In your opinion way did Rome fall?

Question

the western part to the goths. What do u think were the 3 major reasons?

Answer 1

1. The western and eastern parts split. Most of the tax revenue came from the east, so after the split the west didn't have the income to support armies.

2. There was no clear line of ascension after an emperor died. Usually the top generals fought for the post, resulting in a lot of infighting.

3. Disease and constant assault by barbarians weakened the empire, leading to unsafe conditions that crippled trade and killed tax revenue.

I'm sure there is lots of other reasons. This is a complex topic.

Answer 2

Beginning in 180 with the aptly named Commodus, Rome had a long series of incompetent emperors, especially in the 3rd and again in the 5th century A.D. As one example, Honorius, who was emperor when the Goths sacked Rome in 410, helped the Goths along by putting his best general to death. And when there were strong Emperors (e.g. Julian), they often didn't reign for very long.

Comparing early Rome with later Rome appears to show an increasing unwillingness on the part of the Roman population to fight. Although Hannibal invaded Rome and destroyed the Roman army in 216 BC, he was never able to take Rome; the Romans raised a completely new army and held Hannibal off with essentially guerilla warfare; in fact, I heard that they were so confident in their ability to win that they auctioned off the land under which Hannibal's army was camped. But by 600 years later, the Roman army itself was largely composed of foreigners.

It is also possible that part of the cause was the end of the expansion of the empire. During the days when the Roman empire was expanding, it gained many resources by exploiting the newly conquered lands and people.

I will say more about the Byzantine empire -- although it did survive the end of the Roman empire for a millenium, it too went into a long decline in power and size, successively losing territory first to the Arabs and later to the Turks, until by the 15th century the "empire" wasn't much more than Constantinople by itself. Also, Byzantium made little or nothing in the way of contributions to fields such as science or literature, at least compared to what the Romans had done or the Arabs were doing at that time.

Answer 3

Jim D. put his finger on one very important point, and so you should award him best answer. That point was that the western empire fell, but the eastern empire went on, evolved into the Byzantine empire, and only came to an end in 1453.

There is a modern book that tells why the Roman empire of the west came under a series of attacks in AD 376. After a complex process, the empire of the west finally came undone about AD 476. This is "The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians," by Peter Heather, professor at Oxford University. It's available in cheap paperback, and you may be able to pick it up used on amazon.com or alibris.com

Answer 4

I was always taught that it was because of three things....
1. over expansion... they expanded so much and brought in so many people and cultures that they couldn't contain themselves

2. decline or morality.... they became decadent and literally crazy (which may have been caused by the fact that wealthy people had lead pipes bringing them water and lead poisoning can cause insanity and sterility).

3. and slavery revolts..... uprisings of oppressed people and slaves.

I think the majority was number two. they lost respect for themselves, thier standards slipped... they did not respect thier leadres, towards the end emperors were assasinated and replaced like used socks.....
it was no longer for or by the people... everyone was out for themselves and a situation like that does not work for long.

Answer 5

The society of the Roman Empire was built on warfare. That tends to fail when people are losing more and more of their population and land. At it's peak, the Roman Empire conquered most of the known world. But when it fell, it fell hard. More and more countries despised romans because of their way of life and how imperialistic they were.

Answer 6

They were materialistic, cruel and vicious. Disease and civil wars, they actually killed each other. The poor rose up against the cruel treatment of the rich, royal familys.

Answer 7

1. to big to be controlled only from one place
2. it spread to fast, no economic control
3. religion change

Answer 8

hey I'm alexis d. too

that's a total name steal if I've ever seen one,
what a name stealer.
I don't know about the fall of rome but I can't believe you're using my name