Rome: The Fall Of The Roman Empire

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The Fall of the Roman Empire Rome was one of the greatest Empires of it’s time but as the saying goes “what goes around comes around”. The Roman Empire was one of the most powerful civilizations in Europe for almost 1000 years. It started as a Republic with a complex government made up of written laws, balance of power and a constitution. That lasted for hundreds of years, until Julius Caesar became its first dictator and achieved supreme power. The Empire grew but as it did it also became harder for one person to manage so then it started to fall. There are several reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire but some of the primary would be that it became socially acceptable to be lazy, the political figures were not satisfying or protecting…show more content…
The Roman historian Vegetius wrote, “[Before the year 400 CE] footsoldiers wore breastplates and helmets. But when, because of the negligence and laziness, parade ground drills were abandoned, the customary armor began to seem heavy since the soldiers rarely ever wore it.” This shows that Romans were getting so lazy that they did not even want to wear the proper equipment necessary to be safe in a battle field. By doing so they might have lost more soldiers in battle from being so unprepared and while diminishing the Roman army, it also made it easy for the enemy to get in and attack, thus bringing the Rome to its fall. In the background essay provided the following is read: “When the goal appears to have been reached, it is easy to get lazy. The evidence for this was a love of luxury, a decline in the quality of literature, even a decision made by upper-class Romans to have fewer children because child-raising was a bother.” This can contribute to the fall of Rome because they must have thought once they got what they wanted it could not be taken away, but they were wrong. Their army, as mentioned before, was not very great, and with the upper-class not having as much children it caused their army to shrink. With a small and lazy army the Romans had no protection and were an easy target for…show more content…
As mentioned before soldier had become lazy and stopped wearing armor, Vegetius had said “Thus it happens that troops in battle, exposed to wounds because they have no armor, think about running and not about fighting.” If the army was small and weak it was only weakened more by the amount of soldiers who would be wounded or killed in battle. Rome was also not keeping its people happy. When interviewed by Priscus a former Roman citizen said “[He]...considered his life better...better than his old life among the Romans…. The climax of misery is to have to pay in order to obtain justice…” People were not happy having to pay for something that should be done by the government because the government was meant for protection. People that weren’t happy with Rome’s rule would lack loyalty and let invaders in easily, taking down the Roman

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