The Roman Empire lasted approximately 1500 years, and was the most powerful, and one of the world's greatest empires. But in 476 BC it was able to be overthrown by the Germanic tribe, because of a combination of disasters and political and military weakness.
Disease and natural disasters contributed greatly to the fall of Rome. For example, In an article written by Roman historian Edward Gibbon, It states “Fifty thousand people lost their lives in the flood”. This shows the destruction the earthquake did to the Roman empire, It not only caused extensive damage to structures people need to survive, but killed many people. Repairing damage, and caring for the injured is no easy job. This would distract the leaders from other matters, such as
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In an article by a Roman historian Vegetius, it states “Because of negligence and laziness, parade ground drills were abandoned, the customary armor began to seem heavy since the soldiers rarely ever wore it”. This contributed to the fall of Rome because the laziness would make it hard to fight against invaders. This would also mean that the soldiers would be getting injured more often. Rome would be more susceptible for attacks by invaders, such as the Huns in this case. In the article, it also states “Hosts of senators, bureaucrats, and clergymen were entitled to avoid the draft; and among other groups who escaped were cooks, bakers, and slaves”. With a population of only about 250,000, and people of most occupations exempt from the draft, this would make it very hard to put people in the military, so Rome could have a strong, reliable army. Lastly, In an article about the background of Rome’s fall, It states, “When a country is make, when energy and hope are high, leaders and their people are more willing to work hard and sacrifice. When the goal appears to have been reached, it is easy to get lazy”. This tells how the Roman soldiers may have been thinking when in battle. The Roman military was lazy at this point, this was a huge contribution to the fall of Rome. They didn’t have an adequate defense system, this must have put a tremendous amount of stress on the
The first reason for the fall of Rome was Natural disasters. “The Roman world was shaken by earthquakes”, states Document F. Also, Document F states that, “The shores of the Mediterranean were left dry by the sudden retreat of the sea.” Lastly Document F states that “The tide soon returned to the weight of immense floods.” Earthquakes, drought,
Between 700 BCE to 200 CE was one of that largest empire in the ancient era, but like most large empire’s, they don’t last. Most empires’ have many reasons why they fell, Rome did as well, but the greatest cause for the fall of Rome was the numerous foreign invaders that took over Rome.
However, some people may argue that natural disasters were responsible for the fall of Rome. Natural disasters killed people and damaged property. However, if Rome wasn’t in as much trouble with their military and government, more attention would’ve been given. If the government did not have so much drama and squabbling going on, they would’ve sent people out to go and save the citizens. Also, if they were not worried about other things, they probably would have figured out that there was a series of disasters, and they could have embraced for
One of the many noteworthy reasons Rome came to its demise was the unstable nature of their military. The Romans were rarely using their armor to shield themselves and it was getting tiresome to wear the armor. The emperor then did not require the use of body armor anymore, “Therefore, they first asked the emperor to set aside the breastplates… and then the helmets.” (page 15). Because of the decision to cast away the breastplates and helmets, it made it effortless to wound and kill the Romans with skilled archers, such as the Huns (Doc D). Another pivotal fault was the draft, “The exempted categories were...numerous” (Doc B). Draft exemptions meant that not enough men were fighting and too many were lazing around. Even bakers and cooks were not required to serve under martial law(Doc B). Because of these mistakes, the Roman military became weak. Not having enough members on their command,
With no strength, the armor they wore seemed heavy, as the Roman Historian Vegetius states from an excerpt in Document B. The military men started to ask to remove the breastplate,and later removed their helmets. With no armor protecting them in battle, the numbers grew short,as countless soldiers fell from numerous wounds. Rome tried to fix the problem by conscription, but failed to enforce it as numerous categories were excluded from the draft. With no soldiers to defend Rome, the invaders viewed this as an opportunity to attack, which was the third problem that played in Rome’s
In Document B, Vegetius says that because of the neglecting of the military, the soldiers did not wear breastplates and helmets. Due to that, the soldiers were taken down by the archers and other soldiers of the invaders easily and the Romans started losing their battles. The reason why not wearing the armor hurt them and made the military go bad was because the invaders were very strong in the area of fighting and killing. The Huns, which were one of their enemies, were described as savage, having compact sturdy limbs and thick neck, and glued to their horses (Doc D). With all of those attributes put together, they are the ultimate enemy and not wearing the armor makes the soldiers goners right when they get there to take over. And the Huns did come and also the Visigoths and Vandals (Doc C). They slowly migrated to the Empire but when they got there, they fought hard. After all of these invasions from the outsiders, the army of Rome gets low on fumes and they end up being taken over by the invaders. To make the military worse the population was going down due to bad things happening to the
The Roman Empire began when Julius Caesar became one of the leaders to reign and conquer Rome. Rome was commonly referred to as “the eternal city.” Rome had a total of 19 emperors from 235 to 285 CE. Those 19 emperors might have caused the fall of Rome to happen. The decline of Rome, or the “fall” of Rome, was due to economic problems, Roman emperors, and natural disasters and disease.
Some may say that natural disasters were the main reason for the fall of Rome, but I disagree. I believe that it was political corruption and military mistakes that made the all mighty Rome come to a fall. The military made many mistakes. They were lazy and they did not fight very well. Many of the battles were lost which greatly contributed to Rome coming to a halt.
During the fall of the city that would become the world's greatest empire, it all eventually fell and it all began in 750 BCE during an unremarkable settlement. Rome tried to climb up the social class as a society to become the greatest empire ever known, but it all happened way too fast. Rome took over plenty of other empires and it was very easy for them. They took over every empire that they wanted, because their army was so strong that nobody stood a chance.
The Roman Empire Fell because of internal and external problems. The primary causes for the fall of Rome were because of government corruption, weak military, and disaster & disease. Government corruption was a great contributor to the fall of Rome. From 235-285 C, there were 19 Roman Emperors and 13 of the emperors were assassinated (Doc A). The people
The ancient Roman Empire lasted from 500 b.c.e to 500 b.c, around the Mediterranean Sea. The ancient Roman Empire declined because of their military, economic, and political problems. Those three issues were the main causes of the decline of the Roman Empire. One of the causes of the Roman Empire to decline was the military issues such as the enemies they made and the number of people exempt from the army draft.
The primary reasons for the fall of rome were, internal threats, external threats, and a lack of patriotism. One of the reasons for the “fall” of Rome was that they had many internal threats. Firstly, Julius Caesar and other emperors used inhumane actions to get what they wanted, this caused many civilians to disagree
The fall of the Roman Empire was caused by many things, but one of the main things was corruption. Document E states, that many poor people, in Rome, were charged for crimes that the wealthy people escaped. No one wants to live in an unjust empire with a corrupted government. Document E also says the taxes were, “very severe.” People started to attack each other and very few people were OK with the Roman Government.
Although some people think that there were many other reasons causing this major crash like moral decline, military mistakes and political instability were the primary reasons for the “fall” of Rome. The military became lazy, which led to the falling point of Rome’s Empire. Political Instability led to miserable Roman citizens and messed up laws.
The Roman Empire was a glorious civilization that lasted for a long period of time, and was two million square miles in size. It is mostly known because of how big and strong it was, but the Roman Empire could have held that title for a longer period of time. There were several entities that can be held responsible for the fall of Rome, such as Emperor Diocletian, the government and ethnic groups that were new to the empire. Unfortunately the extremely famous, big and strong empire started to fall gradually between 190 A.D. 410 A.D. due to three causes. The causes for the fall of the Roman Empire were the empire’s sheer size, racial weakening, and splitting of the empire into two.