The Decline Of The Roman Civilization

While the fall of the Roman Empire is well known, the exact causes of why it fell can be difficult to pinpoint. Many historians believe that Rome 's downfall was due to poor leadership, weakened economics, or perhaps a combination of the two along with other seemingly unrelated factors. However, there is a string of evidence suggesting that there were three main components that took place to bring about the fall of the Roman Empire. These determinant attributes did not happen all at once, and there was a domino effect with each one directly influencing the others. The fall of Rome occurred after a series of preventable events, including unacceptable emperors, the heavy reliance on slaves, and the increasingly uncontrollable borders of Rome.

The Roman Empire is known as one of the strongest empires in history, due to their advanced technology, strong military leaders, and republican government. As the empire started to expand, so did their power. However, after years have gone by, the Roman Empire started to fall. Their fall may have been caused by political reason, such as the empire being just too much to handle, Diocletian splitting the territory in half, and their government corruption.

For a long period of time, Rome seemed like an unstoppable empire. It conquered the majority of the land surrounding it, including Greece, Turkey, Iraq, and many of its other neighboring countries. It seemed as though Rome would conquer the entire world, as it was the center of it, until it began to decline in 476 C.E. The very aspects that made it so successful were the ones that caused its collapse. Various political, religious, and economic reasons caused its downfall. The fact that the entire economy of Rome collapsed and money became worthless was a major reason for the empire’s collapse. In addition, the loss of a common religion and lack of efficient ruling in relation to its vast territory affected the empire. The Roman

The Roman Empire was one of the greatest empires around it’s time period. They ruled their region with an overpowering military force. They also had compelling agriculture and religion. Much of their music, clothes, and other agriculture continued on throughout other empires. They shaped the world with their beliefs and ideas and without this empire the world would be very different. There were strong Roman emperors and also horrible emperors who ruined the empire. Caesar and Constantine were among the most popular emperors of Rome. Constantine ruled later in the Empires lifetime while Caesar earlier. The death of Caesar had a huge impact on this empire. Constantine gave the Roman Empire the main religion of Christianity. This questioned the original beliefs of the Romans. They totally changed their culture. Towards the fall of the Roman Empire, the empire was split into two parts. This weakened their strong military force and led to an invasion. Evidently this caused Rome’s fall. The Roman Empires fall was due to the death of Caesar, mass poverty among Rome’s citizens, rise of Christianity, split of empires, and the invasions of the barbarians.

The Roman Empire was or could be one of the greatest empires to have ever existed to this day. Just like many empires the Roman Empire fell to betrayal, religion, and war. Lasting from 27BC to 1453 the Roman Empire to me is the most interesting empire to talk about. When you take any history class that explores times outside the US, you hear about the Roman Empire being involved some way or somehow. The Roman Empire history can go on for days. I will pack most of the history into a small 5 page essay and if you don’t know anything about the Roman Empire, You will have a better understanding and will more than likely see why I believe the Roman Empire was one of the greatest of all time.

After the rule of many prosperous emperors, Rome experienced a period of crisis from 235-285 CE. Almost all of the 19 emperors that ruled during this time were assassinated or died in battle (doc A). From the chart one can conclude that the people were not satisfied with their leaders, therefore they killed them. Rome was built on the idea of pleasing its people as seen by the various forms of entertainment during the Republic.

The fall of the Roman Empire is one of the most important and world-shaping events in history, but it provides more than just an interesting study of the past, it also holds many important lessons for Americans and the western world today.

Rome was devastated by the floods and earthquakes that hit them.”The Roman world was shaken by a violent and destructive earthquake … But the tide soon returned with the weight of an immense flood”(Doc F). Due to the flood and earthquake many people had lost their live due to the disaster. For example” Fifty thousand persons lost their lives in the flood”(Doc F). This shows that the roman population decreased dramatically cause them to lose man power in there army. Lastly, great plagues swept through Rome, causing them to go from a population of one million to 250,000(Doc F). This shows that Rome was not prepared nor ready to handle the immense casualties the took. Due to the decrease in population cause many problems. For example, “Recruitment of troops became more difficult … They need to pay troops added to the demands on the state's budget, just as declining production cut into tax revenues”(Doc F) This proves Rome had to make split second decisions therefore leaving them with their guard down and making them a target to enemies.

The reason for the fall of the Roman Empire is a controversial topic under much historical debate. How did such a great empire, known for being one of the largest that lasted over a millennium, fall?

How could the once miniscule Roman Empire (once one of the largest empires to exist) be simply reduced back to comparable dust to that of its former rank? Since Rome’s humble beginnings, its reign has lasted nearly 650 years. These years were filled with vast culture, advances in law, medicine, and breakthroughs that would set the tone for Western Civilization. But this would all collapse into the enemy’s grasp, as all things must have an end. Primarily government corruption, military issues, and foreign invasion caused the defeat of Rome.

The end of the Roman republic was and very interesting point in time. This shows a period where there was neither any political or government stability throughout the civilization. From reading The book “ The Fall of The Roman Empire”, three reasons jumped out at me or the collapsing of this civilization. They were abuse of power , political corruption, and heavy military spending. The heavily military spending came from the Roman Empire capturing and invading other civilizations. In order for the Roman Empire to invade and conquer civilizations they would have to spend money to make sure that their soldiers are taken care of and that they are able to complete the task at hand. Most likely all of the soldiers in the roman army was not roman which means they had to recruit and deploy from rome of other lands of defenders and invaders. The romans expected the militia to protect their land and the land they have overpowered or captured. This requires a multitude of supplies and manufacturing of weaponry. The soldiers also had to have a place to sleep , they had to eat , and be supplied materials that can aid them when they were wounded or hurt. All of this spending on the military will lead to inflation of a civilization as it did the roman empire. Now the government will try to find a solution to this problem by raising taxes and making all types of laws that enables the citizens of rome to help sponsor the military. This will lead to riots and

The Roman Empire was the most powerful Empire during it’s time.It is considered to have “fallen” in 476. Many speculation that have been presented as to why it fell, from flawed economic and social policies. The actual cause of Rome’s fall is the result of many factors, but was mainly caused by Rome’s poor economic strategy. Categorized socio-economic problems and political corruption with the emperors and senate with their selfish,indulgence lifestyles.Constant wars and attacks from enemies. The empire suffered economic decline and political issues within their own government. The decline and eventually the fall the empire led to changes that still affect the modern world in several different sector.

The Roman Empire was one of the most powerful empires in the history of mankind. In 476 CE Odoacer defeated Romulus Augustus to capture Rome; most historians agree that this was the official end of the Western Roman Empire. There is much debate on how exactly Rome declined and eventually fell. The fall of Rome was a long process that took place over many centuries. There are five main schools of thought on why Rome fell. First, Christianity, offered by Edward Gibbons; He suggests that Christianity caused Rome 's citizens to lose loyalty to the state and focus on their own afterlife weakening the internal strength of the empire. The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus suggests that the barbarians, mainly the Huns, eventually caused the empire to break down. Modern historian, James Burke suggests another explanation, military spending and overexpansion. Another historian, William McNeill, hypothesized that the main reason for Rome’s decline was a series of fatal epidemics. The last school of thought, which I will be defending, theorizes that massive corruption within the participate led to Rome’s decline. The constant civil wars and assassination attempts lead to the emperors focusing on their own safety; this made the empire unable to neither function nor cope with the constant pounding of the barbarians. The Pretorian Guards would assassinate the Emperor whenever they felt he was not doing what they wanted. Christianity affected the empire in a positive way, uniting the

Ancient Rome was an empire so dominant, wealthy and economically- stable which came to a dramatic fall in the period of 250AD- 500AD. Ancient Rome faced unexplained unfortunate events which crumbled the Great Empire from the affluent empire to a impoverished society. For centuries historians have timelessly theorised and analysed many debates and research in relation to the Fall of the Roman Empire. What really caused the predominate Roman Empire to fall? Did Rome fall naturally? Was disease, such as malaria a major contributor to the Fall of the Empire, Was man -made infrastructure a problem during Ancient Roman times? Was the fall a natural event? Was the climate changing causing natural disasters? Maybe, perhaps, all the theories interweaved with each other at the same time causing a catastrophic downfall, defeating the Ancient Roman Empire. Edward Gibbon (Gibbon, 1909, pp 173-174.) quoted,

In the later half of the fourth century the Western Roman Empire fell after nearly a five hundred years of dominance and is still widely considered the world’s greatest superpower (Andrews). Many people attribute the crumbling of the empire to multiple different reasons, like corrupt and insane leaders to overspending and inflation. As J.B Bury said once “the fall of the roman empire was a series of contingent events. In this paper we are going to cover the three main reasons. Political and Economical problems plus problems with the military(Wood).