When Rome’s Empire fell, many Romans were left jobless, homeless, and devastated. Few remained stable after the amount of distress and despair Rome was put through. There is a long list of reasons of which people could assume from why Rome fell, but out of the many reasons, Laziness, Invasion, and Environmental threats were certainly the three most important. The most important reason for the Fall of Rome is by far the Laziness the Romans had obtained after a couple centuries of being extremely strong and powerful. The romans’ downfall started to make an impact when some of the littlest things Romans stopped caring about began to make a big difference. “It is easy to get lazy. The evidence for this was a love of luxury, a decline in the quality …show more content…
Invasion of opposing armies impacted the Roman empire with great force. As the author states in the background essay, “Controlling this expanded empire meant a larger army, which in turn meant a need for more food, clothing, weapons and supplies. Political strains developed at home. Leaders in Rome focused less on debate and compromise and more on force to get their way. Having existed for centuries as a republic, Rome eventually became more like a dictatorship.” To sum up, having to expand their armies in result of massive invasions, Rome began to lose most of their power and money when they needed more food, clothing, weapons, etc., and political problems began to rise. As it is shown in Document C, you can clearly see the amount of overwhelming invasion directed towards Rome. When all different armies started to invade from different directions, it took Rome by surprise. As a result, Roman armies weren’t prepared and many were defeated, causing the Roman empire to lose many soldiers and great deals of power. The huns were probably one of the most destructive armies towards the Roman empire. “Fired with an overwhelming desire for seizing the property of others, these swift-moving and ungovernable people make their destructive way amid the pillage and slaughter of those who live around them.” (Doc D) Thus, Rome suffered greatly following the attack of the Huns. The invasion of the Huns towards Rome was one …show more content…
Throughout the downfall of the Roman empire, these threats kept Rome in debt and despair. Rome began to have Economical issues as well. “The condition of Roman subjects in time of peace is worse than war. Taxes are severe, and unprincipled men inflict injuries on others. A wealthy lawbreaker is not punished for his injustice while a poor man undergoes the legal penalty. The climax of misery is to have to pay in order to obtain justice.He said that the laws and constitution of the Romans were fair, but deplored that the governors, not possessing the spirit of former generation, were ruining the state.” (Doc E) Then, the Roman empire endured some tough conditions as a result of this happening. As stated in Document F, “More Important in initiating the process of decline was a series of plagues that swept over the empire, which brought diseases from southern Asia to new areas like the mediterranean where no resistance had been established even to contagions such as the measles. The resulting diseases decimated the population.” This shows how the amount of plagues passing through Rome strongly affected it’s fall. Also, as the author states in Document F, “The Roman world was shaken by a violent and destructive earthquake… The shores of the Mediterranean were left dry by the sudden retreat of the sea… but the tide soon returned with the weight of an
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.
The first reason for the fall of Rome were the Roman Emperors. For example, in Document A there was a chart of Roman Emperors from 235-285 CE. The chart was
Essay: Why was it possible for Rome to become an empire and last so long. What were the reasons for it's fall?
Rome was once one of the world's greatest empire until around 200 BCE when Rome started to crumble. The Fall of Rome did not happen suddenly, it took about 1100 years to take place. The first two centuries as an empire were named the "Pax Romana", which meant the time of Roman peace. The Romans were living the life, without a worry in the world. So how and why did Rome start to collapse, if the empire was was doing so grand and magnificent? To answer that question, the primary reasons that Rome started to decline were that the Romans had difficulty with their government which caused social problems/decay, their military was falling behind on their duties and became indolent, and natural disasters.
The Roman Empire will always be known as one of the largest, most influential, and most powerful civilizations in history. Ancient Rome gave the world many things essential to our daily lives even today from concrete to sewage systems. Because of the magnitude of Ancient Rome, it’s collapse was a watershed moment in the history of the world. The primary cause of Rome’s fall is widely debated but what is clear is that there were many factors, internal and external, that eventually caused Rome to collapse. The factors which were the most impactful to Rome’s downfall were the rise of Christianity, overexpansion and a failing economy. The diverse impact of these three causes were combined too much for the empire to overcome and Rome fell in 476
There were many contributing factors to the fall of Rome including high inflation, high military costs, break down in military discipline, moral decay and people lost faith in the Roman government, and Barbarian invasion. Following these events Rome was split into 2 empires which made it susceptible to foreign invasion. In conclusion the division of the empire was the primary reason that Rome fell from its previous glory.
In 146 BCE, Rome had conquered its arch-nemesis, the Carthaginians, and took control of all their lands and possessions, which allowed the Romans to expand through most of Europe. The apparent conclusion derived from this success would be that Rome was now unquestionably the strongest Empire in the world and that any sort of decline would be unimaginable. However, upon closer inspection, it would seem that the newly conquered lands put Rome in a position of weakness rather than strength, almost as if it was marching toward its own death. In fact, Backman states that, "The problem was that the Romans had not exactly planned for their success. 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. This is evident in the following
middle of paper ... ... strength and unity, was left unorganized and practically useless. Rome was the constant victim of barbaric waves of attacks. From the Visigoths, to the franks, to the Huns, they constantly overpowered the Roman armies. This is simply because they knew no limits.
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...
Modern historians have written thousands of books and essays attempting to account for the causes for the fall of Rome. The Roman Empire, from 27 B.C.E. – 476 C.E., ruled the entire Italian Peninsula and controlled all of the land surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. What were the causes that led to the fall of Ancient Rome? English historian Edward Gibson wrote the first major study, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, published in six volumes, which claims many causes for the Rome’s decline, three of which are as followed: Rome’s “immoderate greatness,” or its having become too large to govern itself efficiently; the destructive barbarian invasions, and the rise of Christianity whose ideas supposedly weakened Rome’s traditional martial spirit (Nardo). These three events were not the only reasons for the Roman Empire’s collapse but played a significant part.
“He is said to have been tall of stature… except that towards the end.” What was it that really led to the fall of the Roman Republic? There are a lot of different factors to consider when trying to determine what caused the collapse. By examining The Rubicon, The Life of Julius Caesar, and some accompanying handouts from class, this paper will discuss how the Roman Republic did not collapse because of one factor. The collapse of the Roman Republic was like that of a game of Jenga. Factors were pulled out of the Republican system just like a game of Jenga until the Republic could not stand anymore.
The third event that had an effect or role in the declining of the empire was moral decay. The moral decay that took place was contentment being “replaced by self-indulgence” (BJU, 102). Not only had this been taking place, but people who looked to the government for things such as grain and public amusements contributed to large economic burdens on the empire. Family life went away, divorce grew as well as superstition. Everything that had worked its way into being the backbone of Rome
Attila led an army of Huns into the Roman Empire. These attacks weakened the Roman empire. A second reason why barbarian invasions brought down the empire was because towns that were attacked multiple times lost their ability to produce wealth. This affected the economy of the empire. A third and final reason why barbarian invasions ended the empire was the invasion of Goths led by Odoacer, who became the first barbarian king of the Roman Empire.
An Empire that is too big is not always for the better because there are more problems to be dealt with. In the case of the Roman E...