Fall Of Roman Empire Essay

The era dominated by the Roman Empire was one of the most well-known and influential periods of ancient history; that is until 476 A.D. when the empire collapsed. Rome's rule of much of the Mediterranean and vast sections of Europe and Southwest Asia and remained in power for over 1000 years! So why would such a massive empire fall? Rome's many issues led to its fall as there was no one single reason to why, but instead had a series of problems that grew much too large to solve. Unfortunately, no individual cause determines the fall of Rome. Nevertheless, the cause of the fallen empire has long been debated, however, Rome fell to three main theories such as economic issues within the government, division of the empire, and weakening of the
Roman Legions.
Despite Rome's ongoing list of achievements, Rome's poor economy and severe financial instability tied into its tragic failure while weakening the entire empire altogether and led to its inevitable downfall. Before Rome fell the empire experienced a financial crisis as the roman economy suffered from inflation. After the reign of emperor Marcus Aurelius an increase in prices rose; this occurred once Rome stopped conquering new lands due to the lack of gold that once supplied the economy. Gold that once poured into the economy had decreased and the worth of coins dropped. Many romans used food and clothing as currnecy instead of gold coins as a result of the coins being practically worthless. Afterwards, citizens began spending recklessly on luxury items. Once the gold that covered Rome's finances came to a decline, Rome also resorted to taxation. Taxes were issued upon food goods such as fruits and vegetables as well as land, where Rome received much of its wealth. Military spending increased dramatically as well due to the empire having to constantly defend its borders from foreigners. The Romans lost their desire to defend the empire, and the empire began recruiting unemployed citizens from the city mobs or even foreigners into the military. As a result, the military spending left little for the citizens of Rome. The army became extremely unreliable and therefore very expensive. Taxes were also issued to keep the military going so unemployment rose even more. Rome's economical unsustainability and structural economic weakness also tied into Rome's decline. Rome's weaknesses include the inherent problems of a slave-economy, decentralisation of industry/agriculture, and expenses needed to pay for an unreliable military as well. Due to the financial and economic faltering and its commercial and agricultural production in decline, the Empire began to lose its grip on Europe as the empire began to divide and crumble from within. Rome's interwoven weaknesses that assisted Rome's decline includes that the empire grew too large to govern.
The romans solution to this unresolved issue was by dividing the empire into the eastern and western Roman Empire. Although most of Rome was thought to have lasted for 1101 years, (625 BC to AD 476) the eastern Roman empire lasted until AD 1453 or 2078 years. Once the empire was divided into two, with one capital remaining at Rome and another in the east at Nicomedia; the eastern capital would later be moved to Constantinople, old Byzantium, by the emperor Constantine. Since the empire was divided, it remained vulnerable to attack, especially on the Danube-Rhine border to the north. The presence of barbarians along the northern border of the empire existed for years; invansions then ocurred because of the divided empire. The rapid growth of the empire led to the need to defend and protect the borders and territories of Rome. That is until the military became useless and were not considered as a priority but an expense. The people of the conquered lands, most of whom were referred to as barbarians, despised the Romans. All of these factors lead up to Rome's end and after taxes on the foreigners were issued and continued to constantly increase, frequent rebellions arose. The division of Rome caused the empire to break apart, ultimately leading to its own misery and left in
ruble.