why did ancient rome fall from power?

Answer 1

The history is all in Gibbons' The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which is a huge tome to read from cover to cover, but I shall try and summarise a few main points of it.

The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, a major literary achievement of the Eighteenth Century, was written by the English historian, Edward Gibbon.

Volume I was published in 1776, and went through five printings (a remarkable feat for its time). Volume II was printed in 1781, and the final one in 1788.

The books cover the period of the Roman Empire after Marcus Aurelius from just before 180 to 1453 and beyond, concluding in 1590. They take as their material the behavior and decisions that led to the decay and eventual fall of the Roman Empire in the East and West, offering an explanation on why the Roman Empire fell.

Although he published other books, Gibbon devoted the greater part of his life to this one work.

The book is famous not only because it is extraordinarily well written, but also because Gibbon offers an explanation for why the Roman Empire fell. This is one of the greatest historical questions, and, because of the lack of written records from the time, one of the most difficult to undertake. Gibbon was not the first to theorise on this. In fact most of his ideas are directly taken from Roman moralists of the 4th and 5th centuries who wrote about it at the time; nor would he be the last,

According to Gibbon, the Roman Empire succumbed to barbarian invasions because of a loss of civic virtue among its citizens. They had become lazy and soft, outsourcing their duties to defend their Empire to barbarian mercenaries, who then became so numerous and ingrained that they were then able to easily take over the Empire. Romans, he believed, had become effeminate, unwilling to live the military lifestyle.

In addition Gibbon attacked Christianity. Christianity, he says, created a belief in another world, that is to say that a better life existed after death. This fostered indifference to this life among the Roman citizens who believed they would live a better life once they died, thus sapping their desire to maintain and sacrifice for the Empire. He also believed its comparative pacifism tended to sap the traditional Roman martial spirit.

Finally a quote from Chapter XVII:

In the various states of society, armies are recruited from very different motives. Barbarians are urged by the love of war; the citizens of a free republic may be prompted by a principle of duty; the subjects, or at least the nobles, of a monarchy, are animated by a sentiment of honor; but the timid and luxurious inhabitants of a declining empire must be allured into the service by the hopes of profit, or compelled by the dread of punishment.

Answer 2

The empire got too big for only one person to control, power hunger with far away leaders, plus invaders, plus money issues and citizens desiring freedom all lead to the fall of them, invasions from the nordics and from the brittons and the asiatic nomadic groups from the east and the seperation of the church from the area of modern day Turkey. Thats why.

Answer 3

Because they became too lazy to keep their barbaric foot on the throats of the oppressed. Some also feel that lead pipe plumbing caused mental retardation among the wealthy that could afford plumbing. Guaranteed grain subsidy, biting off more empire than it could chew etc.

Answer 4

Well, the old-fashioned, traditional explanation for the fall of Rome points out the mass migration as the biggest reason for the collapse of Rome.

In ancient European history it happened two or three times that huge migrations took place, hundreds of thousands, even millions of people set out to find new homelands.
The fact that such a mass migration took place whilst the Romans were still in power, must be seen as at least a major contributor to their fall. For as we see in modern days too, armies can fight other armies, but they cannot fight entire peoples. The Romans were overwhelmed in a human deluge.

But today one tends not to rely so much on the idea of mass migration and rather understands Rome as having suffered from an entire list of problems.

Rome had always had its fair share of bad emperors. Caligula, Nero, Commodus are such examples. But there always followed good emperors to correct their errors. At Rome's end however, there was really no good rulers. For example great generals like Stilicho were killed because the emperor feared losing his throne to them. If you kill your best generals, your army will never be as good as it could be.
Also important to the weakening of the Romans was that they began to get more and more civilized. Civilized people were not as good warriors on the battlefields as barbarians. For a long time the Romans had their own barbarians. Gauls, Illyrians, Belgians, Helvetians, Germans, etc.; they all joined the Roman legions. But soon they too were living like Romans. They enjoyed the fruits of Roman civilization and hence became less barbarous, - and less able to fight the barbarian Goths, Vandals, Sueves, etc..
Another important reason is perhaps that of Roman unity. The early Romans who built the empire stood united. By the end of course Rome had two capitals, Rome and Constantinople, each with its own emperor. But to the earlier Romans, Rome had been something special, something they served. But the later Romans only sought power for themselves. Almost every military commanders secretely had his eye on the throne and was ready to overthrow the emperor and take power himself. The armies spent a lot of time fighting each other for power in Rome, rather than fighting the enemy.
To this cataolgue of troubles one needs also to add economic problems. Rome was spending more than it could afford. The free food rations for the poor of Rome and Constantinople were costing a fortune. The Purchasing of exotic spices and silk from the orient ment that over time Rome was spending its gold on overseas luxuries. Gold which didn't return. Soon Rome didn't have enough gold to produce coins with.
And then there were the plagues. Deadly diseases brought in from the east swept across Europe, killing vast numbers among the population of the empire.
Even if the mass migration of the wild, Germanic people of the eastern plains is no longer seen as the all-important reason for Rome's demise, it naturally still is seen as one of the capital problems which caused the empire to fall.
As a last reason I'd also see the disastrous decision of emperor Valens (who was emperor of Constantinople) to allow the Visigoths to settle in Moesia.
The Roman empire's borders to the north had been the river Rhine and the river Danube. They are wide streams and therefore hard to cross. This means, the border was easy to defend. But when the Huns from the east attacked the Visigoths on the other side of the Danube, emperor Valens let them settle on the Roman side of the river. True, the Visigoths then were friends of the Romans. But that soon changed. It didn't take long and bad living conditions, poverty and starvation led the Visigoths to revolt. In the following war, the Romans no longer had a protective river from behind which to defend themelves. The enemy was settled within their own empire. - And it should be the Visigoths who eventually sacked the city of Rome itself.

So, the main points for the fall were
1. bad emperors
2. increasing civilization of the people of the empire (which means weaker soldiers)
3. Roman disunity, endless infighting
4. economic decline
5. plagues
6. mass migration
7. and the settlement of the Visigoths in Moesia

Answer 5

too many f a g s running things in Rome in the mid 400's

Answer 6

The visigoths raided Rome and destroyed the empire.

Answer 7

Alexander the great conquer the world (greed ) cause all great empires will fall, if u live the us and stick around for 300 yrs you ll have u r answer !!

Answer 8

Christianity and population explosions in Western Europe. Basically they finally made the barbarians as advanced as they were. It was quite natural

Answer 9

They Never Learnt How To Handle It.

Answer 10

Because they forgot what it took to get to where they got.......and did not want to pay the price to keep what they had.
They got complacent and a feeling of entitlement set in.