Roman Empire Essay

The Roman Empire was one of the greatest and longest lasting empires to date, but by A.D. 476 the empire was divided in two and its downfall was inevitable. There are many reasons for the downfall of the Western Roman Empire, some political some economical, but the four biggest factors were religion, war, size, and the decline of the Military. The problems that brought about the downfall of the Western Roman Empire were not unsolvable, but the leaders lacked the will and organization to fix them and the people lacked faith in government and stopped participating in the community. If the Roman people and leaders had just stuck with their traditional values and not let themselves become corrupted, than their empire may have even lasted until today.
Major problems that caused the downfall of the Western Roman Empire include religion, war, size, and the decline of the military. Christianity is one of the major factors because it weakened the bonds that had held the Empire together and caused a major internal conflict. The clergy successfully preached the doctrine of patience which discouraged the active virtues of society and destroyed the last remains of military spirit.Christianity was the cause of many revolts and revolutions against the government which made matters worse. By persecuting the Christians the Romans caused many people to sympathize with the Christians and even join them.
War was another major cause of the downfall of Rome. The Military was a huge strong point of the Empire for most of its existence, but when generals began training armies of their own for personal use it was the beginning of the end. When that happened soldiers were solely in it for the money. The system worked for a long time, but eventually Rome 's enemies began offering the soldiers higher pay thus simply buying most of Rome 's army. A major military failure that contributed to Rome 's downfall was the defeat and slaughter of Varus and his three legions under the rule of