How over expansion and militarism led to the fall of Rome - Essay Example

? How over expansion and militarism led to the fall of Rome. Lecturer How over expansion and militarism led to the fall of Rome. Thefall of the Roman Empire remains unknown to many. The causes are narrated to date, and several reasons have been given in relation to its destruction. History shows that the Roman Empire was one of the strongest and best Empires that one could admire, but as its leadership progressed, several things happened. After a long period of time, what happened resulted in the collapse of the Empire. Though several issues let the fall of the empire, over expansion and militarism are believed to have played a key role in its collapse. This paper seeks to analyze how over- extension and militarism led to the drop of Rome, among other known factors that caused its fall (Parson, 2010). The term Roman Empire referred to a period in the history of Ancient when Rome, as well as its territories, ware ruled by tyrannical Emperors. The empire is believed to have lasted from 27 BC-475 AD, a period believed to be more than 500 years. During this era, the Roman Empire was very powerful and had territories covering south and west Europe, land around the Mediterranean Sea, Britain, North African and Asia Minor(Goldsworthy, 2009a). From the mentioned continents, it is evident that Roman Empire had widened its boundaries extensively. However, its expansionism strategies were diminished by its fall. Though this may be one of the features that led to the fall of Roman Empire, there are also other major factors that contributed to the same (Gibbon, & Bury, 1946). According to Gibbon (1932) and Goldsworthy (2009b), events took place in a chronological manner, and therefore, one cannot say that there was no order in which these factors occurred over the period of about five hundred years. The five hundred years that took place before the rise and fall of Rome Empire were accompanied by many factors that resulted in its decline. The major causes of Roman Empire’s decline can be detailed as follows: Antagonism between the Senate and the Emperor Political Corruption and the Praetorian Guard Decline in Morals Constant Wars and Heavy Military Spending Barbarian’s Knowledge of Roman Military Tactics The 'Mob' and the value of the 'Games' Decline in Ethics and Values Fast expansion of the Empire Unemployment of the Working Classes (The Plebs) Failing Economy Christianity Barbarian Invasion Natural Disasters and slave labor Antagonism between the Senate and the Emperor As in examples above, antagonism between the senate and the Emperor could be counted as one of the major causes of the collapse of the Rome Empire. At this time, the legal powers to rule the Rome’s religious, the civil and military associations were under the emperor while the senate acted as an advisory body. Though the two bodies were meant to act together, things never worked as their relationship began to change (Perkins, 2005). The emperor had no authority over life and death. The two bodies started taking different directions as the authoritative and affluent roman Emperors unavoidably become corrupted and lived a dishonest, deceptive and dishonest lifestyle (Parsons, 2010). As a result of this, Roman Empire experienced a lot of opposition between the Emperors and the Senators. In his case, everybody saw each other as the most corrupt, viewed each other as enemies and as enmity persisted, poor leadership set in resulting in the collapse of the empire (Nardo, 2001). Constant Wars and Heavy Military Spending This being one of the results of the fall of Roman Empire, constant war played a vital role in its fall. Since the empire was growing at a rapid pace, it needed more soldiers for it to survive a great conqueror. In this case, constant fighting needed heavy military spending. This demand for the military was high since the Roman Empire became over stretched, and the need for more solders was proportional to its obligations for expansion and protection of their overstretched territories (Fagan & Stonebarger, 1999). Due to this, there was overspending in the military body, hence other fundamental activities were left with few resources. Vital issues such as provision of houses to the public, quality roads and channel were left untouched. This also resulted in emperors raising taxes repeatedly resulting in increased levels of in inflation (Lafferty, 1971). Not every person was pleased by ways of governing. This resulted in aggrieved Romans who lost their desire to defend their empire. This gives no option to the expirers, and they had to begin hiring soldiers, recruited and trained them. This process was much demanding, but since there was no option and they wanted to remain in power, they made unacceptable decisions, which turned against them later. This was one of the mistakes that they did, by not considering the fact that for every nation they conquered, the citizens of the conquered nations became enemies and could do anything to revenge (Burgan, 2004). Barbarians’ Knowledge of Roman Military Tactics The overexpansion of the Roman Empire demanded more militaries and therefore, Roman alone could not raise the number of Armies required. As a result, they had to get them from those nations that they subjugated (James, 2006). The other nations’ soldiers (Barbarian) were to assist the Roman Empire “the conquerors” and therefore; they were given the same training that was given to the Roman soldiers. This resulted in them gaining tactics and knowledge as they served in the military. The barbarians used the attained tactics to turn against them, and Rome was attacked by the Visigoths who were led by ex-army soldiers (Nardo, 2001). Though Rome was doing well and had evidence while conquering any nation, over expanding resulted in need for more soldiers. The foreign soldiers only become their enemies since they were not contented for being conquered, the reason why they took the benefit of gaining military tactics to turn against their enemies (Burgan, 2004). The ‘Mob’ and the cost of the ‘Games’ The Roman Empire was becoming bigger every time they conquered a new nation. This contributed to big population growth in the Empire. When thousands population in Rome were jaded, they were rioting in the streets since they had nothing to do and sometime opposing what was being done. To solve what was happening, there was a need to amuse them (the mob) and extravagant gladiatorial games had to be endowed with to keep people busy (Marcovitz, 2012). The Emperors were to sponsor the games and this opened a loophole for others to use Emperors’ funds. As mentioned above, the Empire had already had corrupt persons who only wanted to benefit themselves. Just the same way, there emerged a group of corrupt politicians who sponsored the games but with an aim of having favor and support from the ‘mob’. This continued for some time, and the coast of gladiatorial games rose at an alarming rate, to account a third of the entire revenue of the Rome Empire. This squeezed the Emperors who could not meet people’s needs properly, as they wanted to keep bored persons amused, a fact that led to the subside of the empire (Readers Digest Association, 2003). Decline in Ethics and Values The Roman Empire was most interested in conquering other nations and therefore, people with different backgrounds, ethics and valued connected. Life changed, and people no longer considered ethics in any way. There was more bloodshed and brutality among the people (Bauer, 2007). This marked the decline of values, customs, the ideas and tradition institutions that Romans had. Decline in morals was conspicuous in the upper class which belonged to the rich, nobility and emperors. They practiced immorality as well promiscuous sexual behavior which among them were adultery and orgies (Marcovitz, 2012). It was said that Tiberius kept juvenile boys for their pleasure; Nero had their male slaves castrated so that they could take them as their wives. Elagabalus forced nuns into marriages. The lower classes and slaves were as well affected by the decline in morals. During religious festivals like Saturnalia and Bacchanalia, there was sexual promiscuity and brothels were forced into the acts. There were no human principles and no one cared about what was wrong or right since human ethics and values were lost (Chua, 2007). Fast expansion of the Empire Expansion of the Rome Empire can be referred to as one of the main causes of its crumple. Rome kept conquering many nations, and this resulted rapid growth in the land they owned. Consequently, there was a great need to defend the borders and the territories of Rome. As they struggle to keep this under their control, emperors increased taxes on non-Romans and these created more enmity where frequent rebellions arose. Lack of enough solders to safeguard their territories forced them to employ foreigners who were against them resulting in the collapse of the empire (Condon, 1994). Unemployment of the Working Classes Over expanded territory had people from different ethnics and over populated. As a result of these, labor was informed of slavery, and cheap slave labor was introduced resulting to unemployment. Plebs in Rome were not able to compete with foreign trade and therefore, the government was forced to reduce the working class by coming up with different prices. After such a decision by the government, the Romans decided to sacrifice their way of leaving by depending on the government. The other challenge that resulted from this is that the Barbarians who were from the military also abandoned their places of work and this resulted in high crimes in Rome hence its decline (Nardo, 2001). Failing Economy Roman Empire faced a failing economy and increased levels of inflation. Inflation is a state where prices increase and the purchasing power of currency declines. The Rome Empire was in this situation, and the government was threatened of impoverishment as it did not have sufficient cash to cater for its needs (Johnson, 2004). Overexpansion and efforts to protect their territories resulted in this. For instance, the increased population required more militaries and the demand forced them to recruit and train more people. This process was demanding and more money was used in paying the large numbers of military personnel (Chua, 2007). The other factor is that after they stopped new lands conquering, the flow of gold to their economy decreased. This resulted to less use of coins and the coin become less valuable. Due to over-expansion of the territories, there were more merchants from the conquered places who raised the prices of the goods that they sold. Several persons changed their way of trading and butter trade erupted eventually. People stopped using coins, and they began to undertake barter trade in order to get what they wanted from others (Bryce, 1961). This went to as far as paying salaries in the form of food and clothing while tax collection also changed, and vegetables and fruits were used to pay taxes. In this case, the expansion of territories shows how the economy was affected resulting to its decline (Readers Digest Association, 2003). Christianity Christianity religion was never known to the Roman Empire. After the expansion of the Empire, different people had different beliefs and among them were the Christians. Christian doctrines which taught about Jesus and life after death changed many people’s beliefs. Before Christianity, life in Rome was more than hopeless since people were used to the governance of the hostile emperors (Marcovitz, 2012).After Christianity, they were taught on the belief of life after death, and the hope of living was revived to many people. Ultimately, Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and promised to protect other Christians. Consequently, life in Rome Empire changed from being aggressive to pacifistic. Concurrently, the way of doing things changed and the level of corruption dropped. This made it difficult for the goons to continue with their businesses, and since the empire was full of corrupt persons, strict rules were applied by Emperors, hence the fall of the empire as Roman officials always acquired properties illegally which sustained them in their powers (Schiavone,2000). Barbarian Invasion Just like any other reason for the fall of Roman Empire, its collapse this was due to the expansion of militarism in the Empire. Since Rome was not able to raise the number of soldiers it required and as a result of their soldiers getting tired and frustrated when safeguarding their territories, the government had to hire soldiers from the places it had conquered. As a result, Barbarians were hired, as well. In this case, they were anti-Romans who were uncultured, violent and non- Christians (Berman, 2006). This resulted in the barbarian group forming militaries like the Visigoths, Vandals and Huns. Though they were disciplined for years, they took advantage of the Roman armies pulling back to fight the civil war in Italy leaving their boundaries un-protected. Eventually, the German hunters started to take the Roman’s land from the North in Greece and France. The barbarians were able to overthrow the Roman Empire, and this signaled the collapse of Roman authority hence the fall of the Empire (Kelly, 2009). Natural Disasters and Slave Labor During the time of the reign of the Roman Empire, foreign wars were not the only obstacle from street fights and civil wars but also natural disasters. In this case, natural disasters, such as plagues and earthquakes were also affecting them. Famine which could also be as an effect of overpopulation, also affected them. Civil wars made it impossible for people to concentrate in farming hence famine become a major disaster (Schiavone, 2000). The fall of Rome Empire was contributed by many factors but the few mentioned factors seemed to be the main factors. Though one may say that Rome Empire collapsed completely, there are still debates opposing the fall of the Empire, but the reality is that over expansion and militarism contributed to the collapse of the great Roman Empire. (Nardo, 2001). References Bauer, S. W. (2007). The history of the ancient world: from the earliest accounts to the fall of Rome. New York: W.W. Norton. Berman, M. (2006). Dark ages America: the final phase of empire. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Bryce, J. B. (1961). The Holy Roman Empire. New York: Schocken Books. Burgan, M. (2004). Empire of Ancient Rome. New York: Infobase Pub.. Chua, A. (2007). Day of empire: how hyperpowers rise to global dominance--and why they fall. New York: Doubleday. Condon, C. (1994). The modern world: conflict and change. South Melbourne: Macmillan Education. Fagan, G. G., & Stonebarger, T. (1999). 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