The Triumvirate of Triggers: Rome's Unavoidable Downfall

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The Roman Empire will always be known as one of the largest, most influential, and most powerful civilizations in history. Ancient Rome gave the world many things essential to our daily lives even today from concrete to sewage systems. Because of the magnitude of Ancient Rome, it’s collapse was a watershed moment in the history of the world. The primary cause of Rome’s fall is widely debated but what is clear is that there were many factors, internal and external, that eventually caused Rome to collapse. The factors which were the most impactful to Rome’s downfall were the rise of Christianity, overexpansion and a failing economy. The diverse impact of these three causes were combined too much for the empire to overcome and Rome fell in 476 …show more content…

The institution of slavery was affected significantly as a result of the “Augustan Peace” movement. Because of the decline in war and piracy there was also a decline in the supply of slaves as these were the two largest sources of slavery. With the Delian Slave market no more and no new source of cheap labor Rome’s economy was slowed significantly. The beginning of the decline of Rome’s agricultural system was the Punic wars. The Punic wars were the first wars in which Roman soldiers were forced to campaign outside of Italy, as a result many of Rome’s citizens and field laborers were forced to abandon their fields for long periods of time. During this conflict Hannibal, in an effort to break up the network of alliances that made up the roman republic, decided to burn the land in a massive portion of northern and central Italy. After about twenty years of dealing with this conflict Italy’s agricultural economy was completely in shambles. Many farms fell on rough times because women and children could not manage farms with their men away at war. In an effort to keep the farms operational many of the wealthy Roman citizens bought up most of the farm land. This consolidation of land combined with rich landowners using more scientific techniques led to decreased opportunities for Roman citizens and when men returned from war many of them were unable to …show more content…

The religious tolerance and cultural acceptance Rome demonstrated during its conquest which kept its inhabitants reasonably happy allowed the seeds of Christianity to be sewn into the empire. Eventually Christianity grew and became the official religion of the empire and ultimately created a culture of disloyalty to the government and apathy to earthly troubles. The economy built on cheap labor and sustainable farming practices left the country out to dry when both of these resources dried up and could no longer support the empire. And Rome’s vast empire became in itself too large to maintain and what was once a small fortified empire grew into a massive and vulnerable one. Ancient Rome is one of history 's great civilizations but it’s inability to overcome it’s own, mostly internal, problems was eventually too much for it to

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