Rise And Fall Of Western Rome Essay

Giotto di Bondone once said “Rome is the city of echos, the city of illusions, and the city of yearning”. Western Rome was always an illusion to its citizens. Rome was thought to be a paradise but it was secretly failing due to economy weaknesses. Western Rome was failing due to economy weaknesses such as inflation, destroyed farmland, and the government raising taxes. Most citizens could not live their lives in Rome due to all these problems. Inflation was a major economic struggle for Western Romans. Western Rome had one million people and costs kept rising as the empire grew bigger. Administrative, logistical, and military costs kept adding up and the Empire was struggling to pay. The major silver coin used during the first two hundred and twenty years of the empire was the Denarius. The coin was worth approximately a day's wages for a skilled laborer or craftsman. During the first days of them Empire, the coins were of high purity, being about four and a half grams of pure silver. Roman spending was limited due to all the gold and silver

Rome was dealing with the costs of Germanic invasions, so they began to raise taxes. Roman citizens did not have a lot of money to begin with, so raising taxes affected them a great deal. The tax demand was so high that citizens became bankrupt and began to starve. Rome was so desperate for money that they began to chase down windows and children to collect taxes owed. By the fourth century it was so bad that farmers had to abandon their land to receive public entitlements. At this point, the imperial government was spending the majority of the funds it collected on either the military or public entitlements. Later, the taxes increased by four percent, making the rich and the poor wish that the barbarian hordes would deliver them from the burden of Roman taxation. The barbarian hordes did nothing for Roman citizens, so they continued to struggle and