The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

The primary reason for the Roman Empires decline and eventual fall was the

dwindling of the Roman Empire's economic might. This affected nearly every aspect of

Roman life, from the decline of the population to the lack of maintenance of foundation.

There were also some military aspects that led to there demise and because people

became disinterested in joining the Roman army Rome was left unprotected against all of

their enemies.

The primary cause of the deterioration of the economy was the lack of circulating

currency in the Western Empire. Two reasons for the lack of funds were wholesale stock

piling of bullion by Roman citizens, and the widespread looting of the Roman treasury by

the barbarians. These two factors, combined with the massive trade deficit with Eastern

Regions of the Empire extinguished the growth of wealth in the west.

The changing rainfall patterns and climate in the Mediterranean began to alternate

annually between hot droughts and cold rainy seasons. This decreased the number of crops

during the harvest time and forced the Romans to undergo widespread irrigation projects

on land The huge quantities of water needed for this project had to be contained in large

reservoirs, and the standing water soon became stagnant, and stagnant water is the ideal

environment for breeding mosquitoes who are the carriers of malaria. Malaria began to

manifest the empire at epidemic levels and started weakening and killing a large

percentage of the population.

A man by the name of Edward Gibbon believes that the Roman Empire met its

demise because of its decaying infrastructure and because Rome's buildings were severely

distorted throughout the years by time and nature and they began to topple and decay.

Nero's fire which lasted about six days also caused mass amounts of damage on the Roman

city because the countless buildings acted as a fuel for the flames. When the fire was over

only four of the fourteen regions were left, three were totally destroyed, and seven were

destroyed by the remains of the smoking structures.

The Roman empire crumbled due to insufficient economic power, which came about

for a variety of reasons. It lacked the resources necessary to keep such a vast empire

intact. The empire reached such a point that it could no longer support itself becoming top

heavy, and crashed down like a tower that had grown too high for its own foundation.

The second reason for the Roman Empires decline was the decay of the military.

The destruction of the Roman military power in the fifth century was responsible for the

collapse of the government in the West. The massive Roman army that was made up of

about 200,000 men, eventually disintegrated into an unorganized mob of people.

The primary military factors that led to the falling apart of Rome’s military was

the weakening sustained in the numerous conflicts with the Barbarians. Also the reliance

on mercenaries who were hired soldiers who had not allegiance to a certain city so they

showed loyalty to numerous power centers.

One of the most important factors in the decline of the military was the lack of

recruits of Roman background. One problem was the granting of citizenship to all free men

within the empire. Non-citizens who served in the Roman army would be granted

citizenship at the end of their enlistment. During the first two centuries voluntary

enlistment’s enrolled to keep the armed services up to par. But Rome was experiencing a

population decrease, and as the population decreased all available manpower disappeared as

well. In addition many people did not want to serve in the military because of what they

would be put through. These occurrences had negative results on the military

establishment.

Because of factors such as the "free citizenship" Offered by Rome and the lack of

available manpower, Rome's army, which at one time had been the symbol of its power, was

now left unorganized and nearly useless. Because of this, the Barbarians began to invade

the Western Empire at first in small groups but eventually in large masses. And soon they

detected the military inadequacy of the Romans, and soon took over Rome and established

their own kingdoms. And then the Roman Empire came to an end and the Germanic

kingdoms of western Europe began to flourish.

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