Rome Falls?

Question

anyone have facts about it?
a description or know why
it is important to history?

Answer 1

Google has a bunch of facts and is always willing to tell. Ask him at www.google.com He can also give you a description and tell you why it is important to history.

Clio might be better to ask but she doesn't answer much anymore.

Answer 2

A new and persuasive analysis of why the Western Roman Empire "fell" is in "The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians" by Peter Heather, professor at Oxford. It's a 2006 or 2007 book available in not-so-cheap paperback, but you might find a used one on amazon.com.

Answer 3

My heritage is, of that, in Rome...My father was actually born there, right in the city of Rome. I want you to believe me, when i tell you that i would have very biased opinions about Rome, and i am not impressed with the past rulers of the Roman Empires. I have visited rome twice, and actually, something turns me off about Rome in general.
the next thing i wish to comment on, is: When inviting people to discuss facts about any topic, i believe there needs to be a general understanding or agreement on where their facts are retrieved from. Basically, where, or what are we basing these facts on, and where is our information from, and even, who wrote these things.
Saying all that, it is very difficult to answer your question.

Answer 4

Here are some interesting and helpful links about the Fall of the Roman Empire. Enjoy!:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/gibbon-fall.html
http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/romefallarticles/a/fallofrome.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_the_Roman_Empire

Answer 5

The importance that Rome has over modern civilization can't be overstated. The very fabric of processes in law, military, and economy come from the influence that Rome had on the world.

Rome provided the standards for roads, sewers, plumbing, and taxation that lasts until this day with the only change being technology employed. Before, conquering empires brought language, religion, and culture, but Rome, brought "Rome" with it. When Rome was on a war path they actually built roads and towns as they went, which is why it took years for them to finally defeat any given foe, but by the time they did, their foe found their own people more Roman than native. Consider this, from as far north as Britain, south as Egypt and Arabia, east as Persia, and west to Spain and Morocco. 3 continents of influence, Asia, Africa, and Europe. Moving forward, Rome also forced their brand of Christianity to their subjects, Roman Catholicism, and later the Eastern Empire's Roman Orthodox (Eastern Orthodox).

Now, as for the "Fall of Rome", remember "Rome wasn't built over night" so neither did it "Fall over night." Historians give 476AD as the "Fall of Rome" when Odacer (a Germanic Warlord) sacked Rome and brought the end to Western or Latin Rome. The problem with that is this, the current emperor wasn't Latin, he was a Visigoth (German) and Rome wasn't the capital of Rome anymore, the capital was Ravenna. Besides that the Eastern Roman Empire lasted until 1453, so...

Here is how I will answer it, and I got a nod from several PhD's in history when I did it for my "History Craft" in college.

I will say, the fall of Rome as we envision it, the Latins, the Pantheon, the Gladiators, the Emperors, the Legion, etc; started in 236 and was completely gone by 476. In 236 the "Pax Romana" (Peace that is in Rome) was broken, for the first time since Cesar and Pompey you had legal people claiming power, with legal armies, and legal reasons to do so. For the first time, you had entities that could and did hold the same power, legally, soverignly, and popularly seeking power and involving BOTH citizens and military as a means to take it. As with any Civil War, its costs were heavy. Popular leaders killed, legions crushed or disbanded, patrician (noble elites) families decimated, towns and farms destroyed, slaves rebel or run-away, and citizens generally wondering what is next. The difference is, nobody really won, the last time Cesar, and later Octavian (Augustus) won and took control of Rome. What stopped this Civil War were the invading and migrating Visigoths! They were the only ones with nobles, armies, and people who were capable of leading, so they did. Over 200 years they intermarry and assimilate to Romans and their culture, but maintain an identity seperate from the Latins, mainly their paganism. Elite Romans tried to use their form of Christianity to maintain the same hold paganism did, often mixing the two together. As with most religious people, the Visigoth and Roman populace didn't take to well to it, but it became the "legal" religion once Constantine said so, then he moved the capital to Byzantium (Constantnople) to get away from the "heathen barbarians" The Latin-Visigoth emperors then tried to bring paganism back, which resulted in more Civil War, then came Odacer. Odacer (Germanic himself), sought refuge from the over-powering Germanic, Slavic, Vandal and Frankish tribes that were moving in Odacer's tribal lands, the West (Latin-Visigoth) Roman Empire granted him land in modern day Austria and North Italy in exchange for servitude and military alliance. The Western Roman Empire immediately started to demand high taxes, and led suicidial military expeditions with Odacers people. Soon, Odacer, took his army back and threatened to sack Rome if his people weren't treated fairly and given ownership of the lands they occupied. Western Rome scoffed at the idea, and paid dearly. Odacer sacked Rome, killed the last Latin-Visigoth King and ramsacked the rest of the Italian peninsula. Now the only "Roman" Empire left was the Eastern or Byzantine Empire, which was culturally, religiously, and linguistically NOT Latin-Rome like the West was.

After Odacer, Italy and Rome the city itself became a pawn of colonial and political ambitions. Not until Garibaldi in 1848 some 1400 years later did Italy (The center that was Rome) become a unified country.

From 500 - 1848 Italy was the choice land to have to assert power in the Catholic Church and therefore Europe itself. Holy Roman, Frankish, French, Italian, Scicilian, Austro-Hungarian, Lombard, Spanish, Dutch, and/or Turkish empires sought it as more of a "psychological" colony or holding showing dominance in the world scene. Since the 1850's that position has waned as more Northern European nations rose to prominence in the world scene.

The legal terms: Republic, Facism, Dictator, citizen, province, Senator, Kaiser, Tsar, and "Party" (as in political party) all come from Roman influence. Rome was a Republic or reps from different "provincia" (proviences) would meet and make decisions. Cesar was a "Dictator" and since when a person isn't a "Royal Soverign" they are a dictator. Tsar and Kaiser come from the word Cesar, which came to mean king or emperor. Noble families were called "partrician" and their alliances and followers were "patrio" where we get patriot and party (as in politcal party). When Mussolini came to power he used the old Roman "fasces" an axe bound together with reeds (symbolic of one reed is weak, but many are strong when allied militarily or the axe) he called it "fascism."

I hope it helps, that is the most condensed version I can muster.