Essay Sample on Fall of the Roman Empire: Causes of Its Demise

Introduction

The Roman Empire was considered to be very extensive politically as well as socially in its structure. It had greatly grown and divided to west and east empire, with excellent leadership from its emperors, it grew stronger, became very stable and expanded in its scope (Mitchell,2014). However, many factors threatened the existent of the emperor that led to its fall. The paper will discuss some of the factors that threatened the political and cultural existence of the Roman empire.

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One of the factors that led to the fall of the roman empire was the rise of a new religion in the state. Christianity had a significant impact on the fall of the empire. The introduction of the new religion was considered to undermine the overall social morals which paganism advocated. It meant people could learn new ways of doing things as well as abandon their traditional culture. Christianity tended to erode the beliefs and values of the Romans and thus brought a conflict between Christians and the non-Christians (Kelly, 2017). That created great conflict between individuals as others believed in Christianity, whereas others in their gods. At this century, there was a high level of security for citizens, as well as safe travel by land and sea; hence it accelerated the spread of Christianity.

Religion and church began to take control of the political system. Constantine had to declare it as the official religion in the entire emperor. Paganism was greatly affected since it started to decline and hence the emperor in collaboration with the church they were involved in state politics as they had to exercise supreme authority. The church was highly valued as it could play a major role in controlling the state (Kelly, 2017). As the empire continued to fall, its political institutions faced a great challenge that led to the growth of the church. Its power and authority greatly declined, and as a result, they were transferred to the church from the palace. The church was now involved in politics. It could make decisions, and thus, with the absence of the emperor, the bishop was considered to be the most respected official and could always be consulted. He acted as an arbitrator as well as a known spiritual leader.

The church became an institution that could educate the barbaric tribes. Here it had to transform the tribes who were pagans as well provide education to them. The church created a parallel institution through which politics were controlled. Barbarians were considered to be individuals outside the empire, and they were believed to have different beliefs and cultures. They ate different food and were not advanced in their levels of education as compared to the Romans (Harder, 2017). However, with the fall of Rome, the Barbarians had to invade Rome since the Romans were considered to have weak territories. Many of the tribes started to move closer to the roman state, which further led to conflicts.

The restored empire of the fourth century had a significant difference as compared to the earlier empire. Drastic changes were experienced in all the provinces and the state at large-for instance, their existent political instability in the state (Mitchell,2014). The military was very weak and could not be able to conquer its enemies. Across the borders, they were invaded especially by strong barbarian tribes who were always excluded from their states.

Despite the empire being divided and united many times, the empire was not able to attack its enemies. The Roman lacked equipment and proper training; hence the government seemed to be very unstable. Thus the neighbours took advantage of this and responded by the state of their powers. The roman empire was later reunited into one entity, and its military force was back in place (Harder, 2017). The empire was ruined; its population greatly dispersed the population was thus small as compared to the earlier empire. As well, the economic system was destructed. Inflation rose at a great percentage, and hence the roman suppliers responded by curbing the supply of production items to the state Thus resources for military arms were inadequate, Aurelian tried as much as he could to restore the state of Rome from external attacks under his control.

For two decades, both financial and material damage was repaired although not to their initial position. In this century the Roman community was highly divided as compared to the ancient one. The class division emerged, with the classes the population had a different type of lifestyle which was not favourable at all. The laws governing the state declined as many soldiers exploited the civilian people (Harder, 2017). Foreigners could now easily invade the emperor provinces as they destroyed and killed many people. The provinces were faced with many challenges as the fear increased day in day out. But emperor's support to them. The restored state was so different. The emperors were not faithful as they could not fully protect their provinces; hence the soldiers sought help from other leaders who could provide security to them. There was continuous disunity as the Romans were fighting each other. The Romans always existed good relationship with northern frontiers as Rome always offered support to them. Also, they provided food as well as military arms.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Rome was not built in a day. It was a state that had high power and extension both politically and socially. But due to rise in religion, it led to the division of the citizens, thus weakening the state. That greatly affected the state as their economic as well as political power was affected negatively. Although the roman empire was restored, it did not attain its initial state before the fall.

References

Silva, U. (2015). The fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians. Mare

Nostrum (Sao Paulo), 1(1), 138. doi: 10.11606/issn.2177-4218.v1i1p138-144

Kelly, C. (2017). Review. Edward Gibbon, the history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. David

Womersley. Greece and Rome, 45(2), 232-234. Doi: 10.1093/gr/45.2.232

Harder, C. (2017). Peter Heather, The Restoration of Rome. Barbarian Popes & Imperial Pretenders

Mitchell, S. (2014). A history of the later Roman Empire, AD 284-641. John Wiley & Sons.