HIST A101

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American Military University *

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A101

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History

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Apr 3, 2024

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docx

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Name 1 Name Professor HIST A101 IW1 201901 April 29, 2019 The Roman Empire: Aftermath Effects in Ancient and Modern Societies The Roman Empire was the largest and most influential political and social structure of Western civilization (www.ushistory.org). It had lasting influences on forms of government, architecture, philosophy, and law. How did such a vast and successful empire fail? How could a government known for their military prowess succumb to barbarian invasion and overthrowment? There are numerous events that led to the fall of Western Rome; some of the most substantial include the conversion from polytheism to monotheism, which subsequently divided the populous within the empire, the division of the empire into two governing entities that led to economic turmoil, and finally, political and military corruption, which led to an unstable and unloyal government. These actions left the Empire weakened, allowing barbarian Germanic tribes the ability to invade and overtake a once strong and powerful empire. Before Emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity, the Roman Empire was threatened by both Christianity and Judaism. Emperor Nero (54-68 AD) targeted Christians, having them targeted, gathered up, and killed. Many of the persecuted Christians were those of low social backgrounds. Of the many reasons given for the massacre of Christians, the primary one was because of Christians’ refusal to sacrifice to the Roman Gods. Roman pagans believed this was an insult to the gods and that it endangered the Empire they felt bound to protect.

Name 2 Over two hundred years later during Emperor Constantine’s reign ( 306-337 AD) Christianity was declared to be acceptable. His drastic acceptance and self conversion to Christianity undermined the Romans’ traditional religion and left his empire religiously torn. Although Emperor Constantine declared himself a Christian, many of his actions including founding and naming a city after himself and erecting temples, still resounded a pagan mindset. Christianity increased in popularity over the next two centuries following Emperor Constantine’s declaration of acceptance - paganism had not disappeared. As the barbarians started to attack and eventually invade Rome, pagans blamed the Christians for their ignorance and negligence of the old gods (http://www.ushistory.org/civ/6f.asp). As the empire stretched from the British Isles to Tigris and Euphrates River into Africa, Rome was no longer at the center of such a vast empire. The decision was made to divide the empire into two ruling entities - the Western empire became Roman Catholic - this is what we consider today as the fallen Roman Empire. The Eastern empire became Greek Orthodox Christian and succeeded into the Byzantine Empirehttps (://www.ancient.eu/article/835/). The division and relocation of the capital to Constantinople in the Eastern empire left the Western weak to attacks from barbaric tribes. After this separation the Western empire suffered a drop in agricultural production, which led to a higher food costs. The Western empire would purchase luxury items from its counterpart Eastern empire, however, with the absence of tradable goods, economic growth was stunted. The government of the Western empire attempted to bridge the gap by producing more coins with a lower silver content, which only increased inflation (https://www.ancient.eu/article/835/). Rome’s lack of a consistent method of choosing a succeeding emperor left it easy prey for corruption. The decision of who was to succeed the throne was left to be debated by the

Name 3 previous emperor, the Senate, Praetorian Guard, and the army. It became practice for the newly elected emperor to pay off the Praetorian Guard, eventually giving the guard full authority over the next emperor. After the guard strangled the new emperor in 186 AD, the practice of “selling” the throne began. Over the next one hundred years Rome had thirty-seven different leaders twenty-five of whom were assassinated ( https://www.rome.info/history/empire/fall/ ). The government, already suffering from inflated costs, could hardly maintain any army against barbarian attacks on its borders, let alone providing for public housing or road maintenance. Frustrated Romans no longer felt compelled to defend the empire, which left the government to hire mercenaries. Mercenaries were unreliable, unloyal to Rome, and very costly. The cost of hired soldiers forced emperors to raise taxes on Roman citizens further increasing inflation ( https://www.rome.info/history/empire/fall/ ). The Germanic tribes had little economic or political foundation which should have made it easy for Rome to defend itself against their attacks, however, with the empire divided physically and religiously and low funds leading to a poor defense it was easy for the barbarians to take advantage of an already crumbling empire. Roman soldiers attempted to buy off the attackers and offered land for them to settle or even to join the Roman army. Those that chose to settle within the Roman Empire were granted citizenship but never fully assimilated keeping much of their previous culture. Tensions between the Romans and settled Germanic tribes grew when land and housing that was promised to the barbarians was not fulfilled. These empty promises eventually led to the first sacking of Rome by Alaric, a former Roman Commander. The final blow and official fall of the Roman Empire came in 476 AD when Germanic General Odacer overthrew the sixteen year old emperor with little effort. After the overthrow the

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