Rome was set to be a city of power, prosperity, and success. It had mountains, valleys, and rivers to allow the country to grow and develop agriculturally, economically, and socially. However, as Rome grew, their problems did, as well. They created new, more powerful, enemies, and they had an immense amount of political violence and instability. When Rome eventually fell, people didn’t know who was to blame. The fall of Rome was its own fault and could have been prevented people made different decisions. One of the reasons that Rome fell was its military. The German attacks are what caught Rome off of its feet. During the late empire, Rome got complacent with the training and discipline of their soldiers. In order to have enough soldiers to protect the empire, Rome hired mercenaries who were mostly made up of German warriors who felt little loyalty to Rome. If Rome hired soldiers who were more loyal to their, such as their own people, and continued to train their soldiers, they would have …show more content…
Rome’s government became more authoritarian and oppressive towards the plebeians, which also affected Rome socially in negative ways. Additionally, Rome had frequent civil wars over the succession to the throne and the title of the emperor of Rome. In a 50-year period, 26 emperors gained control and only one died of natural causes. To make situations worse, the empire was divided into two parts, the East and West, by a man named Diocletian. During this time, Rome was under attack and the richer eastern Roman empire did little to help the West. Rome could have prevented this all if Rome wouldn’t have engaged in such political violence. Rome was doing extremely well with Julius Caesar in power during the Roman Republic, but the Senate murdered him because he wanted to become the dictator, without considering the fact that nothing would have changed. If Rome let Caesar lead, then Rome would’ve been in a better
One reason Rome fell was because of the laziness that the people had. For example, according to Concerning Military Matters, “..but when, because of negligence and laziness, parade ground drills were abandoned...” (Doc. B)This means that the soldiers stopped doing the things
A second reason Rome fell was because of the natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis. For example, according to The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman empire, “. . . the Roman world was shaken by a violent and destructive earthquake . . .” (Doc. F)This illustrates that the earthquake that hit Rome destroyed just about all of their culture. This also illustrates that many people died and were injured. This is important because Rome was already falling, so the earthquake hitting made it even easier for the Roman empire to fall. This is also important because many Romans lost their houses so they had to move to find somewhere new to live and support their families, which made their population smaller. With the cities’ populations smaller it made less
My first reason for why Rome fell was because of a massive earthquake that did a lot of damage. Such as leaving the Mediterranean sea dry by the sudden retreat of the see it also did massive damage to Rome and it’s cities. When the earthquake had also hit it was a flood that hit the coast of Sicily. In the cities of Greece and Egypt at most 50 people were left dead in the city of Alexandria alone with no other cities being disrupted by the flood as that much. As it astonished and terrified the subjects of Rome. As their symptoms of a declining empire and left a sinking world.
The defeats were majorly successful because of the lack of experience in Rome’s soldiers. Soldiers began working for pay to help protect the borders of Rome. The people who were working in the military were mainly free citizens. The people hired were called mercenaries who were mainly Germanic. Germany meanwhile, had resented Rome and could have turned on them. It was hard to afford such a costly military. In order to afford to be able to pay the mercenaries, taxes were raised to afford this military filled with paid mercenary soldiers. Rome had been invaded by the Visigoths, while their borders were not protected. The capital had been destroyed by these invaders, burning their way through the city. Before the Visigoths had invaded, Rome’s military already had a hard time communicating lack to their efficient road systems. There were not enough troops to defend the wide territory they had to cover. The military overall lacked the basic necessities of a strong army, which contributed to the fall of Rome. Since Rome was now weaker because they had split their empire, their military had gotten weaker as well. To help try to make their military just as powerful separate than they were united, they made mistakes including overspending and inviting enemies into the military. This had happened only to the western half of the army while the eastern half
One internal factor that contributed to the fall of Rome is the their once legendary army started to become lazy. Romans no longer practiced the same methods the ones before them did. They wanted to wear less armor. According to document 6,Vegetius states’’But negligence and sloth having by degrees introduced a total relaxation of discipline,the soldiers began to think their army too heavy, as they seldom put on it.’’ This quote proves that the Roman soldiers became sluggish. They stopped wearing their proper armor, which resulted in their defeat in battles. They were unprotected against arrows and attack. in addition, another internal problem Rome faced was that
These Germanic soldiers were not loyal to Rome and were therefore not as motivated to keep Rome afloat. Because of the undersized, lethargic Roman military and its aggressive opposition, Rome was very much open to foreign invasions.
Rome's army became lazy and didn't want to train right and do other things like they abandoned their armor since they were too lazy to wear it. This was said by a roman historian Vegetius in document B. Also said by Vegetius the roman army abandoned their ground drills which made them an easy target. This problem was created because of the army's laziness and the army didn't care about training. Rome also had to draft soldiers but their was a major fluad in the system and certain groups can avoid or escaped being drafted like cooks, bakers, and slaves. This was written by Michael Grant a reappraisal and since different groups of people can escape the draft the military didn't get as many soldiers. If you want a huge empire you need good leadership but that what rome lacked the
The reason Rome fell was because of its weak leaders. These leaders (emperors) made many bad decisions in their time in power (Document B). One of these decisions was made in between 400- 450 CE. The army at that time had requested
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
Though Rome made plenty of mistakes, it also influenced how people live today. For example, monumental construction, encouraging religion, extraordinary language, and even a strong government. Even though it was a troubling time, if Rome didn't fall we would probably make the same mistakes that caused them to fall. In 476 CE the Ancient Empire collapsed, but there wasn’t only one cause. There were multiple reasons to why Ancient Rome fell, from population, to military and politics. One important reason that led to the fall of Ancient Rome was the steady decline in population. A compelling piece of evidence to support this is the constant warfare, and plagues that were occurring during the time. Another reason to support this, is that Romans
Rome fell because of foreign invasions. Hans came from the east. (Doc C). The Visigoths reached the city first. (Doc C). It would weaken your government because it wouldn't the people a chance to recover. Rome was attacked for over 60 years. If Rome is attacked relentless for over 60 years they wouldn't have a chance to rebuild themselves back up, because they would be constantly fighting and rebuilding just to survive. Rome had a weak army. (Doc C). If Rome had a weak army then that would allow them to be easily conquered, but since they were able to construct more men quickly, that’s how they lasted for how long they did.
The most important for last, what I know is the main factor for the fall of Rome, is bad leadership. According to document A, there were 22 emperors in 50 years, most of them dying horribly (assassination, battle, etc.). Bad leadership brings up another main problem in the empire, Economic problems and corruption. The emperor's blew off gigantic amounts of money for parties and other useless things, instead of helping the dying empire. This lead to people taking “Justice” into their own
Have you ever thought of your city suddenly coming to an end, or all people dying in a very short time. Well, this happened to Rome. Around 200 BC, Rome started becoming one of the greatest cities at the time. They conquered many different places and basically didn't have many others they could defeat. Rome was the ultimate ruler. How could such a great Empire suddenly come to an end? Being big made some pretty big problems for them. Because of what great things had already happened to Rome, the rulers began to become lazy. People were leaving Rome and by the 5th century, Rome was invaded by outside attackers. Only parts of the empire would survive. In this essay, we will find out what exactly happened in Rome. Foreign invasions,
To start off with, economic problems and corruption are one of the main reasons for Rome’s decline. For example, Document E, written by Priscus, Roman ambassador for the Huns, is a reported conversation he had with a Roman citizen who had been conquered by the Huns. It states, “[He]...considered his new life...better than his old life among the Romans…”. According to this sentence, Romans who are being conquered by the Huns are enjoying their lives more than when they were Roman citizens. Also, in the same document, it states, “...A [wealthy lawbreaker] … is not punished for his injustice, while a poor man… undergoes the legal penalty…” In other words, the poor
The Roman Empire was a vast territory that expanded to three different continents.They were a place of honor, tradition, and respect. Rome has had several different periods, some of peace, and some of violence or unrest, but those were solved quickly and effectively. However, such a magnificent empire could not hold up under the strains that were slowly causing it to collapse. Rome began to face many problems that together allowed the fall of the Roman Empire. The three main problems that caused Rome to fall were invasions by barbarians, an unstable government, and pure laziness and negligence.