Roman Empire Dbq Analysis

Ancient Rome was one of the largest empires in the ancient world, it expanded all throughout the Mediterranean Sea. Ancient Rome was gradually built up through four expansions until they had conquered all the land surrounding Rome, they were stable for many years in a time period called the Pax Romana, the time of Roman peace. The large empire then gradually lost all of its power and split into many different sections. The primary reasons for the fall of the Roman empire were political instability, social issues, and weakening borders. One reason for the fall of the Roman empire was political instability. As the empire grew the government became very unstable and people started to fight for power. As seen in document A, over a 50 year time period the empire had 22 different emperors. The constant change of power caused the empire to become very unstable and also led to the citizens not trusting the government, instead they started trusting the various military generals. The military generals would then try to

One of the major social problems in Rome was the lazy army. Originally the army was one of the strongest armies, but as the empire reached its height the army became overconfident and were not able to perform the tasks they originally could accomplish. According to the Roman historian Vegetius, the soldiers stopped practicing their ground drills, failed to recruit new soldiers, and were not able to carry around the heavy breastplates and helmets that protected them (Document B). As a result of the careless actions by the army the empire became week and lost many major cities in battle. The army not only had little protection but did not have a sufficient amount of people. The flexible drafting laws of the Roman army exempted many people in Rome's society including government officials, chefs, and even slaves (Document B). The lazy army was one of the major social issues in