Why Did Rome Fall Research Paper

725 Words2 Pages

Rome was an ancient empire, and a powerful one, at that. It grew from a small village started by two brothers, Romulus and Remus, to a republic. Eventually, it became a huge empire controlled by emperors that lead Rome to being more impressive. But, questions still remain: Why did Rome fall? What event or series of events contributed to the decline of Rome? When Rome was still a republic, it divided into three parts, called a triumvirate. The first one was lead by three people, then fell apart when Caesar was betrayed and murdered. This was orchestrated by his enemies and his “friends” alike. Since Caesar never took his own personal security into account, he was easily surrounded and stabbed to death. This moment caused this part of the triumvirate to virtually collapse in on itself and fail rather quickly. This land was divided between the two other parts of the triumvirate, Antony and Octavian, with Antony ruling in the east, and Octavian, Caesar’s son, ruling in the west. The other two parts on the triumvirate didn’t have any major conflict, but there was much friction and war was avoided with great effort. One example of this was when Antony married Octavian’s sister, Octavia. This lasted for a while and war was prevented. …show more content…

Through numerous conflicts and battles, Rome only kept getting weaker, and the corruption in its politics wasn’t getting any better. Emperors couldn’t stay in power, and not one was a good enough emperor to save Rome from its defeat. Romulus Augustus was the last Roman emperor. Soon, a Germanic mercenary named Odoacer saw a window of opportunity and seized Roman power. He chose not to be Augustus himself, and he didn’t want to serve under another western Augustus. He chose to be simply a victor over the Roman emperor, and as a result, the great Roman empire had

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