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=What was the cause of the fall of the (western) Roman Empire?=

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 * Introduction:**

First when considering the fall of the Roman EmpireRoman Empire, we must ask ourselves, how exactly do we define “fall”? The power of RomeRome over Europe and northern Africa fluctuated a lot during what is considered to be the total time span of the Roman EmpireRoman Empire. Hence, the Roman EmpireRoman Empire, one could argue, had several falls, however, that is not to say each time that the causes where completely different. In this essay I will look at general causes of decline of Roman power, throughout the numerous dips of influence of the Roman Empire, before the final fall of the Roman EmpireRoman Empire. I believe there to be five major causes for loss of power in the Roman EmpireRoman Empire, these being, social breakdown, economic decline, foreign invasion, loss of power over colonies or political deterioration. Each time Rome reached crisis point during the course of its empire, one or more of these factors came into play. social breakdown, economic decline, foreign invasion, loss of power over colonies or political deterioration. Each time RomeRomeRome reached crisis point during the course of its empire, one or more of these factors came into play.


 * Social breakdown** was a particular problem throughout Roman history, as long as there was the empire, there was always social instability in one class or another, this in turn could put strain on the economy and politicians of Rome influencing other types of breakdown. Early examples of social instability are in approximately 100bc when politicians cut the price of corn for the poor (at this time corn mad up most of the revenue in agriculture), this angered the higher classes, as they would make money of selling corn, hence tensions between classes intensified and the rifts between them widened. Later examples include During Nero’s early 1st centaury AD reign the re-construction of Rome after the great fire of Rome and how only the parts of Rome that had been richer where properly re-built (as funding ran out for the total excessively lavish re-construction plan). Also the suppression of different groups in ancient Rome such as the Jews led to huge backlashes by these groups against the Roman rule such as the Jewish revolt of 66-70AD.


 * Economic decline** was another key cause in correlation with the fluctuation of the Roman Empires power. The economics of Rome began high, this for a time, steadily increased at a fast rate as Rome conquered rich civilizations of the ancient world whose power was weakening such as Greece and Egypt. This meant the Roman economy for a time was very high, however, there where some major crisis in the Roman economy during the course of its Empire. One particular example comes from during the reign of the emperor Nero (the early 1st century AD). A great fire consumed most of Rome, Nero decided to re-build it, more grand than it had ever been, however, this required vast amounts of gold. For this Nero drained all temples across the empire and all “colonized” countries of the Roman Empire (such as Egypt). This left huge voids of wealth across the Roman Empire. Also the Roman Empire had depended on conquest and expansion to argument its economy and sustain it, Nero did not interest himself in conquest, instead he used most of the Empires gold but did not conquer to put gold back in. More than a hundred years later in 190 AD, the Egyptian economy is once more brought to the point of collapse due to over taxation by the Romans; this is one of many examples of how Rome’s taxes sometimes caused more damage than good to the Empire. I final example of taxes causing strain to the Roman Empire occurs in 293 AD, at this time, Rome was coming ever closer to its final collapse, this was due mainly to the invasion by Germanic tribes. To try and help against invasion, the Romans appointed another two Emperors in addition to the two there already was, this caused confusion and taxes skyrocketed causing many, rich and poor alike to flee the Roman Empire to avoid the taxes.


 * Political instability** as in all empires was a factor in the fall of the Roman’s. The ancient Roman political history is filled with assassinations and murders. Rome also lost power, politically due to weak emperors that let the power slip to pursue their lusts and to use their power for personal gain, rather than conquest and expansion of empire. One example of particular time of instability in Roman politics is from 70 to 80 AD in which time Rome had three different emperors at different times. Also, other examples are emperors Nero and Commodus both killed by the senate (Commodus murdered, Nero forced to commit suicide) because they became un-hinged with power, Commodus wanting to order the ritual sacrifice consuls and Nero for bringing Rome to the brink of destruction due to completely ignoring the senate all his reign and ordering most of the senate to either give all their gold to the re-construction of Rome or be murdered. Also, at this point, just to gain more money, Nero had the top 6 landowners of Africa executed and claimed their land for the Roman Empire, this shows how the greed of the emperors could cause major political instability.

A possible explanation for the lusts and actions of the emperors is possibly explained by the image above, it shows, how the Roman Empire of the time had the weight of his ancestors achievements to carry around with him and how he felt the need to better them, this is represented by the two heads being carried around by the emperor.

This could also be explained in the quote from the Roman Marcus Aurelius, “To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.” This explains how the Roman emperors wanted to better their ancestors by creating something new, original, to gain revenge in a sense for the task their predecessors set them of beating the example set for them.

"What an artist the world is losing in me!" where Nero’s final words, this shows to us as historians the god-complexes of some Roman emperors this is sometimes reflected by their purely selfish acts and the way it must have been believed an emperor of Rome was to act, as a figurehead that must transcend all previous greatness, this backs up the other quote that shows us how the Roman emperors felt they must be the literal best.

This coin offers a great insight into how power could be ruled from the backseat in Rome, Nero’s mother (Agrippina) at the beginning of Nero’s reign, on this coin, is shown as being in exactly the same level as Nero, nose to nose with him, though Nero, technically the emperor should have been the only one on the coin as he was by law Rome’s ruler.


 * Invasion and losing wars** Rome had for a long time had the world's most powerful army, however, the Roman Empire’s power was undermined and at some points almost completely crushed due to foreign invasion or losing wars. An earlier example would be the massacre of an entire Roman army by a Germanic warrior tribe in the black forest in Germany in 9 AD. In 166AD there where the where huge invasions in northern Italy by the Barbarians, this foreshadowed the fall of Rome and showed how Roman power was beginning to flicker. By 476 AD (the official year of the end of the western half of the Roman Empire) Rome itself had already been completely “cleaned out” by the Visigoths, the Visigoths and Romans fought because the Roman emperor had failed to deliver empty promises and in the Visigoths’ eyes had abused a peace treaty between the Romans and Visigoths.

Above: picture of Hadrian’s wall, this was an attempt by the Roman emperor Hadrian to try and keep out invaders into Roman occupied Britain from Scotland, this proves that the Romans did not ignore the rise of the barbarians, though, in mainland Europe at least, they may have under-estimate it.


 * Loss of power over colonies and occupied countries** shows us how Romans never had full control of their vast empire, particularly famous example takes place in 115 AD, at this time, across most of Rome’s major colonies (Egypt, Cyprus and Cyrenaica) Jews revolt against the Romans at the same time causing wide spread rebellion. In Britain in 142 AD, an anti-roman revolt breaks out in Yorkshire among Brigantes, the most popular tribe in Britain. Closer to the fall of the Western empire in Egypt in 297 AD a revolt was made against the Romans. A particularly famous example is queen Boudica’s (leader of the Iceni tribe) stand against the Romans in Britain. Boudica is supposed to have said, in a war speech just before the battle “I am fighting as an ordinary person who has lost her freedom”, this echoed who in other parts of the Roman empire groups of people that where not considered proper “Romans” (such as Jews, Christians and people of Germanic tribes) where repressed and down-trodden by the Romans, causing high tensions between the groups and the Romans this explains why other groups (such as Jews) rebelled against the Romans.

I conclude that from the evidence above and the wide spread of dates the Roman Empire was always in a cycle of fall and rejuvenation; it would constantly lose power and regain it with powerful leadership. However, at the end of the (western) Roman Empire, the power fell to a point where due to a high combination of all factors simultaneously Rome lacked the power to regain its strength. There would appear to be no main cause, though all of the causes do seem to be inter-related and contribute to each other, such as how political instability could affect the economy, which could also be affected by loss of power over colonies and foreign invasion as well as social decline. So if anything, all factors where contributory to the fall of the Roman Empire, but, all the other factors seemed to cause the problem of economical decline. This, I think, makes all factors but economic breakdown primary factors and economic deterioration a secondary factor.

For my research, I used no internet sites for the information in this essay, I did however use several books, these being:

.A chronicle of world history – (For a wide range of the dates and events used)

.(Accompaniment to the major BBC series) Simon baker – Ancient Rome – The rise and fall of an empire. (Fore-worded by Mary Beard) (For the majority of information about the Emperors of Rome and to establish myself with more background knowledge).

.The oxford history of Ancient Egypt – Ian Shaw (for information about Roman occupied Egypt).

.Several of the horrible history books by Terry Deary (for very basic background information about a few of the events in Rome and about Boudica)