The Fall of Ancient Roman Empire - Essay Example

Kevin McHoes English 214 29 September The Fall of Ancient Roman Empire The Ancient Roman Empire fell in the year 476 AD and historians attribute a variety of reasons for the same. However, there is no agreement among the historians as to the reasons for such a calamity. On the other hand, there is a controversy relating to this event that is highly significant not only in Roman history but also has an impact on the entire human civilization. Most of the debates revolve around concepts such as the Romans spending the money recklessly or the irrational manner in which the Romans have acted or the conflicts among various city states within Greece. Could it have been too big of an empire to handle? Were the people in charge just not fit to govern it properly? It transpires that there are many different reasons that can be attributed for the fall of the Roman Empire. One major contributory factor to the fall of Roman Empire is the decline of morals and values in the country. It has been documented that there was nearly 32,000 prostitutes in Rome, both men and women. During the reigns of rulers such as Pax Romana, Caligula and Nero the reigning royalty held infamous parties, wasting huge sums of money, where guests drank and ate to their fill and prostitutes were hired for orgies for the upper class élite. Among the lower class, the most popular amusement was watching the gladiatorial combats in the Colosseum. This encouraged gambling, fighting, and acts of murder. On the other hand, many people claimed that such practices were a part of the Roman culture, but they made the common men lazy.      Although there were many aqueducts and other attempts at sanitation, the public health and environmental problems were severe. The wealthy elite had their water brought to their homes through lead pipes. The aqueducts had a system o purify the water near the source but at the end, the lead pipes were problematic. This caused the death of many wealthy citizens and on the flip side the lack of potable water brought the doom on the peasantry. The mass gathering of people at the Colosseum and the waste they caused, as well as the blood and corpses had entailed the generation of disease that spread across the nation. Those who lived on the streets remained exposed to the diseases, which speeded up the process of spreading. To make things worse, the use of alcohol increased, thus eroding the public health system in Rome.      During the latter years of the empire, most of the farming was done on large estates called latifundia that were owned by rich men who used slaves. The farmers who had to pay the laborers could not produce goods as cheaply, and since they could not afford to compete with the prices, most of them had to wind up production in their farms. This not only affected the farming population but also resulted in the gathering of laid out men and women in the city of Rome. There were occasions when the emperor had to import grain to feed more than 100,000 people in Rome alone. The unemployed people were not only a burden on the entire economic structure of the country but also they had little to do but drink and cause trouble. This, in turn, contributed to an unprecedented increase in crime rates.      The Roman economy suffered severely from inflation and the price of goods increased steeply, causing difficulties to the masses. Many argue that this phenomenon started somewhere after the reign of Marcus Aurelius. Once the Romans stopped fighting and adding new lands, the flow of gold into the Roman economy decreased. Much of Rome’s gold was being spent by the Romans to pay for luxurious materials. This meant that there was less gold to use in coins. As the amount of gold used in coins decreased, the coins became less valuable. To make up for this loss in value, merchants raised the prices of the goods they sold. Many people stopped using coins and began to barter to get what they needed. Eventually, salaries had to be paid in food and clothing, and taxes were collected in fruits and vegetables. The wealthy Romans lived in a domus, or a house with marble walls, floors with colored tile, and windows made of small panes of glass. Most Romans were not rich and they lived in small smelly rooms in apartment houses with six or more stories called islands. Each island covered an entire block. At one time there were 44,000 apartment houses within the city walls of Rome. First-floor apartments were not occupied by the poor since these living quarters rented for not much. Most landlords based their rent on how shaky the wooden stairs a family had to climb. The upper apartments that the poor rented for $40 a year were hot, dirty, crowed, and dangerous. Anyone who could not pay the rent was forced to move out and live on the streets with the drunkenness and violence occurred. Overall, this created chaotic conditions, with diseases and crimes on the rise and poverty ruining the lives of people, which culminated in an unfortunate situation where Rome began to fall apart. Another significant factor that many think had contributed to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire was that during its last 400 years, the scientific achievements in Roman life were limited to engineering and the organization of public services. Although they built really good roads, bridges, and aqueducts, the other aspects of public governance were ignored. They also established the first system of medicine for the benefit of the poor. But since the Romans relied so much on human labor for military and animal labor for farming, they failed to invest money and time on the invention of many new machines or new technology to enhance production more efficiently. Thus, they were unable to provide enough goods for their growing population. They were no longer conquering other civilizations and adapting their technology. Instead, they were actually losing territory they could not longer maintain with their legions. In addition, the Roman Empire had to maintain a large army to defend its vast borders from enemy attacks, which entailed in the depletion of government’s resources. Huge military spending left few resources and little money for productive purposes such as public housing and maintaining quality roads aqueducts, and importantly to combat starvation and diseases or to increase productivity. The Roman soldiers became demoralized and lost their motivation and zeal to defend the nation. Consequently, the government was forced to hire soldiers from the unemployed city mobs with little experience and no enthusiasm. To make things worse, Rome also had to hire soldiers from foreign countries. The end result was an army of unreliable and highly expensive soldiers. Eventually, the Roman administrators were left with no alternative other than to raise taxes which, in turn, led the inflation to skyrocket. Another most difficult problem was its political situation, where they had to choose a new emperor. Unlike Greek states and country where transition in between rulers may not have been smooth but was consistent, the Romans never created an effective system to determine how new emperors would be selected. The choice was always open to discussions among the ruling emperor, the Senate, the Praetorian Guard, and the army. Over the course of time, the Praetorian Guard gained complete authority to choose the new emperor, who would then reward the guard who had gained the most influence among the Praetorian Guard and who made sure they were taking care of as a unit first, and thus starting a cycle. Under this backdrop, in 186 AD, the army strangled the new emperor and the practice of endowing the throne to the highest bidder became the system of electing an emperor. Over the next 100 years, Rome had 37 different emperors, 25 of whom were removed from office by means of assassination. This contributed to the overall weaknesses, decline and fall of the empire. For years, the legendary Roman army held the barbarians of Germany at bay. However, in 3rd century AD, the Roman soldiers were pulled back from the Rhine-Danube to combat the seemingly never ending civil war in Rome. This left the Roman borders open to enemy attack. The Germanic hunters and herders from the north invaded the Roman lands in Greece and Gaul. Subsequently, in 476 AD, the Germanic general Odacer or Odovacar overthrew the last of the Roman emperors, Augustulus Romulus. The western part of the empire was ruled by a Germanic chieftain. Roads and bridges were left to rot and many fields were ruined either from war or were not being used at all. Pirates and bandits operated there, making the roads unsafe for travel. The cities could not be maintained in the absence of goods from the farms and trade and business began to disappear. Thus, unable to sustain the eventualities of these events, the Roman Empire began to crumble and met with its final fall. While historians and scholars to this day grapple with the question of what brought the mighty Roman Empire down, no one can attribute a specific reason that had contributed to the fall of this legendary nation. However, everyone seem to agree to the concept that it was not any singular factor that led to the fall of the nation but the Roman Empire’s downfall can be perceived as the culmination of many eventualities that finally brought it to its doom. Read More