The Collapse of the Roman Empire

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The Roman Empire spaded over six hundred years, encompassing the entire Mediterranean world. This empire left an ineffaceable mark on the Western society as a whole with its creation of laws, cultures and currency. As Julius Caesar once said, “I came. I saw. I conquered.” However the real question is, why did this empire fail after providing centuries of strong political and military leadership as well as a stable economic and social organization? The truth of the matter is, that which made the Roman Empire strongest eventually lead to its demise. The political, economic, military and social aspects that made this Empire strong eventually destroyed the seemingly immortal domain.

Politics is one of the many reasons that the Rome failed, political aspects such as disordered governments, taxation and unwilling citizens to follow said government all caused the fall of Rome. One of the most influential reasons as to why Rome fell was due to the government’s anarchy and corruption. Government officials became power hungry, abusing all power bestowed upon them to benefit themselves rather than the empire. One of the many ways they abused said power was by “use[ing] tax payers money to build themselves lavish mansions” . This would eventually weaken the government as well as the peoples trust in said government. As the Roman government began it’s initial decline Rome began to impose higher taxes on the people, consequently “crushing them under a heavy burden of oppressive taxation” . At the beginning, Rome taxation was very reticent, “consisting mainly of a wealth tax on all forms of property, including land, houses, slaves, animals, money and personal effects. The basic rate was just .01 percent, although occasionally rising to ....

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