Why did the Roman Empire fall?

There were many reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire. Each one intertwined with the next. Many even blame the introduction of Christianity for the decline. Christianity made many Roman citizens into pacifists, making it more difficult to defend against the barbarian attackers. Also money used to build churches could have been used to maintain the empire. Although some argue that Christianity may have provided some morals and values for a declining civilization and therefore may have actually prolonged the imperial era.

Decline in Morals and Values

Those morals and values that kept together the Roman legions and thus the empire could not be maintained towards the end of the empire. Crimes of violence made the streets of the larger cities unsafe. Even during PaxRomana there were 32,000 prostitutes in Rome. Emperors like Nero and Caligula became infamous for wasting money on lavish parties where guests ate and drank until they became ill. The most popular amusement was watching the gladiatorial combats in the Colosseum. These were attended by the poor, the rich, and frequently the emperor himself. As gladiators fought, vicious cries and curses were heard from the audience. One contest after another was staged in the course of a single day. Should the ground become too soaked with blood, it was covered over with a fresh layer of sand and the performance went on.

Public Health

There were many public health and environmental problems. Many of the wealthy had water brought to their homes through lead pipes. Previously the aqueducts had even purified the water but at the end lead pipes were thought to be preferable. The wealthy death rate was very high. The continuous interaction of people at the Colosseum, the blood and death probable spread disease. Those who lived on the streets in continuous contact allowed for an uninterrupted strain of disease much like the homeless in the poorer run shelters of today. Alcohol use increased as well adding to the incompetency of the general public.

Political Corruption

One of the most difficult problems was choosing a new emperor. Unlike Greece where transition may not have been smooth but was at least consistent, the Romans never created an effective system to determine how new emperors would be selected. The choice was always open to debate between the old emperor, the Senate, the Praetorian Guard (the emperor's's private army), and the army. Gradually, the Praetorian Guard gained complete authority to choose the new emperor, who rewarded the guard who then became more influential, perpetuating the cycle. Then in 186 A. D. the army strangled the new emperor, the practice began of selling the throne to the highest bidder. During the next 100 years, Rome had 37 different emperors - 25 of whom were removed from office by assassination. This contributed to the overall weaknesses of the empire.

Unemployment

During the latter years of the empire farming was done on large estates called latifundia that were owned by wealthy men who used slave labor. A farmer who had to pay workmen could not produce goods as cheaply. Many farmers could not compete with these low prices and lost or sold their farms. This not only undermined the citizen farmer who passed his values to his family, but also filled the cities with unemployed people. At one time, the emperor was importing grain to feed more than 100,000 people in Rome alone. These people were not only a burden but also had little to do but cause trouble and contribute to an ever increasing crime rate.

Inflation

The roman economy suffered from inflation (an increase in prices) beginning after the reign of Marcus Aurelius. Once the Romans stopped conquering new lands, the flow of gold into the Roman economy decreased. Yet much gold was being spent by the romans to pay for luxury items. This meant that there was less gold to use in coins. As the amount of gold used in coins decreased, the coins became less valuable. To make up for this loss in value, merchants raised the prices on the goods they sold. Many people stopped using coins and began to barter to get what they needed. Eventually, salaries had to be paid in food and clothing, and taxes were collected in fruits and vegetables.

Urban decay

Wealthy Romans lived in a domus, or house, with marble walls, floors with intricate colored tiles, and windows made of small panes of glass. Most Romans, however, were not rich, They lived in small smelly rooms in apartment houses with six or more stories called islands. Each island covered an entire block. At one time there were 44,000 apartment houses within the city walls of Rome. First-floor apartments were not occupied by the poor since these living quarters rented for about $00 a year. The more shaky wooden stairs a family had to climb, the cheaper the rent became. The upper apartments that the poor rented for $40 a year were hot, dirty, crowed, and dangerous. Anyone who could not pay the rent w

A few factors contributed. Of course there are several more, but these are the largest, and most important ones:

Over Expansion - They could not control their borders. (Particularly Germany). This leads to the second factor.

Declining Military Power - The Roman Military was overstretched, and almost everywhere it was engaged, it was fighting a guerrilla war. In fact, the Visigoths actually sacked Rome in 410 before the Empire fell.

Weak Leadership - By the time of the Fall of the Empire, the leadership of Rome had been tactically inept, apathetic to his position, stupid, or a combination of the three for quite some time.

However, it is important to keep in mind that Rome didn't completely fall. The Eastern Roman Empire, or the Byzantine Empire, survived for over a thousand years after the collapse of the Western Empire, and was a major player even into the Middle Ages. (They caused the Crusades)

The roman empire fell because it decayed from the inside, what with corruption amongst officials, vast differences in personal wealth and vast proportion of the populace subjugated as slaves, the Romans no longer remembered what it was to be a Roman citizen. With large sections of the legions replaced by Germanic mercenaries and further harrassment from the german tribes to the north and loss of territories to the Persians in the east the empire was ripe for the plucking by the time Attilla and the Huns arrived. Rome by this time lacked the spirit and the means for a fight. The empire was already pretty much two seperate entities divided between east and west and with no unity they were overun in the west, the eastern empire it could be argued held out for another 1000 years until the fall of constanstinople in the 15th century. The empire in the west split into many different factions, and reunited under german kings as The Holy Roman Empire.

The Roman Empire fell in the 7th century AD because of a combination of the following reasons:-

1. The Empire was facing attacks from the Germanic tribes of North Europe, including the Franks, Lombards, and the Visigoths. They forced Romans to abandon huge territories beyond the Danube.

2. In the East, the Persian-Sassanid empire was advancing rapidly, attacking the eastern frontiers.

3. The Arabic Empire of the newly formed religion Islam was also capturing territories from the East, including Antioch, and other areas bordering the Red Sea.

4. Besides, the aristocracy within the Roman Empire became largely inefficient-the political system could not sustain for long.

Lots of factors contributed to the fall of the Roman empire. The main one, I think, is military. The Sassanid empire was a much bigger thread than the old Parthian empire. (The Parthians rarely besieged cities, but the Sassanids did. Very successful.)

To counter this thread the taxes had to be raised to very high levels. That was done, and the thread was countered. But a new thread occurred: the Germanic tribes. Not the same Germans encountered by Caesar, but much more advanced tribes. Their society had changed a lot since Caesar. Bigger tribes, better armed and with much better leadership.

Both threads at the same time simply were too much for the empire to bear. Once the Goths successfully gained entrance to the Roman empire a negative spiral set in. The economy was based on land. When German tribes took over a province, the tax revenue was lost. At least temporarily. This affected the army: instead of being able to recruit more and better troops, there was less money available. So less troops and of much lesser quality could be raised.

This resulted in more territory lost, less revenue, less troops. Add to this incompetent leadership. Stilicho was murdered by the emperor himself no less without anyone remotely being able to replace him. The emperor was a dolt, and that is being polite. His entourage, and those guys created and implemented policy were not much better.

That's why the empire disappeared in less than 50 years. Don't blame the landowners to make deals with the Germanic tribes. They had little choice: you can't pick up your land and set up shop elsewhere. The best they could do is work out a deal with the new rulers.

The economy of the Roman Empire was funded by its wars of expansion. When it became too large to expand any more (about 300 ad) It suffered from economic and political collapse.

The Romans tried to stop this by splitting the Empire into two parts. The Western part fell in 480 ad, and the Eastern part (Byzantium) existed until it was conquered by Islamic invaders in the early 1500s.

It is interesting to compare Rome with the Chinese Empire. China was also united under one emporer 2000 years ago, yet it did not fragment as the Roman empire did.

The emporor decided to confiscate all the steel weapons in China in order to prevent uprising, which is why Chinese use chopsticks instead of metal utensils.

China also keep order through ruthless punishment. There were 4 degrees of execution: 1- the prisoner is executed, 2- his immediate family is also executed, 3 - his entire tribe, extended family, was executed, 4- his entire village was wiped out.

They also had amusing means of executing prisoners such as frying them alive in giant wok.

smalls is more or less correct, but let's try to be a bit more precise...

For the same reason that ALL ENTITIES appear, then grow, then peak, then decline, and then disappear.

The fundamental rules of this dimension are:

1) You can only change, you cannot stay the same.

2) What has a _______ also has a _______.

> FILL IN THE FIRST BLANK WITH ANY ONE OF THESE:

beginning, middle, end

>> THEN YOU CAN FILL IN THE SECOND BLANK WITH EITHER OF THE REMAINING TERMS.

Now you may ask, why do these rules exist? That takes you into the field of metaphysics, which is at least as interesting as history.

Try doing a google search on metaphysics.

Germanic tribes came kicking on their doorstep.

Financially (growing bankrupt) & military has dimished toward the end. Other powers came to be around them.

see what happend is, all of the roman empire lined up in a straight line (like you stack dominoes to make a chain fall) then julius ceesar pushed them (like you push dominoes to make a chain fall) then they all fell down (like they fall dominoes when you make a chain fall)..