Roman Barbarians

The Roman Empire was one of the most mighty and powerful empires ever to exist. Some people wonder what could have possibly cause such a strong empire to just fall one day. Well that is where they are mistaken. Some people believe that the Roman Empire fall apart all at once, but in reality it was many events over a long period of time that caused this well known empire to one day collapse. One of the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was nomadic invaders from the north. This actually was not their first encounters with these specific invaders. These barbarians from Germany made their first appearance around 8 centuries before their last appearance (Nardo, 18). During this time in Rome, the form of government was still a republic

One of the groups that invaded them were the Huns. The fiercely fought multiple battles to push the German invaders out of their way to Rome. Some other groups that attempted to invade Rome was The Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and some other minor Germanic people. They tried to invade the Roman Empire because they like many groups sought safety. Then around the year of 378 B.C. Aa group from the Roman army tried to fight back with a group named the Visigoths in an area called Adrianople. They ended up getting defeated pretty badly (Ellis, 170). ^^^. After their terrible loss at Adrianople barbarian invasions just began to worsen (2. Nardo, 98). Because of all these battles and invasions, the Roman military suffered greatly as far as numbers in their military went (2. Nardo, 98). Around forty thousand people were killed and never replaced (2. Nardo, 98). To try and cover their losses by hiring mercenaries (Ellis, 171) . Mercenaries are also known as foreign soldiers serving in an army for pay (Ellis, 171). Some of the soldiers just left because was experiencing increasing financial problems and could not afford to pay their soldiers as much as they used to (2. Nardo, 98). These financial problems also caused the decline of quality of the weapons they used to fight with (2. Nardo, 98). So that led to them not winning any

Nardo, 100). At the same time as the mercenaries that were helping the Roman army, their actual leaders in Germany were negotiating with the government of Rome ( 2. Nardo, 100). Rome’s leader at the time, Theodosius, agreed to exempt the Visigoths from any normal taxation, and also agreed to accord them to to the status of the federates (2. Nardo, 100). That meant that they were equal to the parcel of the Roman Empire (2. Nardo, 100). At this point in history WAS the first time ever that Rome was not controlled under just a single jurisdiction of government (2. Nardo,