The Fall of Rome free essay sample

Internally, Rome dealt with many political, economical, and social issues that tremendously aided the decline. Likewise, as Rome was going through these many internal issues, they were dealt with an external force known as, invaders who were determined to overrun Rome and it’s empire. Since Rome slowly began dealing with the many negative issues that were occurring internally and externally, they eventually were unable to mend the issues that they were faced with and slowly came to their fall. As their empire began to decline, Rome had to deal with many internal issues that dealt with political, economical, and social drawbacks. As the decline was beginning, Rome dealt with many political corruptions that affected their government and the supporters of the government. Surprisingly, one of Rome’s biggest political corruptions involved the difficulty of choosing a new emperor and the troubles they would have uniting with each other versus the chosen action of plotting against each other for control. We will write a custom essay sample on The Fall of Rome or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Since there was no predetermined course of action for choosing the next emperor, it was simply open for debate between the old emperor, the Praetorian Guard, the army, and the Senate. As each of these individuals had different wants for their emperor, during a hundred year span Rome went through thirty-seven different emperors, twenty-five of whom were unfortunately removed due to assassination. Because of the rapid changing of Roman control, this created weakness amongst the Roman Empire and contributed to the decline and fall of the empire. As the emperors proved difficulty in maintaining the powerful reign of the Roman Empire, citizens were able to see the struggles and eventually began to grow interest for their life style and luxuries and consequently, lost government interest and loyalty. With a continual rotation of new emperors, a diminishing citizen support, and an empire that was beginning to be too large to control, Rome was finding itself continuing to decline in more ways than one. As Rome’s political issues continued to affect their success as a powerful reign, they continued to deal with economical issues that had many negative affects on the citizens. Just as an empire cannot run smoothly without proper ruling, an empire also has difficulty maintaining its power when its citizens are going through economical difficulties. For example, the citizens were constantly dealing with unemployment, taxation, and a decrease in trade. As money has forever been a necessity for upholding successful lifestyles, luxuries, and empires, the Roman Empire and its citizens suffered drastically through these difficulties. Since slavery became well known amongst the wealthy men, more and more wealthy men were wanting to have slaves do their farming instead of the farmers who would cost them money and cause them a loss in profit. In response to the slavery epidemic, the citizens had to deal with the loss of employment, which led to gradual unemployment. Additionally, because there were inflation issues that were arising due to the lack of gold coins and an increase in taxation in order to support the military and public infrastructures, the empire continued to decline because the citizens were continuing to deal with economic hardships. Lastly, in addition to the political and economical issues that contributed to the decline of Rome, the empire also had to deal with social aspects that created difficulties within the empire. As the empire continued to decline, the gradual social changes that contributed to the decline included the spread of Christianity, loss of citizen’s confidence and support, and the multiple cultures that existed. Christianity was slowly introduced to the empire and although it was not widely discouraged in the beginning, it took away power from the emperor and conflicted with the working of the empire. Additionally, the empire dealt with a loss of citizen’s confidence and their support because they did not have faith in the government anymore and did not feel taken care of by the government. During the decline of the empire, the rich controlled about ninety percent of the wealth and as the middle class was shrinking, the poor class reduced to merely surviving on public welfare. With a declining empire that was dealing with many different issues and the addition of multiple cultures and religions to choose from, the empire continued to fall apart because they were slowly diminishing their unity and power. As if these internal issues were not significant enough to bring hardships to the Roman Empire, at this same time, the empire was dealt with invaders, the Barbarians who were determined to overrun the empire. Since the Roman army was responsible for protecting the borders and keeping the Barbarians and other enemies away, the Roman Empire had much difficulty when the army was recalled from the border and sent out to Italy to fight the civil war. With the removal of the army and the opening of the borders, the Roman border was open to attack and guaranteed to be invaded. As the Barbarians began to attack and overtake the Roman lands, their Germanic general Odacer overthrew the last of the Roman Empire in 476 AD and began to overtake the western part of the empire. As everything that once remained of the Roman Empire slowly started to disappear, 476 AD finally marked the final fall of the Roman Empire. After over a five hundred year stretch and the many successes of the Roman Empire, the reign eventually had to come to an end and come to be the fall of Rome. Though it is known as the â€Å"fall† of Rome, it may or may not be accurate to describe it as such. Because the Roman Empire was such a powerful empire that once conquered and obtained so much, it is easy to refer to the Roman Empire’s decline as the fall of Rome. Since the Roman Empire went from such a powerful empire to an empire that eventually got completely taken over by the Germanic barbarians, it is obvious to see how the Roman Empire experienced a drastic, and negative fall. Oppositely though, it could be inaccurate to describe it as the â€Å"fall† of Rome because the Roman Empire’s infrastructure and remnants did not fall. So although the Roman Empire did not physically endure a drastic â€Å"fall† of their remnants and infrastructures, they did endure a gradual decline in their empire, both internally and externally, that finally led to the end or â€Å"fall† of Rome.