Reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire (Does history repeat itself?)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 was forced to move out and live on the crime-infested streets. Because of this cities began to decay.

During the last 400 years of the empire, the scientific achievements of the Romans were limited almost entirely to engineering and the organization of public services. They built marvelous roads, bridges, and aqueducts. They established the first system of medicine for the benefit of the poor. But since the Romans relied so much on human and animal labor, they failed to invent many new machines or find new technology to produce goods more efficiently. They could not provide enough goods for their growing population. They were no longer conquering other civilizations and adapting their technology, they were actually losing territory they could not longer maintain with their legions.

Maintaining an army to defend the border of the Empire from barbarian attacks was a constant drain on the government. Military spending left few resources for other vital activities, such as providing public housing and maintaining quality roads and aqueducts. Frustrated Romans lost their desire to defend the Empire. The empire had to begin hiring soldiers recruited from the unemployed city mobs or worse from foreign counties. Such an army was not only unreliable, but very expensive. The emperors were forced to raise taxes frequently which in turn led again to increased inflation.

For years, the well-disciplined Roman army held the barbarians of Germany back. Then in the third century A. D. the Roman soldiers were pulled back from the Rhine-Danube frontier to fight civil war in Italy. This left the Roman border open to attack. Gradually Germanic hunters and herders from the north began to overtake Roman lands in Greece and Gaul (later France). Then in 476 A. D. the Germanic general Odacer or Odovacar overthrew the last of the Roman Emperors, Augustulus Romulus. From then on the western part of the Empire was ruled by Germanic chieftain. Roads and bridges were left in disrepair and fields left untilled. Pirates and bandits made travel unsafe. Cities could not be maintained without goods from the farms, trade and business began to disappear. And Rome was no more in the West.

Did the British Empire really pass, or was it transformed?

ie: United States, Australia, Canada..

Good question. If you were a Gibbons writing a 5-volume treatment of the Decline and Fall of the British Empire the loss of the colonial territories of India and Pakistan, Africa and Palistine would be major factors, of course. It may be that the best of Britain really did end in the trenches of 1916 -18, with the eventual outcome of Great Britain versus the Nazis a pretty certain thing had the American cousins and the rest of the Empire not come to her aid.

The Battle of the Somme (July 1 to November 18, 1916), fought on the chalky scrublands of northwestern France, was the bloodiest battle ever fought by the British Army. On the first day of the battle, the British Army suffered 57,470 casualties: 19,240 dead, 35,493 wounded, 21 52 missing, and 585 captured. In the first ten minutes of the attack, one German observer estimated that 14,000 British soldiers fell to the deadly German machine-gun and artillery fire; and in the first twenty-four hours of the battle, the British Army counted more dead than the combined British deaths of the Crimean, Boer, and Korean wars.

Did the British Empire really pass, or was it transformed?

ie: United States, Australia, Canada..

The Battle of the Somme (July 1 to November 18, 1916), fought on the chalky scrublands of northwestern France, was the bloodiest battle ever fought by the British Army. On the first day of the battle, the British Army suffered 57,470 casualties: 19,240 dead, 35,493 wounded, 21 52 missing, and 585 captured. In the first ten minutes of the attack, one German observer estimated that 14,000 British soldiers fell to the deadly German machine-gun and artillery fire; and in the first twenty-four hours of the battle, the British Army counted more dead than the combined British deaths of the Crimean, Boer, and Korean wars.

Did the British Empire really pass, or was it transformed?

ie: United States, Australia, Canada..

The Battle of the Somme (July 1 to November 18, 1916), fought on the chalky scrublands of northwestern France, was the bloodiest battle ever fought by the British Army. On the first day of the battle, the British Army suffered 57,470 casualties: 19,240 dead, 35,493 wounded, 21 52 missing, and 585 captured. In the first ten minutes of the attack, one German observer estimated that 14,000 British soldiers fell to the deadly German machine-gun and artillery fire; and in the first twenty-four hours of the battle, the British Army counted more dead than the combined British deaths of the Crimean, Boer, and Korean wars.

A few parallel notes.

Rome almost fell after Nero was assasinated. But it revived when Trajan took over. It got new blood from the farms of Italy when Rome became corrupt. Later, the good emporers came from outlying provinces, which again were less corrupt than the city of Rome.

Second, part of the problem was depopulation was from a plague brought back from fighting Persia. Also, Malaria was imported into Italy from North Africa, with a great increase in mortality of infants, and the weakening of the health of the adult.

Finally, there is a question about climate change and famine that was worldwide at the time of Rome's fall.

If we were to make Parallels, I would worry about Europe, which is depopulating except for a large hostile Muslim population that is unassimilated. And they are much closer to the Islamofascist center...and unwilling to fight back.

In the US, we assimilate our immigrants and they can become governor of California. We're closer to Trajan's firming up of the Roman empire than the fall of Rome...

"IV. I have reserved for the last the most potent and forcible cause of destruction, the domestic hostilities of the Romans themselves. In a dark period of five hundred years Rome was perpetually afflicted by the sanguinary quarrels of the nobles and the people, the Guelphs and the Ghibelines, the Colonna and Ursini. With some slight alterations, a theater...was transformed into a strong and spacious citidel. Even the churches were encompassed with arms and bulwarks...." (chap seventy-one, abridged verson)....

Ahem. Here is talking about the physical destruction of Roman remains during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, not why the Roman Empire fell.

If you watch Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, his history gets its inspiration from the fall of constantinopolos, and the Uruk hai, who are half man, half orc, refers to the janissaries who were of european fathers and Arab mothers, who were raised as muslim fanatics.

The janissaries were purely European boys who were "taxed" away from the conquered Balkan provinces and educated as Muslims, then used as soldiers and administrators by the Sultan. Although in later centuries the institution deteriorated and eventually became more or less hereditary.

None of you get it. The cultural integrity of the Mediterranean World was still extant in 600 AD. Trade flowed through much of the Mediterranean World as it always had. The Barbarians accepted Greco-Roman civilization and Christianity. So what caused the destruction of the Greco-Roman civilization? Would you believe the Rise of Islam?

After the Islamic Conquests, the Empire was split in twain forever. The lands of the Middle East and North Africa were torn from the West forever and the Iberian peninsula was lost for hundreds of years. A thousand years of cultural integrity were lost forever. The Western European portions suffered the worst as trade was disrupted and its culture fell into a steep decline. The Vikings finished off much of what was left.

The New West would arise as Byzantium served as its Eastern shield. When Byzantium fell and the trade routes to the East were lost, Western Europeans sought alternate ways to the East. Columbus was one of those with a daring theory. You know the rest of the story.

Nothing new about this post.

We started miming the Roman Empires decline in the early 60's and have steadily gained speed toward total wipeout.

We have the socialist/liberals/communist to thank for it all.

It took awhile but they finally succeeded in helping us produce enough rope to hang ourselves with.

Just a general comment on the article and posts. There is too much misinformation here to respond to it all. But mistaking the 4th crusade's attack on Constantinople in the 1200's, for the fall of Rome itself in the 5th century, probably takes the cake. One of my pet peeves is folks who try to tell you "why" Rome fell. The Decline and Fall Of The Roman Empire tells a 1500 year history of the Western and Eastern Roman Empire. Because it is a great work about mankind in general, there are lessons galore for all of us. But like any 1500 year slice of any part of the earth's history, you cannot come up with a snap reason why it all happened.

OK, so you don't agree with Gibbons. I was only citing his reason given in 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.'

Lurking in any culture are antinomian forces that, given sanction or permission, will eventually overwhelm the spirit of the dominant culture. The British Empire was doomed first by the destruction of the British colonial/crusading spirit through the tender ministrations of the Bloomsbury elite. Christianity was dying (see Matthew Arnold) and only the Victorian's still firm backbone kept the form if not the spirit alive. When that died, it was only a question of time. In our culture, the war the pyschologically and spiritually damaged children of the left has waged against the self-reliant, freedom-loving and independent (Christian) spirit of America has almost won a total victory. When they plant their evil flag in the final bastians of our culture, it's just a matter of time before the end.

Ahem. Here is talking about the physical destruction of Roman remains during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, not why the Roman Empire fell...yes. upon more sober reflection in the light of day, you do appear right. I thought I remembered from reading Gibbon thirty-some years ago that he had a section on factions which developed and helped to undermine the empire, but it's too long ago and I'm too lazy to try to find it even if it is there. Thanks for the correction.....

I think the following from the Annals of Tacitus give a pretty good explanation for the fall of the Roman empire as well as the danger we are in:

...Augustus won over the soldiers with gifts, the populace with cheap corn, and all men with the sweets of repose, and so grew greater by degrees, while he concentrated in himself the functions of the Senate, the magistrates, and the laws. He was wholly unopposed, for the boldest spirits had fallen in battle, or in the proscription, while the remaining nobles, the readier they were to be slaves, were raised the higher by wealth and promotion, so that, aggrandised by revolution, they preferred the safety of the present to the dangerous past. Nor did the provinces dislike that condition of affairs, for they distrusted the government of the Senate and the people, because of the rivalries between the leading men and the rapacity of the officials, while the protection of the laws was unavailing, as they were continually deranged by violence, intrigue, and finally by corruption.

In my humble opinion, Roe versus Wade sounds like the decision illegal aliens have to make about the best way to sneak across the Rio Grande. and, incidentally ...

In my humble opinion, nation-building is what ... finished --- The Roman Empire.

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Reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire

All left Rome open to outside invaders