Stability And Economic Security Of Roman Emperors

Julius Caesar once said, ” It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience.” The Ancient Roman Empire was one of the world’s greatest empires. Beginning in around 750 BCE with a small settlement no one knew it would become a great empire making many discoveries that we still live by today. Although the empire was strong they started to run into some problems. Starting in 44 BCE with Caesar becoming emperor and continuing into 500 CE, the city was declining fast. Although some researchers may say that natural disasters were the main reason for the decline of Rome, however the primary reasons for the decline of Rome were political corruption and military mistakes. Political corruption was a main reason for the fall of Rome because there were higher-class people trying to take all the power which made many people unhappy causing assassinations and unfairness. Military mistakes were also a big problem because the military was too lazy to fight causing invasions and unnecessary deaths.

The powerful and well known Roman army was another key factor in maintaining the empire. The Roman army was large, well equipped, well trained, disciplined and skilled military force that was stationed throughout the empire to prevent uprisings and crush rebellion. Military training was a very important and arduous affair in the Roman Empire. It was essential for each soldier to achieve a high level of skill in fighting and using their weapons. They also had to march 30 kilometers 3 times a month wearing 20kg armor, do drills twice a day, learn to build camps, swim, mount and ride a horse and fight mock battles. The Roman army was quite ruthless when it came to crushing rebellion. They did not hesitate to hurt or even slaughter the people who went against the Roman rule.

The Roman Empire was during a time which the government was head by emperors and they held land around the Mediterranean Sea. The imperial period of Rome was about 1,500 Republican lasted about 500 years. The empires existence was a time where they were political stabile and is known as the Roman Peace. The Victory of Octavian the empire size was increased, when Caligula was kill the senate wanted to restore the republic but instead they invaded Britannia, which was a great expansion since the time with Augustus. In 192 the killing of Commodus caused the year of the five emperors. Constantine adopted Christianity which ended up coming the state religion. Roman Empire was known as the most powerful in culture, politics, and military in the world

After 50 thousand deaths, it was clear, Rome was seen, as a declining empire and a sinking world. I think the fall of the Roman Empire was due to Military weakness, weak leadership, and disasters and diseases.

Rome was changing. The people of Rome were changing. The citizens of Rome were getting tired of being ruled by others. They wanted to rule themselves. So after years of fighting

Firstly the political instability and corruption which was widespread in Rome made it impossible for the Roman Empire to defend territory as well as lead the country effectively. The first major political factor was the ineffectiveness of the government and corruption which stopped Rome from dealing with the larger problems. This was mainly accredited to a succession of ineffective emperors who were corrupt, as well paranoid, unstable and extremely cruel. This was due to a succession system which was never really defined. The most famous example of this was Nero. The historian Suetonius in the primary

Rome had to change emperors so many times that a stable, constant plan for the government was pretty much impossible. TCI, page 420 states, “When the emperor dies, rivals might fight each other to replace him. Real control fell into the hands of the armies, who could choose to help seize power-or-destroy them. Regularly, rivals grew impatient waiting for an emperor to die and resorted to murder.” Doc 3 also shows that between the dates 235 CE and 285 CE, 12 emperors were assassinated out of the 19 that served in those years. Doc 3 also shows that in between those time periods the longest time an emperor ruled was 7 years, and 6 of the 19 emperors only ruled for 1 year. The empire was constantly changing emperors which isn’t a way to make a healthy government, and on top of that not only were they switching emperors so often, the emperors were also being killed just so someone could take their place. If the emperors were being changed so often and each had different ideas for how they wanted to rule, there would be no order in the Roman

First one of Rome’s most major flaws was the weak political leadership. Weak political leadership was the main reason for the fall of Rome because in Doc. A compiled by various sources showed how many emperors there were from 235-285 CE. Which leads to weak political power because there were constantly new emperors every year or two. Most of them died by assassination. Another reason was the emperors spent all their money on parties and festivals. Also, they bribed their soldiers to stay loyal but when they didn't have enough money they had to

Q.)What was one factor discussed that occurred in both Empires? A.) Political Corruption, Desire for power "the generals became warlords or regional military strongmen; in Rome the praetorian guards handpicked or often the emperor himself picked his successor":

An additional cause for the fall of the Roman Empire was the constant change in emperors. The document says, “For the next forty-nine years , the Roman imperials throne was occupied by anyone military strength to seize it -- a total of twenty-two emperors.”(Doc 1, 3-5). In short this means that they would let anyone with military experience came to power. The effect of the decision is that the majority of the emperors either died in battle or was assassinated . The Empire didn’t have a stable leader which is why the Empire fell. They needed a leader that would stay in power for a long time to keep the Empire from breaking into chaos. This compares to the Han Dynasty because they also didn’t have stable emperors which caused the society

Much like we see in daily in the media, power struggle has been a problem of humanity in many situations, and the Roman empire was no exception. The Roman Empire as a world power, extended its reach across parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia; however, the wars of conquest came with a price and especially effected the lie legionaries who had gone for years and where forced to sell their lands upon returning home (McKay, 110). After losing their lands many of the veterans were unable to find employment and would follow any leader until Gaius Marius recruited some of them to fight in Africa in return for land, however, the senate or the state refused to support Marius’ promise (McKay, 111). These events were one of the first destabilizing factors

Rome was constantly expected to maintain an army in order to defend its borders from barbarian attacks. This was an economically draining task that had an immense effect on the government. Not only did the troops have to be fed and bathed, but also trained and paid. The funds required by the legions left little to no money for the Empire. Tasks such as providing public housing and maintaining roads and aqueducts were no longer able to be completed. Left with no money, Rome could no longer function, leading to the downfall. Constant wars and overspending were putting Rome in an economical crisis. The Empire was struggling to gather sufficient troops to defend its boundaries against attacks and civil issues. Funds were constantly being channeled

This quote shows that Rome never had an official and organized way of choosing the emperor, Rome would just give the position to the highest bidder in an auction. This was ineffective because the dictator would be the richest person in Rome, but he wouldn’t exactly be the wisest and most effective ruler. This emperor would just waste money on foolish things, and would not do anything at all to support the success of Rome. Out of the 37 rulers that won the position with money, 25 of them were assassinated. This shows that the citizens of Rome and the Senate strongly disliked the emperors. This would have been because of the laws they passed, of the actions they took that may have hurt Rome, or because of unfairness to citizens. Therefore, political corruption was a big part of the decline of Rome because, without an effective ruler who contributed to the success of Rome by making laws and by making wise decisions, the citizens of Rome were free to cause crimes and be foolish and lazy. Which then leads to the other problems that contributed to the decline of the western Roman empire. In conclusion, the decline of the western Roman empire was a tragedy for Rome and the political corruption was an important cause of it because, without proper emperors, Rome could not

     Two problems facing the late Roman Empire was the instability and non unification caused by inner family civil wars. Rome's rapid expansion, after the Punic Wars, resulted in changes that permanently divided the state. Both Aristocrats and Plebeians wanted total control of Rome and tried to destroy each other. Civil war was the the only way to solve problems in politics. Consequently, the power of the military became strong. Control of Rome's armies changed from the government to the generals because the soldiers began to listen to their generals rather than to the Government. On dismissal from military service, the soldiers had no farms to return to, and they

Rome had become a corrupt political center, to become Emperor was to sign your own death warrant, therefore the only people interested were the most unskilled the empire had yet seen.