Roman Empire Debasement In Rome

To begin with, one of the main problems of the Roman Empire was their economic problems and corruption. For example, in an excerpt of a historical text written by Priscus, which was a Roman ambassador to the Huns in 449 C.E, he reported a conversation he had with a former citizen whose land had been conquered by the Huns. In their conversation the former Roman citizen stated, “ The conditions of [Roman] subjects in time of peace [is worse than war]...taxes are very 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…” This supports that one main problem that ended the Roman empire was economic problems and corruption because it shows that if rich people in Rome committed a crime they would only have to bribe their way out of trouble while on the other hand poor people will have to face their consequences which is unfair so when they got invaded by the Huns they decided that it was best if they conquered than to join the military to help their empire. In addition another economic problem is that the the Roman Emperors had to pay their own soldiers to stay loyal which lead to emperors having to mint more coins which is further supported by BrainPop which states, “Roman emperors often bribed their soldiers with money to make sure they remained loyal. And when emperors didn’t have enough to pay their troops, they would mint cheaper coins. This caused the value of Roman money to plummet.” This also supports that one important cause that caused the Roman Empire to decline was the corruption and economic problems because in order for a empire or a civilization to function efficiently, they need to respect all people

Economics contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire. According to Document 4, “Part of the money went into… the maintenance of the army and of the vest bureaucracy required by a centralized government.. The expense led to strangling taxation..” the Roman government had large expenses because it needed money for the army, the bureaucracy, and welfare. This lead to the increase of taxes. However, high taxation affected the people

As the “abundance of slaves led to the growth of latifudia” (Document 3) the great estates took over the agricultural industry. As latifundia took over, more farmers became out of work and in the persuit of finding work they moved into the cities and “added to the unemployment there” (Document 3). But the expansion didn’t stop there. As “the overwhelming majority of the population had been systematically excluded from political responsibilities, they could not… protect themselves… serve in the army… Their economic plight was hopeless” (Document 1). As missionaries fled into the Roman Armies, the citizens were being forced to pay a huge amount of taxes. But with no farmers to grow the food for the soldiers, who would? Expansion brought wealth into the empire, but “when the empire ceased to expand; however economic progress soon ceased” (Document 3). The inflation rate spiked, the rise in prices on everyday necessities decreased the value of money. The Romans were having to trade with exterior partners for items that could not be produced. The flow of money coming in could not match the amount of money going out. The values of the Romans depleted as their economy crumbled.

After a couple years the Roman coin became completely worthless within a century. According to “Doc 4” it says that Septimus Severus defeated his rivals to claim the imperial throne to found a dynasty. Within a century the Roman coin was worthless. Also most poor Romans paid the taxes for the rich which constantly kept increasing. From the taxes increasing eventually the poor couldn't afford to pay any more taxes because of such high money they had to pay. The government eventually took items from the the Romans such as crops.

An economic problem is defined as As the empire continued to grow and expand, it became increasingly more difficult for the the Roman empire to provide for themselves, which is an economic problem and was a contributing factor in it’s fall. A sign indicative of the Roman empire’s lack of economic independence was it’s need to trade with other areas such as Gaul, Africa, and Anatolia in order to get the goods they needed (Document 3). Additionally, the romans had other economic problems at the time such cost of defense and devaluation of currency due to inflation. With the rate of economic problems caused by expansion, “instead of inquiring why the Roman Empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long” (Document 6) without completely

First off is economic problems and the main problem is that Roman money became less and less valuable everyday. Another problem of the roman economy is that the law was very easy to bribe the rich can basically avoid the law by just paying them. This is said by Pricus a Roman ambassador to the Huns in document E. Taxes were also very high and this made Roman citizens mad and began to riot. This piece of evidence is also said by Priscus in document E. The emperor themself would steal just for their own personal gain. This was said in the brain PoP “The Fall of Rome”. Rome had a very

Whether you prefer to say Rome fell due to the invasions or simply morphed into the oppressive and the corrupt government, economic policies of the emperors had a heavy impact on the lives of the citizens of Rome. The Roman Empire acquired money by taxation or by finding new sources of wealth, like land. However, it had reached its furthest limits, so land acquisition was no longer an option. As Rome lost territory, it also lost its revenue base.In doc# 4: we can see how the economy and citizens were taken advantage of and how the economy was not stable enough, led to the fall of Rome. The empire's main focus was on expanding and funding towards the military and politics. They did not think of the flaws that came with expanding and soon realized that to expand they had to gain military strength, and that costs a lot of money. Immediately the government created high taxes taking advantage of the citizens that leaned on the government welfare system, forcing them to basically pay for advances in the military. This affected small business and companies to crash because they could not afford these taxes, leaving the economy weakened. Therefore the economy could no longer help provide for the military expansion and lead to military weakening. And when the military and the economy was down due to this “internal decay” Rome was easy to conquer and lost all power and eventually fell. Doc# 3 also shows that due to the expansion and Rome wanting to be a world power, it caused a distraction and the economy was used to fund the military success and power, with high taxes. The more it expanded the more the taxes cost and the weaker the economy was. Due to the money that was taken from the economy, Wages being low, slaves disappearing, great estates growing, agriculture was being dominated, it

The reason that economic crisis contributed to the fall of the Roman empire was because the Roman empire didn’t have much gold to trade which means less money for the Roman empire to use to make improvements in their empire. The next reason is because according to document number 2 “People produced their own goods rather than trading them” because the Roman Empire was not safe to trade with. The 3rd reason is because tons of merchants that used to have trade routes for the Roman empire wasn’t safe for them because merchants were afraid that people were going to attack

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.

For example, there was unemployment throughout the empire. It was expensive for farmers who paid workmen to produce goods. Many of these farmers could not compete and lost or sold their farms, which left them without any jobs. Another reason the Roman economy suffered was because of inflation, which was the increase in prices. Flow of gold into the economy decreased, yet much gold was being spent to pay for

They were the main economic boost of the empire, and were now lost. Unlike with political and religious reasons involved in the fall of the empire, regardless of what laws were changes and removed or what actions were taken, nothing could reverse the effect of this terrible economy on the Roman Empire.

Due to the mass amounts of civil war taken place on Roman land, farming and agriculture greatly suffered. Land was over worked and overused causing the land to become infertile. Soon food shortages and diseases caused the population to decrease. From the cumulations of lost money to war and farming the economy weakened and inflation became high. The gap between the rich and poor gradually increased and the economy weakened. Between civil wars, high taxation, and food shortages, citizens lost a sense patriotism that once flourished throughout society.

As Rome was facing attacks from the outside there was an even deeper problem happening from within and it was their economy. Rome’s constant war and overspending in building its empire was becoming costly. As their treasury depleted they decided to impose hard taxation to account for the new expense they were generating. Which actually caused many people who were apart of the upper class to move to the countryside to avoid the oppressive taxes(Andrews) . Another economic problem is that inflation began to occur. Marcus Aurelius increased the copper content of the silver coins and then after that there was even more severe inflation on it way(Starr 144-145). A third problem with the economy, also politically, was that there was an ever growing expansion of bureaucracy. The expansion of their government caused more and more officials to have to be paid. Not to mentions cities already were having a hard

The theories surrounding the decline of the Roman Empire is a widely- known historical debate. Endless questions have been proposed and

Rom’s government was not very organized and Rome’s leaders had expensive lifestyle. Wars were occurring in the empire the government simply minted more coins to support it. This was a bad decision and caused inflation. Another economic reason why the Roman Empire fell was because of taxes. The poor now made up a large percentage of the Roman population.