The Roman Empire: The Fall Of Rome

Three major civilization composed the classical empire. Classical Rome, Han China, and Gupta India all thrived at one point during this era, but with success also eventually came the fall of these three empires. Taking place at different times and due to different reasons, all three started to decline and eventually were too weak to defend themselves. The fall of the Roman Empire seemed to be more complex and due the many more little problems, by they all three fell apart due to unrest and problems created that could not be solved before it was ultimately too late.

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 was a powerful governing body of extensive political and social structures throughout western civilization. How did this empire fall and were internal factories responsible? Slow occurrences in succession to one another led to the fall of the empire rather than one single event. The fall of the Roman Empire was a combination of both internal and external pressures, not just one, leading up to the complete decay of the cities—Rome and Constantinople. However, one could argue how one factory played a more important role than the other.

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.

Although it was believed that the Roman Empire would never come to an end, inevitably it fell. The Roman Empire is an extremely historic empire that left a massive legacy behind. It collapsed during the fifth century. The empire was having serious military struggles. They received threats from other European tribes along with diminished military funding. A military who does not have proper funding will slowly fall apart. Other than the military, the Roman Empire had a few key social and cultural problems that helped with the fall of the empire in the west. The fall of the Roman Empire in the west occurred due to a rise in Christianity, contrast between rich and poor, and a decline in population.

Political, economic and social aspects were all involved in the fall of the Roman Empire. In 395 A.D., Rome was divided into two empires, with one capital in Rome and the other in Constantinople. During that time, the western Roman Empire was being invaded by barbarian tribes from the North. In 410, the Visigoth tribe succeeded in conquering the western capital in Rome. In 476, the western Emperor Romulus Augustulus was finally overthrown at the substitute capital set up in Ravenna, and in 529 the eastern Emperor Justinian declared that the pagan religions of ancient Rome were illegal. All of these events caused the end of the western Roman

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

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

Roman Empire was considered as one of the most influential and dominant Empire in the history that has ever existed. “The Roman Empire at its zenith in the period of the Principate (roughly, 27 BC to AD 235) covered vast tracts of three continents, Europe, Africa, and Asia” (Garnsey). It was an ancient, modern Empire, and it supported anyone who made discoveries and technological improvements. The Empire was the strongest governing body in the Mediterranean.

Many anthropologists and historians have speculated about the different causes and effects of the fall of the Roman Empire. Some have even stated that Rome did not fall but instead, was merely transformed. However, there were many causes that did end this prodigious empire. Many seemingly small decisions made by powerful emperors over the course of just over a century lead to its destruction. In this paper it will be established that the Roman emperors, in an effort to save their political power, made adjustments to warfare/treaty practices and made political changes which over time lead to the inevitable collapse of the realm, this caused a drastic regression in the living standards of the Roman citizens, implying that the Empire did indeed collapse and not transform.

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).

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The fall of the Roman Empire is one of the most discussed and debated events in ancient history. Many historians site the date of 476 A. D. as the day the empire ended, but there are also many that say that the 476 A.D. date is subjective because it took many years of internal problems and neglect for the empire to come to an end. Even from the beginning of the Empire under Augustine Caesar many predicted that Rome wouldn’t last because of the decadent lifestyle of its citizens. Today this view is still popular but many historians have been searching for other reasons to help explain the collapse of one of the world’s greatest empires. The many different views of how the empire fell range from political incompetence, religious extremism, financial or environmental. The fact that no one has offered up a solution that all historians can agree with is simply because of the lack of overwhelming evidence to point to a cause. Another issue is that many historians are looking at the situation through present day eyes, they are looking at the fall of Rome and trying to find reasons that would be relevant to our present day society, not a society that existed thousands of years ago.

For a long period of time, the debate about the cause of the fall of the Roman Empire has been a popular topic amongst historians. Most of these historians look at the issue from a standpoint that accepts that there were most likely several causes. The main root of the issue is whether or not these causes were internal or external. Some historians even go more in depth and try to hypothesize what the internal or external causes were. In fact, Adrian Goldsworthy and Peter Heather do just this when they take opposing views on what actually caused the extremely powerful civilization of Rome to ultimately decline and fail.