest, most powerful empires in recorded history. Such an empire could not fall due to one factor alone in a short period of time. It was a slow process of decay. Many factors would influence the toppling of this Empire, such as social gaps, religion, economical troubles, and corruption in politics. Among all of these factors, one of the most obvious and major causes was the crumbling of one most powerful military forces in history, The Roman army.
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...
Modern historians have written thousands of books and essays attempting to account for the causes for the fall of Rome. The Roman Empire, from 27 B.C.E. – 476 C.E., ruled the entire Italian Peninsula and controlled all of the land surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. What were the causes that led to the fall of Ancient Rome? English historian Edward Gibson wrote the first major study, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, published in six volumes, which claims many causes for the Rome’s decline, three of which are as followed: Rome’s “immoderate greatness,” or its having become too large to govern itself efficiently; the destructive barbarian invasions, and the rise of Christianity whose ideas supposedly weakened Rome’s traditional martial spirit (Nardo). These three events were not the only reasons for the Roman Empire’s collapse but played a significant part.
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...
The three main reasons that the Western Roman Empire fell were economic problems, flaws in the military, and barbarian invasions. One reason the Roman Empire fell was because it was suffering from major economic problems. For instance, they relied heavily on slavery. Some particularly bad invasions were led by Attila.