Fall Of The Roman Empire Essay

The Roman empire fell for various reasons. The Roman Empire struggled even before its fall with poorly managed leadership, rich citizens not paying their taxes, increased slavery, the economy falling apart, a dangerous plague, and low food production. The poor times during the Pax Romana also contributed to the overall fall of the Roman Empire. Rome fell due to inadequate political management, the Romans being unemployed, and uncontrolled amounts of military expense. Political corruption in Rome was one of the many predominant reasons for the fall of Rome. According to (10.5) Discovery Education, “The Roman emperor Septimus Severus died in Britain in the year 235 CE. His dying advice to his sons was, “Make the soldiers rich and don’t bother

Due to these Romans not having jobs, The Roman Empire deteriorated further. According to (10.5) Discovery Education, “Since they were no longer conquering new countries from which they could get money, the emperors raised taxes … Prices of basic items, such as bread, were 200 times higher by late 200s than in the early 200s.” Roman emperors did not conquer any more countries which resulted in them not gaining any more money. They started to tax their own citizens because their soldiers were their only priority of expense. The poor Romans could not pay these increased taxes and fell deeper into poverty. These Romans could not afford their land anymore and it soon became the emperor’s land. At the current time, the citizens of Rome now did not have homes, jobs, or enough money to pay for food. As a result, unemployment was a major cause of the fall of Rome. All of the money that should have been spent on the citizens of Rome was spent on soldiers who were less in

According to (10.5) Discovery Education, “Armies fought with each other to place their own man in power. The soldiers of the one who backed the next emperor would be rewarded with wealth and power … During the years 235-284, no fewer than 30 generals were proclaimed emperor by their armies.” The soldiers of a roman army were very highly valued which was shown by their reward if they were under the “next emperor”. Soldiers also made most of the decisions on who would be the next emperor at the time. This was shown when they had the choice to elevate a man who did not have any military experience, just because he was rich. For this reason, they had progressively gotten so much power that their payroll had increased significantly. To such a degree, Rome ended up paying the same amount of money for the army’s payroll as they had to bribe the tribes on the frontier to keep from raiding Roman territory. Because all this money went to the soldiers of the army, it was taken from roman citizens through taxes. This made them go further into poverty, ultimately leading to the fall of