Thoughts and Reflections on: "Why Rome Fell"
By Professor Gerhard Rempel
Rome is and always will be considered as one of the greatest empires of the ancient world but Rome, like any great empire, eventually had its downfall. The down fall of Rome was caused by a combination of many unfortunate events, but when we boil it down three major causes appear: an economic crisis caused by over expenditure and subsequently high taxes, military greed and lack of allegiances and two horrible plagues.
The Roman way of life was extravagant and their entire culture seemed to be based off of conquests and spending money. The Roman government ran into numerous expenses trying to fund its growing empire, while also paying for things such as building public buildings, the monthly dole to feed the public, and lets not forget the hundred million dollars spent annually on the games. As the Roman Empire expanded more and more money was required to sustain the growing army and maintain all of its territory, but the Romans continued to maintain there lavish spending habits throwing the country into an economic spiral. As the country continued to move closer toward bankruptcy the government raised taxes on the middle class. The trusting people, who were well fed because of the dole and mostly happy because of the constant entertainment were content with the rise in taxes briefly but eventually the high taxation of the middle class dissolved it entirely leaving only extreme wealth and extreme poverty.
Through its conquests Rome had acquired many territories that really had no loyalty to the Roman Empire, but with it's expansion came the need for new troops and soon the Roman army was mostly comprised of either foreigners who had no allegiances to the Roman Empire or poorly trained gentle farmers. Eventually this caused turmoil throughout the empire by causing civil wars and in all the chaos the soldiers pillaged and terrorized Roman citizens. While the Romans fought to both expand and defend their empire from outside attacks and keep a handle on the civil wars caused by disloyal territories and overly taxed civilians, Rome was essentially being attacked on all fronts and was burning through its resources at lightning speed.
The final straw to break the camel's back, or in this case to break Rome, was the two plagues that came. The first of which lasted 15 years and wiped out 1/4 of the entire Roman Empire and the second caused rome to loose 5,000 each day at its hight. These devastating losses combined with the loss of troops in civil wars throughout the empire eventual seemed to Stop Rome in its tracks.
