Fall of the Roman Empire

The Pax Romana was a two hundred year time period where the Romans had peace and prosperity under Augustus. The Roman empire started to decline at the end of the prevail of the last five emperors, Marcus Aurelius in 161-180 A.D. The rulers in the next century had no idea how to deal with the problems the empire was having. There was many reasons to the fall of the Roman Empire but three stood out the most. The preliminary reason was the economy begins to decline. The alternative reasoning was Rome started to face unheaval in the military and polictics started to decay. Ultimately the third reason was invadors overran the western empire. In the first place one of the main reasons to the fall of the Roman empire was the econmoy started to decline. In the thirst century sources started to dissapear. During the Pax Romana, trade was all over the routes watched by Roman legions and ships Romes treasures qwew ameliorated by gold and silver from the conqured territories. Empire farms grew tons of grain, enough to feed the whole population. During the third century all of these three sources of sucess dissapeared.

This reflects the Roman empire started out strong but it started to fall which lead to the disapearance of the three sources. Romans didnt make the money they use to make to help the ecnomoy out. The wealthy spent money on luxery goods and the goverment tried to pay off expenses. Wealthy spent their money on things they wanted in China, Arabia, and India. Instead of spending money on staples which is needed goods they spent it on luxery goods which was things they wanted such as gold, marble, honey, wine, leather, perfume, diamonds, jewls, tigers, carpets, ect. The continual importing of those luxery goods contribute to Romes decaying society because they would be in debt with the other country. There was drainage to the empire of gold and silver. There was no new sources of metal since the empire expansion ended. Goverment raised the taxes to pay of the expensnses. They also made coins less silver to create more money with the same amount of metal. The encomony soon suffered from inflation which ment a general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money. This implies the wealthy should of spent their money on things on want they wanted because they would of end up in debt like they did.

And the goverment tax the people to pay off the debts they had even though most of the people such as the lower class had to deal with the expenses. Since the goverement couldnt pay of the expenses it lead to a bad consequence which happened to be inflation. The decline of the econmoony was one of the reasons to the fall of the Roman empire. Furthermore the Roman empire started to face upheaval in the military and politics decay which was another reason to the fall of the Roman Empire. The military soilders began to change. In the army dispipline and loyalty started to go down. Loyalty of the soilders went to their commanders and not to Rome. To protect the empire from threats. the goverment recruited mercenaries. Mercenatires were forgien soliders who fought for money.They accpeted lower pay than Romans, which they felt a little sense of loyalty to the empire. To emulate, since the soilders rebelled they empire did not feel an alliance with the soilders because they did what their commanders had told them and not the empire. To feel some loyalty they put together forgien soilders who would. Roman politics started to decay. Loyalty was a key problem.

In the past, Romans used to care so deeply about their republic that they would do anything for it. But the empire caused cititzens lose their patriotism, they thought different about their fate in the empire. Local officals lost money because they had to pay out of their own pockets the public circuses and baths which was not cheap. To portray the citizens started to lose faith in the empire and started to give up and let them deal with it and not participate in it and the citenzens who were involved still had to pay out of their own earnings. Military started to face changes and politics started to decay was the second reasoning for the fall of the Roman Empire. Finally invadors overran the Western Empire, this lead to the third reason the collapse of the Roman Empire. Barbarians would not leave the empire alone. Barbarians was a term used to call their invadors and to refer to the non-romans. Throughout the third century, Germanic tribes more than once stressed out the roman legions guarding the northern frontiers.

Germanic tribes are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age and a Roman legion was an infantry unit consisting of heavily armed soldiers, equiped with shields, armor, helmets, spears and swords. At the same time, Persia threaten Roman territores in Syria and Anatolia. In 206 A.D Persians captured the Emeror, Valerian, which it made it the most embarassing defeat. Valerian was the Roman emperor at the time. To delineate the Empire felt very pressured and frustrated that they had barbarians coming at them. They were not ready and not as strong as the persians because they had captured the Roman empire. Main reason for the Germanic invasions of the Empire was the Huns moving west. Huns were fierce Mongol nomads from central Asia. They started invading the regions of the Rhine and Danube Rivers. Because they huns invaded around those rivers germanic people fled to the Roman lands. Then in 408 Visigoths, led by their king Alaric, marched acrossed the Alps towrds rome and took over.

The huns and germanic poeple united under Attila who was a pwoerful chieftain. They terrorized both halves of the empire but famie and dieased had killed most soliders. Even though Attila death in 453 did not stop the germanic invasions. To depict Huns were stronger than the western empire which led them to take over. Invadors overran the Western Empire. In final analysis three reasons were the main caused to the fall of the Roman Empire but there was many. The first reason was the economy begins to decline. The Roman empire started out strong but it started to fall which lead to the disapearance of the three sources and wealthy should of spent their money on things on want they wanted because they would of end up in debt like they did.

The second reasoning was Rome started to face changes in the military and poltics started to decay. The soilders rebelled they empire did not feel an alliance with the soilders because they did what their commanders had told them and not the empire and citizens started to lose faith in the empire and started to give up and let them deal with it and not participate in it and the citenzens who were involved still had to pay out of their own earnings. Lastly the third reason was invadors overran the western empire. The Empire felt very pressured and frustrated that they had barbarians coming at them. They were not ready and not as strong as the persians because they had captured the Roman empire and Huns were stronger than the western empire which led them to take over. Invadors overran the Western Empire. This all lead to the Dark ages also know as the Middle Ages.