The Fall of Rome - Research Paper Example

The Fall of Rome The ‘fall of Rome’ is often talked about as an event, a reference that has becomeiconic for the end of a great moment or enterprise. Rome is remembered as more than just a city, but as a place of romance, power, and intrigue. The truth of the events that led to the end of ancient Rome, however, is more complicated than any one event in history. The end of this nation-state occurred through a series of circumstances that provided for cataclysmic change, opening up vulnerabilities that were exploited by those who would wish to see the end of the conquering habits of Rome. The irony of the beginning and the end of the end of Rome is that the mythic man who built Rome, Romulus, is the name of the last emperor to rule over the state of Rome. Romulus Augustulus was the last emperor of Rome, his reign ending in 476 BCE when Flavius Odoacer deposed the emperor in the name of Constantinople (Illustrated History of the Roman Empire). This change is most often considered the moment that marks the end of ancient Rome and the beginning of the Western European Middle Ages (Schafer and Cohen 100). According to what is known about the last emperor, he was merely a teenager when his empire fell and was allowed to live, retired to the region of Naples with an annual pension. The power of the emperor had run so low that the new regime felt no threat from his living presence (Sass, Weigand, Pearson and Hattikudur 111). The problem with considering the ‘Fall of Rome’ is in determining exactly when Rome fell. If Rome is considered a concept more than a place, the fall of the empire might not have actually occurred until 1453 when Constantinople fell. If it is considered a place, the fall happened much earlier than the date of the deposing of Romulus Augustulus and occurred when Emperor Constantine moved the capital from Rome to Bosporus in Constantinople in 330CE. The only reason that it is considered to have fallen in 476BCE is because the line of emperors was broken during that event, but the fall of the Roman Empire can be considered through a vast number of events which makes the Empire either a short event in history or a very long event in history, spanning more than a millennia (Cunningham and Reich 108). Rome was a phenomenon that has yet to be truly rivaled since its time. At its height, the empire of Rome was spread from Hadrian’s Wall in Briton to the River Euphrates in Western Asia. According to Heather “interconnected fortress systems, strategic road networks, and professional, highly trained armies both symbolized and ensured this domination, and Roman forces were not averse to massacring any neighbor who stepped out of line” (xi). Rome was designed for power and fortified to assert the level of domination needed to sustain that power. In 357, the armies of Rome were still powerful and holding their territories within the grasp of sophisticated and civilized terror. The organization of Rome was such that even in a time of limited communications and low technical knowledge, the regions of Rome were civilized and held firmly as Roman. There were a great number of events that led to the decline of the powerful state of Rome. The invasions from the North begin in 376BCE when the Goths crossed the Danube as they were retreating from the Huns, their own lives and way of life threatened by the advancing Hun armies. The first set of invasions occurred through the lowering of policy as the Goths were allowed to enter the Danube frontier as they were asking the Roman held territories for asylum. Against policy, they were brought in without being subdued. After having been received by the Emporor of the region, they turned and revolted. In two years of their entry, they had defeated the emperor of the region, Valens, along with his army at the battle of Hadrianople (Heather xi). The Goths threatened only the Eastern regions of empire of Rome, but by 401BCE they had entered northern Italy (Ward-Perkins xiv). The three tribes of the Germanic armies, the Vandals, the Sueves, and the Alans all crossed the Rhine and entered Gaul, with the Vandals taking over the African capital that belonged to Rome (Ward-Perkins xiv). Working their way through the territories of Rome, military resources and territories were lost to the Germanic tribes, thus ripping apart the power of Rome. According to writing by Ward-Perkins, “the conventional view of things, (is that) the military and political disintegration of Roman power in the West precipitated the end of civilization” (xiv). The Roman Empire was not the victim of a power that rose up and smote them, however. They were competent for nearly a thousand years in holding back the Germanic tribes as they hit the armies of the Empire in battles and skirmishes throughout a long period of time. Nye states that “In any straight fight they could, and usually did, defeat superior numbers of Germans. What they could not do was cope indefinitely with this kind of enemy” (15). In addition to the onslaught of the Germanic tribes was the corruption of government and losses in the efficiency of administration of the armed forces. Looking at the fall of Rome through military histories is somewhat valid, but very simplistic. One of the reasons that military histories are often the connecting factors that define an understanding of time is because they are more often recorded with greater details than any other aspect of human experience. Military records are kept where other records are hard to come by, as well they can be compared between cultures in order to find truths that are otherwise more difficult to attain. As an example, the concept of the Barbarian is developed from the point of view of Rome because that is where most of the written histories are found about the people that Rome considered as barbaric (Heather 24). However, there are a great number of factors that contributed to the fall of Rome. Understanding the decline of the empire merely through military aspects is insufficient to explain the loss of power that Rome experienced. An increase in infectious disease contributed to the weakening of the Roman Empire. According to Clark et al, “In the case of Rome, this was much later and did not happen until the exhaustion of natural resources and resulting environmental damage gave infectious disease a helping hand” (7). In other words, it was the loss of the health of the relationship of the population to a system of resources that was thriving that lead to an increase in disease within its members. While it might seem that modern life is filled with examples of how environmental damage is changing the health of the planet, this same type of problem existed from the way in which the Roman’s advanced across the land. Deforestation, soil erosion due to unsustainable agriculture techniques, and the development of marshlands as a result of abusing resources became a rich environment in which to breed disease, especially malaria (Goldsmith). Deforestation was heavy from the advancement of the armies of Rome. They cleared land, used wood for fuel, and were responsible for destroying most of the Mediterranean forests As the soil eroded and marshlands began to emerge as a result, the rise of malaria weakened populations as it is a disease that never is cured. Episodes of the disease would continue to plague those infected (Clark et al 9). Some of the reasons for the loss of certain resources is unclear. As an example, Spanish oil exports decreased greatly during the third century, but there is no clear cause for the lowered levels of sales. Exports did not decrease as the Spanish fish sauce garum still shows up in consistent quantities of exports during the period. One of the circumstances of the third and fourth centuries was the increased amount of land per land owner and the decrease of the number of land owners. Land was consolidated into larger portions, thus the wealth began to be consolidated (MacMullen 28). This created a wide division between the lower class and the upper class, with fewer middle class individuals. This division of wealth creates a stalled economy where fewer people are in the middle to create a continuing cycle of economic stimulation. In order to have a civilized state, a population of people must come together through citizenry. Citizenry was an important part of the Roman Empire. Without citizenry, the roles that are necessary to create a working organism of civility cannot exist. According to Lawson “Citizenship requires a settled existence, which itself relies on the domestication of agriculture and livestock; the accumulation of surplus wealth; a political structure that administers and protects wealth; and a system of writing to record production, consumption and distribution of wealth” (xiv). Rome had established a sound system for most of existence, by within the last two hundred years before Romulus Augustulus was deposed, the corruption and the division of wealth levels had reached a critical point, slowing the system down a crawl and creating an economic struggle that weakened the system as a whole. Part of the corruption of the system was based on the madness within the line of emperors. The stories of Rome are rich with the tales of murder, corruption and a series of deaths that are either unexplained or blatantly violent. As many as thirty-five emperors previous to Romulus Augustulus were assassinated so that the empire could be turned to the next emperor. The life of an emperor was subject to murder. The unstable nature of the emperor position contributed to the increased corruption of the system. The strength of the political system below the emperor was a part of the continuation of the empire, but the lead position did not carry that same stability. Thus, the ease of corruption was rampant and as wealth was consolidated through greed and position, the economy began to suffer. Resources were wasted and the Roman world began to crumble away as it could not be sustained through the abuse of what held the most value to the state. Without this economic stability, the power needed to hold the rest of the world in its grasp slipped away (Heather 60-69). The fall of the Roman Empire cannot be ascribed to a single cause or event. Many of the events accumulated in order to provide for weaknesses that were exploited by the Germanic armies and Constantinople. The first person to study the fall of Rome was Zosimus from the 5th century who set the commonly considered date of 476 AD (Gill). If one considers Rome the center of the empire, it ended long before the empirical line ended. If Rome is a concept, a philosophical and political idea of expansion, civility, and a conquering nation, then Rome lasted until the fall of Constantinople as the territories had shifted to the holdings of Constantinople, even though many regions had fallen to invaders by this time. It creates a romantic story that the beginning and the end of Rome was held under men named Romulus, but this type of sentimentality about history creates a false view of the events. Rome didn’t rise in a day nor fall in a day. The nation became glutted with its own success, thus falling to the folly of arrogance. It must be considered, then, that the destruction of Rome began through the corrupt nature of its political structure. As much as the stories of Rome provide entertaining drama, they also provide for a cautionary tale on what happens to a nation that lives on its gluttony. In researching this paper it was interesting to find a great number of resources paralleling the nature of the American rise and decline in power to that of Rome. While the American story is not yet finished, it would be wise to use Rome as an example of what happens when consumerism is led to gluttonous abuse of resources. The research has shown that it was a combination of corruption within the government and an abuse of the resources that fueled the economic structure of the state that caused its vulnerabilities to be exploited by outside forces. Works Cited Clark et al. Germs, Genes, and Bacteria: How they Influence a Modern Life. London: Routledge, 2010. Print. Cunningham, Lawrence, and John J. Reich. Culture and Values: A Survey of the Humanities. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010. Print. Illustrated History of the Roman Empire. 2011. Web. 17 October 2011. Lawson, Russell M. Science in the Ancient World: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, Calif. [u.a.: ABC-CLIO, 2004. Print. MacMullen, Ramsay. Corruption and the Decline of Rome. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. Print. Nye, Joseph S. Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power. New York: Basic Books, 1990. Print. Sass, Erik, Steve Wiegand, Will Pearson, and Mangesh Hattikudur. The Mental Floss History of the World: An Irreverent Romp Through Civilizations Best Bits. New York: Harper, 2009. Print. Schäfer, Peter, and Mark R. Cohen. Toward the Millennium: Messianic Expectations from the Bible to Waco. Leiden: Brill, 1998. Print. Ward-Perkins, Bryan. The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization. Oxford [u.a.: Oxford Univ. Press, 2005. Print. Annotated Bibliography Clark et al. Germs, Genes, and Bacteria: How they Influence a Modern Life. London: Routledge, 2010. Print. Cunningham, Lawrence, and John J. Reich. Culture and Values: A Survey of the Humanities. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010. Print. Gill, N. S. Fall of Rome – Why did Rome Fall? About.com. 2011. Web. 16 October 2011. Goldsmith, Edward. The fall of the Roman Empire. The Estate of Edward Goldsmith. 1 July 1975. Web. 17 October 2011. Lawson, Russell M. Science in the Ancient World: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, Calif. [u.a.: ABC-CLIO, 2004. Print. MacMullen, Ramsay. Corruption and the Decline of Rome. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. Print. Nye, Joseph S. Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power. New York: Basic Books, 1990. Print. Sass, Erik, Steve Wiegand, Will Pearson, and Mangesh Hattikudur. The Mental Floss History of the World: An Irreverent Romp Through Civilizations Best Bits. New York: Harper, 2009. Print. Schäfer, Peter, and Mark R. Cohen. Toward the Millennium: Messianic Expectations from the Bible to Waco. Leiden: Brill, 1998. Print. Ward-Perkins, Bryan. The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2005. Print. Annotated Bibliography Clark et al. Germs, Genes, and Bacteria: How they Influence a Modern Life. London: Routledge, 2010. Print. This informative book takes a look at disease and discovers the ways in which it has formed and shaped the history of the world. Looking at events such as the sweep of the black plague through Europe, the effect of malaria in Rome, and the position of the sewage and waste system in the spread of disease in France, the book explains much of history through a medical and disease related perspective. Ward-Perkins, Bryan. The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2005. Print. This book proposes a definition for civilization and defends that position by placing the ‘civility’ of Rome as a contrast between the lifestyles of the tribal nations that eventually overtook Rome .Although it suffers from the Western habit of over romanticizing and worshiping Rome in contrast to barbarizing the surrounding and Northern people of the period, the book helps give light and context to the events that led to the end of the Roman empire. Gill, N. S. Fall of Rome – Why did Rome Fall? About.com. 2011. Web. 16 October 2011. This article gives a rebuttal to the idea that the year that the Roman Empire fell was 476 AD, citing reasons for extending into the following years when the seat of Rome was in Constantinople. The article also gets into the history of the study of Rome, bringing to light the origins of considering that year as the year in which the Empire fell. Goldsmith, Edward. The Fall of the Roman Empire. The Estate of Edward Goldsmith. 1 July 1975. Web. 17 October 2011. This article argues the reasons behind the fall of the Roman Empire. The article argues against the belief that it was the invasions of the barbarian tribes that caused the fall of Rome, but that it was the internal failings of the Empire that caused its downfall. The moralities of the Romans, the unsustainable agriculture, and the political decay of the system are all cited as the reasons for the decline and eventual demise of the roman state. Illustrated History of the Roman Empire. 2011. Web. 17 October 2011. This site gives a chronologically laid out history of the events that were defined as belonging to the Roman period. While this site does not have fully reliable information because the authorship of the site is unclear, when used with other sources it is valuable in having a visual reference to the timing of how the events took place that led to the fall of Rome. Read More