The fall of the Roman Empire in the West is seen as one of the most pivotal points in all of human history. This event traditionally marks the transition from classical civilization to the birth of Europe. There is an absolutely tremendous scholarly interest in this subject; thousands of books have been published and endless numbers of essays and theories, as to the cause, have been written. Why did the Roman Empire in the West fall? It is difficult to pinpoint a simple explanation. Some scholars have tried to identify one main problem which caused the fall. Some say the culprit is lead, and its use in water pipes; others find that Christian ideology is to blame. The issue is confusingly complex and it stands to reason that one particular issue cannot, in and of itself, be enough to explain the fall of this persistently powerful, sprawling empire. The reason which seems most compelling is a holistic one which considers multiple factors. Thinking in this way, the fall was most likely caused by circumstances which lead to a breakdown of the centralized military and tributary complex producing inherent limitations on the abilities of the army. The state was no longer able to preserve its borders and it was finally overwhelmed by invading barbarian tribes.
Though the invasion of the Roman Empire’s frontier is probably the central problem, many theories exist to explain how Rome first got into trouble. The somewhat outdated, but nevertheless fascinating, theory for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire is the wide spread use of lead pipes in urban centers used for the transportation of drinking water. Some believe this continual exposure to lead poisoned the Romans who drank it. Chronic, long-term lead exposure will caus...
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... own. They are money problems and military ineffectiveness. It is a series of events producing economic limitations which results in the inability to defend the borders at a time when being able to hold the line was imperative. In the past the Roman Empire was able to absorb incoming barbarians while holding its frontier, but additional pressure from the Huns causes the Empire to be overwhelmed and overtaken.
Works Cited
Bury, John B., History of the Later Roman Empire, New York: Dover, 1970.
Heather, Peter, The Fall of Ancient Rome, New York, Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006.
Hodge, A. Trevor, "Vitruvius, Lead Pipes and Lead Poisoning," American Journal of Archaeology 85, no. 4 (1981): 486-491.
Nardo, Dan, ed., The End of Ancient Rome, San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2001.
Timbrell, John A, The Poison Paradox, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
The year is 476 A.D. and the Roman Empire has collapsed after being overthrown by barbarians. Looking back, the causes of Rome’s decline can be separated into four categories, social, economic, military, and political. The social aspects of Rome’s fall are the rise of christianity and civil wars. The rise of christianity displaced Rome’s polytheistic roots which viewed the emperor as having a godly status. Pope and church leaders took an increased role in political affairs which further complicated governance. Civil wars also deteriorated the empire. More than 20 men took the throne in only 75 years and the empire was thrust into chaos. The economic aspects of Rome’s fall were high taxes from the government and labor deficit. The roman empire
First off, the foreign invasions were a primary reason of Rome’s fall because they invaded and pillaged many places in the roman empire and caused some emperors deaths. One of the tribes that had invaded much of rome was the Huns. In document C it states that they were absolutely wild and very destructive. They are completely ignorant of right and wrong and are fired with an overwhelming desire to seize the property of others so we can assume they had done quite a lot of damage to the areas that they had invaded. Their invasions took place in the north east part of the roman Empire during the 370 CE to the 451 CE.
To understand the fall of the Roman Empire, we first have to analyze the influence that had
Much ink from the historians’ pens has been spilled seeking to explain the reasons behind the fall of the Roman Republic. As Gruen notes, “from Montesquieu to Mommsen, from Thomas Arnold to Eduard Meyer…the Republic’s calamity has summoned forth speculation on a grand scale. How had it come about?” (1) Certainly, from one perspective, it can be said that the attraction of this event is to a degree overstated: it is based on the belief of the stability of political systems, of the deterrence of the possibility of radical changes in political worldviews and general social arrangements and structures. Furthermore, it marks a decisive shift, in the political arrangements of a grand civilization of Ancient Rome: in other words, it marks an instance where even within the continuity of a singular civilization, such as that of Rome, there can be the presence of political turbulence and abrupt changes of directions regarding the form which political power and hegemony ultimately assumes. Yet, what is perhaps more important from the perspective of the historian is the precise sense in which the events of the collapse of the Roman Republic still remain ambiguous, arguably because of the multi-faceted manner in which this fall occurred. Hence, Gruen writes: “the closing years of the Roman Republic are frequently described as an era of decay and disintegration; the crumbling of institutions and traditions; the displacement of constitutional procedures by anarchy and forces; the shattering of ordered structures, status and privilege; the stage prepared for inevitable autocracy.” (1) In other words, the collapse of the Roman Republic is complicated because of the multiple dimensions in which such degeneration ultimately happened: it was not mere...
Essay: Why was it possible for Rome to become an empire and last so long. What were the reasons for it's fall?
The Romans were on one of the greatest people of all. They had power, wealth, and even a half of the world. They built one of the strongest and vast empire that world has ever seen. They came from nothing to something awesome. It started of as a city and ended up being one of the greatest empire of all. This essay is going to focus on the Roman Empire from the rise to the fall and the government, architecture, mythology, Family Structure, and Food of the Romans.
This is because, before the significant innovation of Hydraulic cement-based concrete, clean water and sewerage were contained in nothing but a, “channel lined with stone, closed on top with … flat slabs and then covered over with earth.” At first, this system was thought to work very well and help with the health of the Roman empire. However, soon these early aqueduct structures began to collapse. Due to these aqueducts not being checked daily and no one knowing about what had happened, the Romans kept using these aqueducts. However, because these early aqueducts had collapsed, many bacteria could invade the water supply and Rome’s enemies were able to deliberately poison the water. However, on top of all this, one of the worst impacts that broken aqueducts caused was severe lead-poisoning. This was because many of the early aqueduct pipes were made from lead, and without these pipes being supported, they simply fell. Due to Rome’s water supply already being quite high in lead, the fallen lead pipes proved to be too much, causing much of Rome to become severely sick. Lead-poisoning from fallen aqueducts in Rome caused over, “30 000 residents to die each year.” However, if these early aqueducts were to have been reinforced with concrete, like all of the later
Rome was one of, if not, the most influential civilization in the western world. Rome once ruled the majority of the known western world, yet it was unable to hold that title. The Roman Empire eventually came to an end just like many other civilization, but the reasons for its downfall are still being debated to this day. Rome didn’t disappear overnight it was a steady downfall that consisted of several different symptoms. Symptoms that when combined together created the perfect storm to bring down the most powerful Empire in the world at that time, at least the western portion of it.
...on military expansion as it put strain on the Roman government as it cost them many economic and military casualties as they were losing a load of money hiring soldiers to invade and often replace them when they died without gaining from the lands they conquered. In my opinion, this is the major factor pertaining to the collapse of the Roman Empire. The political corruption allowed the Praetorian Guard to be above the law and announce whoever they wanted as Emperor regardless of whether they were capable of the task. The dependence on slave labour caused high unemployment and the stagnation of technology for the last 400 years of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire is said to have completely collapsed when the German barbarians overthrew the last Emperor, Romulus Augustus in 476 and introduced a more democratic form of government which was very short-lived.
The Roman Empire was incredibly large and successful. In the prime of the empire population reached up to 56.8 million people. The land they conquered amasses to an outrageous 1 million square miles. Their influence is so great that even now people can see their imprint in architecture, law, and even helping spread Christianity, the world’s most populous religion. These amazing facts also begs a question. How did one of the world’s greatest civilization fall? Well, the fall of Roman Empire in 476 ACE was aided by ineffective rulers, the crumbling economy, and the invasion of the Germanic Tribes.
The decline and fall of the Roman Empire is a scholarly article written by Justin Ott about the Roman Empire and the events leading up to its fall. The article mostly focuses on the military and economy of Rome in the third century A.D. It lists in the beginning a few of the different theories people have of how Rome fell, including led poisoning and the spread of Christianity. The article seems to want to disprove these theories, showing how they are not the main causes for the collapse of Rome. “Gibbon’s arguments in these sections can be accurately summarized as “the insensible penetration of Christianity in the empire fatally undermined the genius of a great people.” The problem with this conclusion is two-fold. First of all, this explanation is too narrow as it is difficult to believe one single factor brought down the empire. More importantly, it is clear that the Eastern Roman Empire was by far more Christian than the West, therefore if Christianity was behind the fall, the East should have fallen first.” The article’s audience appears to be historians, or those who are interested in history, or just the Roman Empire. It
One of the most common causes of the decline of an empire results from having weak military power and martial spirit. In order for an empire to be successful, that empire must present a strong will to fight or sacrifice property and life in order to defend its state. If an empire does not possess this characteristic, it often will quickly diminish. For example, the Roman Empire became successful because of the willingness of the males to defend the state. Shortly after, the males lost their willingness to defend and the empire had to recruit unreliable mercenaries to fight in war. Unlike the successful army of the past, these mercenaries did not have true loyalty to Rome. Because of constant warfare, the Romans had heavy military spending. The Roman Empire had become too large to control effortlessly. Families and soldiers in parts of the Roman Empire adopted local customs. The Roman Empire was made up not only of natives from the Italian peninsula, but it was also made up of barbarians from the conquered lands. The barbarians were very knowledgeable when it came to Roman warfare and military tactics. Corruption became widespread throughout the Em...
Ultimately, the Roman Republic’s downfall lay in its lack of major wars or other crises, which led to a void of honor and leadership. War united all of Rome’s people, and provided the challenge to its leaders to develop honor and leadership by their causes and actions. The lack of war allowed the Roman Republic to stagnate and become self-indulgent. By the end of the Punic Wars, which combined these elements, Rome was sure to fail. Without a common thread uniting its society, the Roman Republic unraveled because it had nothing left holding it together.
Overcrowded living conditions were not a good idea. Disease spread fast this way. People who live in apartments are living right next to each other, which could make the sickness engulf the city. Lead poisoning was also not good. This is because the pipes that carried water would contaminate what they citizens drank and bathed with. Along with lead getting into water for bathing, disease spread in bathing waters. For the temperature that baths were at, the sickness loved to grow. Warm water is perfect conditions for bacteria to live in. Along with these aspects, malaria and the bubonic plague spread throughout Rome. These illnesses came over Rome and fast, especially because of how crowded Rome was. Attila the Hun even avoided Rome because of how bad the malaria was. Furthermore, these economic issues definately took part in the fall of the Western Roman
As the Roman Empire shifted its center of power to the East, Rome lost much of the prestige and protection it had previously enjoyed. With Constantinople as the new seat of the empire, the West was left to stand alone, often defenseless.4 Barbarians attacked Rome in AD 410, and Rome found little help from Constantinople. With the Western Empire essentially abandoned, disease, poverty and instability were rampant. Many structures had fallen into disrepair, and famine ravaged the land. Most government officials had left Rome, leaving the churc...