The Rise And Fall Of Rome

The citizens lost their sense of patriotism in the country creating a trend of social apathy. Negligence and laziness brought the once great military to its knees. Lastly over taxation polluted the economic system causing a rise in poverty. Rome had to face adversities it could not overcome and the importance of acknowledging them is to ensure that the countries of today’s world do not make the same mistakes.

Roman soldiers returned home from their victory to find that they could not pay for their farms, becoming “squatters” on their own lands after having to sell them to richer men. The Senate became corrupted, and despite the Gracchi brothers’ best efforts, the rich patricians soon monopolized nearly all aspects of the Republic, from trading and “farming” to governing the people. After marching on Rome, Sulla became dictator in 82 BC. After Sulla, the First Triumvirate: Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar, owned virtually all power in Rome, yet each had his own desire to defeat the other two and become Emperor. When Crassus died in battle, Caesar had his chance.

The 147 emperors show how long the empire lasted. The fall happened because during the end of the Empire, Rome was changing for the worst. There were good and bad times before the Roman Empire before the fall of the empire. Specific reasons of why Rome fell include Christianity becoming the religion of Rome because of the reform by Emperor Constantine, the Roman Empire became too big, and the empire decayed without problems being fixed.

No one force was strong enough to tear down the Empire built on the strength and ruthlessness of the mythical Romulus, rather it took many forces from within the Empire to bring it down. There were many factors the led to the fall of the Roman Empire: barbarians pushed at the borders, corruption plagued the senate, the economy was failing and inflation was rising, the list goes on and on. There are over two hundred and ten reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire, however the most common theories are those that have to do the economy failing, barbarian invasions, a weakening military, and lack of stable government. The Roman Empire was slowly killing itself. When the Vandals and the Barbarians finally did attack Rome, the Empire was too weak and worn to fight back.

There are many reasons for the fall of Rome but they those reasons are intertwine with two main categories: economy and war. The Roman economy got so severe that they had to tax citizens and raise prices. Working Roman citizens could not quit their jobs out of fear of going into jail only to be released by death (doc 3.) Romans feared for their life and tried to raise a family on the little bit of money left over after being taxed. This shows that roman government is unscrupulous and cared so little about their working citizens.

Their political system, designed to govern a compact land-based republic, unexpectedly found itself in awkward possession of a vast, scattered, sea-based empire" (183). Unfortunately, the Romans lacked a clear vision of how to integrate the newly conquered lands into their empire. The lack of preparation only grew worse with each passing day, and soon enough, it became an impossible task to solve the issue. Rome entered a phase of economic decline, which twisted the already miserable lives of citizens to an even harsher reality. More specifically, the Romans of lower class, who made up the large majority of the population, and who were also generally denied of basic needs, found themselves in the position of unemployability.

Over several years all of these different aspects together caused the fall of the Roman Empire. The Roman government had many debts to pay. They also had to find a way to fund for the upkeep and development of its roads and army. The government decided to excessively tax the people, who viewed this as unjust. Much of Rome’s wealth came from the wealthy places it conquered, but they eventually reached a point where there were no longer any wealthy rivals to conquer.

Generations passed and soon there were no more people that knew how to farm or earn a living. The powers of Rome made this worse by not educating the masses that first came to the cities after the Punic Wars (Stambaugh, 125). During peace times it was easy to govern these areas but du... ... middle of paper ... ... their entire civilization was based on war, greed, and arrogance. Bibliography Baker, Simon. "Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of An Empire" BBC Books; Reprint edition, 2007 Coolidge, Olivia E. "Lives of Famous Romans."

In the seventh century saw the collapse of the Byzantium Empire, which was defeated and taken over by the Ottoman-Turk Empire from the East of Constantinople. This Essay will access the reasons for decline of such a powerful empire, hit with the ‘Justinian Plague’ and eventually deteriorating after Justinian death . This saw the end to any last element of any Roman Authority in Europe. Military Triumphs During Justinian’s reign he was able to conquer and take over many parts of Europe expanding his Byzantium Empire, which was a huge start in reviving Roman Authority. He took back a huge amount of territory that was once belonged to the Roman Empire before Barbarian invasions in fourth and fifth century in Western Europe including Northern Africa and Italy.

Hannibal would later be exiled and Carthage would never regain its former power. Hopelessly, the Carthaginians tried to stand up to Rome one last time in 151. The city was destroyed and its entire population sold as slaves. Throughout its early history Rome constantly came up new innovative ideas have the upper hand over its enemies. The Romans were a determined people that believed that ruling the world was their destiny and after the defeat of its’ greatest rival Carthage, they were now masters of the Mediterranean.