What eventually brought down the mighty Roman Empire?

There were a lot of factors in the decline of the empire, which happened over several centuries: the development of Christianity, unrest among conquered peoples, corruption and greed among the high-ups- the list goes on (and the lead plumbing didn't help any). But the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak, was the sack of Rome on September 4, 476 CE by Visigoths and other Germanic tribes lead by Odoacer. That was essentially the end of the Western Roman Empire. The Eastern Roman Empire continued as the Byzantine Empire for almost 1,000 more years until it fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453.

According to Gibbon , mighty Roman Empire ended in A.D. 476. it is believed that Rome fell because of a combination of such factors as Christianity, decadence, lead, monetary, and military problems. The other explanations for the Fall of Rome are Decay,Financial Problems,The Dole and Barbarians,Economic, Military, Gradual Christianity,

Vandals and Religious Controversy ,Division of the Empire,

Lead, Hoarding and Deficit.

That depends on how you define the Roman Empire...

1) ancient Rome - Constantine I the Great's Edict of Milan in 313 officially tolerated Christianity, spelling the beginning of the end of pagan Rome.

2) the city of Rome - sacked in 410 by the Visigoths, led by Alaric I, you could argue that this was the beginning of the end.

3) the western Roman Empire - Charlemagne called himself the Holy Roman Emperor in 800, and the last HRE was Francis II of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, who reigned until August 6, 1806, when the Holy Roman Empire was disbanded. Could Rome have gone on this long...?

4) the Byzantine Empire - the eastern half of the Roman Empire survived until the defeat of Constantinople by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror in 1453.

5) the domain of "Caesar" - Ivan III Vasilevich the Great of Russia adopted the title of "Tsar" after defeating the Mongols and marrying Sophia Paleologue, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor in 1472. This line of Caesars ended with the death of Nicholas II of Russia in 1917.

The problem lay in many areas but the biggest one would have to be the sheer size of the empire and the failures of central administration.Rome never really evolved an orderly succession of power system.The nominating of a successor

guaranteed despotism.It results in the situation where .sycophants and cronies rise to eminent positions and compete for favor.This type of system does not fall quickly for in a mighty empire it corrodes slowly.

To quote Robert Heinlein

No state has an inherent right to survive through conscript troops and, in the long run, no state ever has. Roman matrons used to say to their sons: “Come back with your shield, or on it.” Later on this custom declined. So did Rome.

1. Greed

2. Bad management of its people (native and conquered)

3. Lead Plumbing

4. Bad management of its rescources

Do all of these look familiar?

Cleopatra's ambition as well as the inbreeding, the excesses of the nobles and the warring barbarian tribes. But overall I'd blame Cleo.

lead plumbing.