Barbarians in Rome?

Question

I have read that Rome was destroyed by the Barbarians?

In what way did Rome fall from power?

Answer 1

It is all set out in scholarly detail in 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' by Edward Gibbon. I hope you enjoy reading as it runs to eight volumes. Which is why I am not attempting to summarise it in a few paragraphs. Enjoy!

Answer 2

Edward Gibbons took a multi-volume book to answer that question, but the barbarians played a big role. In many ways, the Huns began it. Some time in the fourth century A. D., the Huns, then living in central Asia, undertook to expand or migrate to the west, pushing out their nearest neighbors on that side, the Ostrogoths, in the process. The Ostrogroths in turn moved west, pushing out THEIR neighbors, the Visigoths, who became wanderers and began infringing on the boundaries of the Roman Empire. A generation later, the Huns moved again, setting the Ostrogoths in motion as well. By the end of the century, the Empire was being assailed to the degree that it withdrew its armies from the province of Britain to defend territory closer to home. Visigoths sacked Rome in 410, and another Gemanic group, the Vandals, did so in 455. (The Vandals had already attacked the Roman city of Hippo in North Africa in 430, and St. Augustine got up off his deathbed to face them down. Then in 450, the Huns, under Attila, invaded Italy but did not attack Rome. ) By now, Roman authority was weakening in many of parts of the Empire. Finally, in 476, the last Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, a boy named Romulus Augustus, who had been placed on the throne by his father, the commanding general of the Roman armies, was deposed and replaced by an barbarian chieftain, Odoacer/Ottocar. This event marks the fall of the Western Empire, although the Eastern Empire, based at Constantinople, continued until Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453.

Answer 3

There were many causes of the decline and fall of the western empire, not just one. And the barbarian invasions from the north-east, one wave after another for more than a century, played a big part, in that the Romans were compelled to keep a large, expensive standing army, which required increasingly heavy taxation, which in turn was levied across an increasingly narrow part of the population. Eventually, there was an implosion, in that heavy resistance to the crushing taxes became increasingly wide spread, the lower levels of the massive Imperial bureacracy (tax collectors at the local level) deserted their jobs, and finally elements of the Rhein stationary armies (who were largely mercenaries) deserted when presented with insufficient pay for several seasons in a row. It is a complex story played out over more than 100 years by many leaders and forces. And by the way, Christianity played a role as well. Well educated ambitious Romans, by the late 4th century, increasingly sought careers in the church, instead of military or legal careers, as formerly.

Answer 4

Yes, Rome was overrun by the Vandals and other barbaric tribes. But, Rome started pulling its troops back, bringing them home, long before that. Once Rome started bringing it troops home, the various countries saw it as a sign of weakness and became emboldened, hastening the process.
But, the real reason Rome fell was do to divisiveness within; Roman rulers became increasingly corrupt, more and more drunkenness and other "sinful" ways of living. THAT is why Rome fell.
Read the "Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire", it is rather long, however.

Answer 5

The fall of the Roman Empire was a long and complicated process, eventually leaving it weakened enough for invaders to take over Rome and end Roman rule in most of Europe. Roman control shifted over to the eastern part of the empire.
http://killeenroos.com/1/Romefall.htm