Roman Barbarians

The Roman Empire, by far, was one of the most influential commonwealth in history. It became a magnet for wonderful culture and bountiful trade; even today we trace back to the Romans when it comes to basic academics and philosophy. Nevertheless with all the glory that the Roman Empire brought, there was bound to be downfall sooner or later. With all of the foreign invasions and migrating of other civilizations into the Empire, there was mass hysteria and struggle when it came to protecting the Romans. Additionally there were extreme issues in finding more military support, and not supporting the other parts of the Empire equally. Finally, the decline of Roman morale and ethics encouraged the behaviour of a normal Roman to go from civil to

Around 300 CE multiple groups of barbarians, like the Goths and the Vandals, had begun to show themselves along the borders of Rome. “There was always constant pressure on the borders by barbarians; the Persians in the East, Goths in across the Danube, and Germanic tribes in the North and West.” (Thomas). Visgoths started migrating into the open lands of Rome, due to the environment becoming unfit for farming and producing a sustainable. Along with living in safety, came harsh taxes, discrimination, and threats to be put into slavery by Romans (Damen). This created rage and the Visgoths began to fight back against the Empire. The Visgoth King Alaric led an attack on “the eternal city”, Rome, and ended up ransacking the city of Rome in 410 CE (Andrews and Damen). On the other side of the Roman Empire, Vandals disguised as pirates continued to disrupt trade within and outside of Roman borders. “Vandals’ attacks involved prolonged, physical ruin,” says Damen, “ a destruction so complete and indiscriminate, so emblematic of wonton atrocity.” That aided the movement of the Visgoths and other Germanic tribes, that later ended the empiric reign over Rome. A Germanic leader Odoacer led a revolt and killed off the last Roman Emperor Romulus Augustus, in 476 CE, which was the last emperor to ever rule the Roman Empire. This was later known as the death blow

There would be natural disasters, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, that caused for people to “look for someone of something to blame” (Alchin). Plagues would take place and wipe out huge percentages of the population, which resulted in less tax income (Thomas). Yet these problems concerning the environment have been occurring ever since the beginning of time. Romans and Greeks alike have suffered from these environmental complications and have somehow still survived to create the superpower that was the Roman Empire. Therefore, the issues with the environment weren’t as big as an issue when it came to the complete destruction of the Roman Empire. It was caused by human nature and man-made issues, such as the inability to be decent socially and bolster the security of the