The Decline Of The Roman Empire

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.

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

One important reason that caused the Roman empire's downfall, was it's massive size. According to document 2, Rome was too vast to take care of itself properly. Most of the problems were with money and the borders were hard to keep safe. These problems were hard to keep under control, so rome

Although many historians and professors attribute the fall of the Roman Empire to excess and corruption, the role of shifting spheres of power, trade created a situation that made the fall of such a large cumbersome empire inevitable, the military played a role for not obeying protocol as well and an excess of things were happening in the government that also led to the fall of the Roman Empire. Each mistake made by the Romans contributed to their fall of their empire since after time of accumulation of their mistakes, it becomes a tremendous problem. Though the Roman Empire still did have their climax in history before everything came crashing down.

“His line devalue currency in order to enlarge the Army and double the legionnaires pay. Within Century, the Roman coin was completely worthless… Competing generals, politicians, and barbarian kings all vied to rule the empire... The civil wars, raids, and accompanying social unrest destroyed trade.” The leaders were fighting too often to even have peace within the country.

The Roman Government had to have large expenses to fix their army and fill in their vast bureaucracy. There was a major downfall though caused by the high taxation on the people, and it was the lost of jobs. There was high unemployment due to the high taxation, and the less jobs there were, the harder it was on their economy. Companies and businesses were taken away, and more jobs were lost due to the establishment of a government welfare system. With all the failing businesses, and lost of jobs, there was no hope of fixing the system and getting everyone their jobs back(Doc.4). These Government Issues were one of many reasons why the Roman Empire

There were many reasons for the decline of Rome and fall of the Roman Empire. Some of the reasons for the fall of Rome were military mistakes, economic and civic decay, and political instability.

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.

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,

enlistment, the poor, weak class of the empire were drawn to the army because of

Though the Roman’s had set standards for today’s legal conventions (guilt must be clearly identified, right to stand trial, equal peer jury, ect.) the government began to allow wealth leniency over the pore. According to Document E: Economic Corruption, “the condition of [Roman] subjects in time of peace [ is worse than war]… taxes are very severe, and unprincipled men inflict injuries on others.” Personally I believe that the taxation brought on excessive stress on citizens, causing them to become aggressive. When aggression grows between citizens, an outrage in the cities would begin to cause chaos and dishevel the government and empire. According to the same document, Document E: Economic Corruption, “A [wealthy lawbreaker] is not punished for his injustice while a poor man… undergoes the legal penalty.” With the corruption of money adding to the disorder, it was only time before the empire declined and became more susceptible to

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 fall of the Western Roman Empire had been caused from several different actions made by the empire. The split of the Roman empire to Western and Eastern Rome caused a decentralization of their power. Keeping their empire as one unified government would've centralized the power of the empire and sustained a powerful government. This action would eventually unify the government's decisions and unify the empire as a whole instead of making separate decisions that would bring the two empires farther apart. Also, the Western Roman Empire had begun to fall due to possible morale problems along with depression among the population. This was because of their polytheistic religion, which didn't give the people a lot of hope or a reason to live.

The Rome Empire was attack by series of invasions. In the east, the Sassanid Persians made inroads into Rome territory. Germanic tribes poured into Spain, Balkans, and Gaul. In the third century all the invasions, civil wars, and plague almost caused an economic collapse. Both military and the economy affected by an epidemic disease because of this they was a decline in trade and small industry. The farm production declined as crops were ravaged by invaders or the defending Roman army. The armies were needed so they pay more soldiers. The state had to hire Germans to fight but they did not understand the Rome traditions and had no loyalty to the empire.

Looking at history, there are nine possible reasons for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. The first would be barbaric invasions. Originally, the tribes living on the outskirts of the northern part of the empire were almost Roman. Many adopted Christianity, acted as stand in soldiers when the Roman Army was in need, and traded with the Romans for centuries. However, new tribes started to move in around 370. The Huns migrated from Asia into the territories of the Goths and various other groups. This forced the Goths to migrate southward to the Roman Empire. With too many to turn away, the Romans allowed the Goths to settle and act as guards against other migrators. Unfortunately, many local officials forced the Goths into slavery in return for the food they were to receive for guarding the territory. This caused a revolt, which was only halted on the condition that the Goths had control of a portion of the army. Naturally, the Goths began to conquer portions of the empire, even sacking the city of Rome before moving on to create their own kingdoms inside of