Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Objectives

• Know the various causes for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.

• The economic reasons

• The social reasons

• The political reasons

• The military reasons

The Roman empire hits its high water mark in AD 180 with the death of Emperor Marcus Aurelius

• It’s all downhill from there.

Economic reasons

• The Roman economy was partially based on constant expansion.

• This brought new land, new money, new treasure, new slaves, and new taxes.

• Once the empire stopped expanding, that influx of goods stopped.

• Rome was losing money! High cost of wars and defense.

• Too much spent on luxury items.

• INFLATION!

• The value of coinage was based on how much gold or silver was in the coin.

• Less gold coming into Empire.

• Less gold being put into coins

• DRASTIC drop in value of money coupled with a rise in prices.

• Grain production also decreased due to over farming and warfare.

• This meant feeding people became more difficult.

• Not keeping up with the times.

• Relied too much on slave labor instead of developing new technologies to make work easier.

Social reasons

• Unemployment.

• Costly to be a government worker, competent people just didn’t want to do it.

• Morals and work ethic

• Many Romans had become accustomed to the easy life of bread and circuses.

• These were also done at state expense, which drained the public treasury.

Political reasons

• The problem with political office being undesirable.

• Imperial Succession

• No established rule for succession

• This meant that it was up for grabs.

• Frequent civil war towards end of Empire!

The split

• The empire is eventually and officially divided into two halves: the western and eastern Roman empires.

Military reasons

• This is a big cause.

• Long borders-expensive to defend

• Mercenaries-

• Rome also began hiring mercenaries. These guys worked for cash, not loyalty, and could be highly unreliable.

• Discipline and Loyalty to Roman Empire collapsed!

• Invasion

• Barbarians started invading the empire and the legions couldn’t stop them.

• Germanic tribes from North and West

• Huns from the East-Attila!

• The barbarians proceed to run rampant over Roman territory.

• Left Rome in CHAOS!

• 476-Romulus Augustulus (14)-LAST emperor of Rome deposed by Odoacer (German general).

• ROME’S POWER IN THE WESTERN HALF OF THE EMPIRE HAD DISAPPEARED!