The first similarity between the fall of the Roman and Han empires is the spread of disease. For example, in Rome, malaria arose because of the poor hygiene all over the neighborhoods. People dumped the waste out of the windows and it was plagued with dogs and flies. Therefore, disease spread quickly. Rome also got the back end of small pox coming from the Han dynasty. The Han dynasty has small pox and measles brought to them from immigrants and interactions. Several
thousand died each year, women and children being more vulnerable than men. It makes sense that both empires fell because of the spread of small pox and malaria because the hygiene in the streets was poor and immigrants were coming in from different places bringing the disease. This killed off thousands of people per year and collapsed the empires.
The Roman and Han empires both fell because of external invaders. For example, Rome was sacked by a group of Germans named Visigoths, while the Han's invaders were a Turkish group named Xiongnu. The Visigoths were a strong army who came into the gates of the empire and set fire to the homes. They raped women who resisted and others were killed. After three days they withdrew and took with them gold and prisoners who would become slaves. With the loss of people and the fear of more invaders, the empire couldn’t be controlled and fell apart. The Xiongnu were a powerful nomadic group. They invaded the Han Dynasty for many of the same reasons all invaders come; they invaded to acquire the wealth and resources of the Han Empire by military strength. They simply rode in, killed everyone in their way and rode out with all they could carry. It makes sense that both empires fell due to external invaders because the invaders had great military strength to overpower the empires, resulting in gold and people being stolen. After the invaders left it left the empires in a state of disarray.
One major difference between the fall of the Roman and Han empires was their population size.