SJHA Danielle Hernandez

9-429 December 3, 2007

“Why the Roman Empire Collapsed”

There were numerous factors which caused the great Roman Empire to

collapse. A few of the main factors of this decline were its lack of a sturdy

government, inflation, increased military spending, lack of sanitation,

unemployment, lack of moral living, decreases in patriotism, discipline, and

duties, and some people have even said Christianity was a factor as well.

During this time, it was very difficult selecting a new proper emperor. Since

the Romans had no distinct way of choosing an emperor, such as by voting for

one, numerous people began to buy their way to the throne. Because of the

inefficiency of this, Rome ended up having a total of 37 emperors in only a

hundred year span. Most of them were assassinated by the Romans. This was

definitely a major flaw in their society!

As Rome began to battle more and more, the government also began throwing

lots of money to the military. Who was going to pay for these expenses? The

Roman people would, of course. So, with this increase in military spending also

came tax inflation. This actually, though, caused the empire itself to sink. This

was the result of farmers having to give up their land to pay their taxes and of

once wealthy people becoming broke.

 Rome was well known for starting the first real public sanitation processes.

When Roman civilization began to fall, however, these processes began to be

brought to an end. The wealthy that had often gotten purified water from

aqueducts began to have their water brought to their homes through lead pipes.

This was most likely cheaper which is a good thing being that all of the taxes

began to rise. Due to this, the wealthy were not getting clean water and deaths

started rising. Also, there was lots of death causing disease being spread at the

time, as well also resulting in a major decrease in population.

Unemployment was a dilemma growing during this stage in the ancient Roman

Empire. One main reason for unemployment was the use of slaves for farming.

You see, wealthy farmers made use of slave labor for their farming to be done.

Regular farmers who had to pay Romans to work their farm were not able to

work their farm as cheaply as a farmer with slaves. Consequently, farmers who

had to pay Romans to work their farms had to discontinue their farms because

they were only losing money. This meant that everyone who worked at a farm

(and that’s a lot of people) were now unemployed. If they are unemployed, there

were not able to contribute to society or pay taxes and also, as a result, crime

rates increased drastically in ancient Rome.

Moral living decreased immensely during the fall of this great civilization as

well. Romans were vulgar, dirty, immoral, slobs in the last years of the Roman

Empire. Prostitution rose until there were thousands upon thousands of

prostitutes living in ancient Rome. Also, there were crimes and violence all
throughout the streets of ancient Rome. Gladiators fighting to the death in the

Coliseum became a favorite leisure activity for all Romans. Whether they were

upper class, middle class, or even lower class citizens, they all attended these

rather bloody and gory events. Seeing the gladiators battle each other even

became a favored event for the emperor himself. And, of course, these matches

added to the increase in death rates as well as contributing to the rise of disease

in the Roman Empire. The matches were daily events and instead of cleaning

the blood from the ground of the Coliseum, Romans simply covered it with a new

sheet of sand which was extremely unhygienic. Even the emperor and upper

class citizens contributed to the immoral life styles in the Roman Empire. Most

upper class citizens and even the emperor himself took up the habit of hosting

long parties which often included drinking in alcohol exceptionally dangerous

amounts.

Christianity may have been a contributing factor to the Roman Empire’s

decline as well. You see, the religion made turned antiviolence into a belief

commonly shared among Romans. Also, all of the funds that went towards

churches and other religious evens could have been spent to the advantage of

maintaining the Roman Empire. However, some may argue that the beliefs of

Christianity may have helped the Roman Empire because it presented some

moral guidelines to live by.

There were many factors contributing to the Roman Empire collapsing but I’d

have to say that the ultimate reason for it was their military activities. All
contributing factors were a chain of events that were set off by them. All we

know is that some exceptionally dreadful things happened in ancient Rome and

their effects were terminal.