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Causes Of The Fall Of Rome

Decent Essays

The Roman Empire was picture perfect, or so we thought it was. During the time 180 BCE Rome was taking a punch to the gut, several issues began to occur and caused the fall of Rome. Some of the main problems that contributed to the fall were corruption, puny emperors, and an even weaker military. To start off with, economic problems and corruption very much contributed to the fall of Rome. According to Document E written by the Roman ambassador Priscus, “...taxes are very severe, and unprincipled men inflict injuries on others...The climax of misery is to have to pay in order to obtain justice.” This piece from the text explains how even during a time of peace Rome was out of hand. Most citizens even, “Considered his new life...better than his old life among the Romans,” when the Huns took over. When the ambassador states, “ The climax of misery is to have to pay in order to obtain justice,” means that the worst part of being miserable in Rome is having to pay for your own rights. Although the constitution and law was fair at the time, the governors were not following what the former generations had intended and were destroying the state. It also states in the Brain Pop video titled “ The Fall of Rome,” that most of Rome’s leaders were paying their soldiers to stay loyal during time of war. They began to lose money and had to print cheaper coins, which drastically changed the currency. The emperors who did this did not find the resolution but went on to steal money from Rome’s treasure to throw feasts and festivals. To add on to the previous statement, the fall of Rome was also caused by weak leadership. Roman Emperors were growing soft bellies, and had weak spines, they were not putting their best foot forward, and that created many political problems. In Document A, the chart shows a total of 22 Roman Emperors from the time 235-285 CE. Out of all these 22 rulers only two died of a natural death, four died in battle, one committed suicide, and the others died of assassination. That is 15 Emperors Assassinated, this shows that they needed to spend more time on thoroughly looking for an emperor who can take care of the empire. During the time there was no Emperor, neighboring empires saw this as a good time to

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