| Causes of the Fall of Rome (Editorial) There are many reasons for the fall of the Roman empire. Some of the problems, however, contributed more than others to bring this great empire to it's knees. A few of the problems in the Roman empire where within it such as famine and plagues. Outside forces, like barbarian raids also contributed. A huge factor was the dramatic shift in thinking with the rise of Christianity. One big reason that cannot be discounted when looking at the fall of Rome is the invasion of the barbarians. All over Rome Germanic tribes were pushing the boarders. Occasionally, Rome would befriend these tribes and hire them to protect the boarders of the empire, usually this backfired. Although they may protect the Roman empire from whatever tribe they were hired to and fight in Roman wars often they turned on Rome. Plague and famine were also big factors in the fall of the Roman Empire. While the upper class of Rome lived in great extragence and were exteremly wasteful, the lower classes were struggling. In rich households decadant feasts were held while in the poor homes there was no dinner at all. Plague and Famine seem to go together because if one does not eat enough, and get enough nutrients and vitamens, then one is more suspectable to disease. This was what happened to the poor of Rome. In my opinion, however, the conversion to Christianity played a huge role in the fall of Rome, bigger than all the other factors. When Constantine cnvered the Roman Empire into a Christian empire it destoryed an important aspect of Roman civilsation. It destroyed the part that let it be great. This quality was the ability to concor regions and set up a fairly secular government, build roads and Roman houses and the like, yet still allow the local culture to dominate the region. This prevallinace of the pre-Roman local culture also included religion. However, with the coverstion to Christianity this stopped and they began to establish churches and monistarties thoughtout Europe. This began the great conversion of the Pagans in Europe. Another unfortuante result of Christianity on the Roman Empire was that it lowered the status of the emperor and put the Church and God before him. This was a dramatic change of thinking and people were no longer living for the physical world, but for the spiritual. This will be very important in the Middle Ages, to put the spiritual matters over the physical matters. Due to this shift in thought people no longer bowed to the empepor and left many people not willing to join the Roman military. For Rome, who was a military nation, this was not very good and ultimately is severely weakened the military. This is what lead to the hiring of the Germanic tribes to defend the Empire and allowed them more access to Rome, making it easy to take over. Eventually, this is exactly what happened and is what is known as the Fall of Rome. When the Germanic tribes finally concored Rome it began what we call the Middle Ages. This peroid in time is when much philosophy, threathre, theroies, and great thought was lost and was a time of darkness and illteracy. Due to all those factors that is why I feel Christianity was the biggest factor in the fall of Rome. |