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First, the Roman Empire became such a vast territory that it took an immense army to protect it, costing a great deal of money, manpower, and land requirements for that army. Those necessities became extremely costly, leading to financial crisis in the Empire.

Second, such a large empire required a vast governmental system to govern it. A huge bureacracy grew first in Rome around the imperial court, but then in the provinces where governing took place among the people. Again, such a system required a great deal of resources that drained the Empire's resources.

A third problem was that ordinarily when Romans acquired lands, they assimilated other people's rather easily in all areas, including culture and religion. The Romans were not great philosophers or theologians, so syncretism worked for them. However, the Jewish people and later Christians would not assimilate into the Roman system, as they would not agree to Emperor worship and would not accept a polytheistic worldview. That led to huge tensions with these groups that went beyond their place of origin in Palestine. Diaspora Jews lived throughout the empire and Christianity transcended race to include everyone. That led to internal conflict within the empire that was unheard of in previous Roman history.

2007-09-26 14:45:20 · answer #1 · answered by Jude & Cristen H 3 · 1 0

There is a new look at this question by Peter Heather, professor at Oxford University, "The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians." He argues that the Roman Empire never "declined." Rather, beginning in AD 376, the financially stretched empire had to meet new barbarian invasions. Also, the barbarians had changed since Julius Caesar and others earlier had fought them. A series of financial crises, new barbarian coalitions, and just plain bad luck led to a failure of Roman administration in Europe by 476. This also explains why the Eastern Roman Empire did not "decline and fall," but went on for another 1000 years.

2007-09-26 14:46:38 · answer #2 · answered by steve_geo1 7 · 1 0

an incredible variety of folk pushing their political ideals contained in this variety of Yahoo! solutions acceptable now, so i visit you need to be as impartial as obtainable. the justifications for the fall down of the Western Roman Empire have been thusly: a million. replace of concentration to Byzantium (Constantinople) and the dissolution of the defenses alongside the north. 2. The incursions of actually some barbarian tribes, inclusive of the Vandals, the Ostrogoths, the Visigoths, and the Franks. This surpassed off by way of Hun invasions led via Atilla, which pushed those tribes deeper into Roman territory. So which of those is extra probably to ensue interior the U. S.? slightly the two, i could say... yet you may desire to assert that the "barbarians" that attacked and vivisected Rome might desire to somewhat be whilst in comparison with terrorist assaults on American soil at present. you additionally can say that the dissolution of the national take care of with a view to combat foreign places wars might desire to be considered as a laxing of defenses at domicile. all the terrific!

2016-11-06 11:40:35 · answer #3 · answered by feiss 4 · 0 0

yes all the barbarians massing all over the borders is a good start.
plus over the centuries the legions became diluted with the natives of the provinces and thus lost the strength of loyalty to the emperor.
the huge instability of the later years in terms of infighting and sheer nos of emperors.
corruption, greed etc at the centre..

2007-09-26 14:49:09 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Look up a summary on the City of God. It will help immensely. It's a book written by a Christian who lived during the fall of the empire where everyone was blaming Christians for all of Rome's problems. He defended Christianity and exposed Rome for what it was. (He's a saint now.)

2007-09-26 14:43:26 · answer #5 · answered by Ten Commandments 5 · 0 1

Well when the empire split into to parts Eastern and Western. The corruption and all the barbarians ganging up and invading them.

2007-09-26 14:38:54 · answer #6 · answered by Matt21 3 · 0 0

Bread and circuses made the Romans to lazy to fight so they weren't prepared for the Goths that were willing to fight them.

2007-09-26 14:40:51 · answer #7 · answered by redunicorn 7 · 0 0

It stopped being a republic and started being a democracy sounds like another country I know.

2007-09-26 15:12:41 · answer #8 · answered by Big Daddy D 3 · 0 0

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