Fall Of Rome Essay, Research Paper

One of the most famous empires of all time is the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire stretched as far north as Great Britain, as farwest as Spain, south to North Africa and east to Mesopotamia. It hadmany strengths such as their law, which became international, theirlanguage of Latin, and their advanced engineering such as roads,aqueducts and bridges. In 476 AD the fall of the Roman Empire tookplace. It fell because of Political, Social, and Economic reasons. After the reign of Tiberus, there were many poor leaders, two ofwhich were Caligula and Nero. Caligula killed his sister among manyother people and made his favorite horse a senator. Nero murderedhis wife and mother and was accused of setting fire to Rome. Also,The laws of the empire favored the rich land owners and there weremany assassinations. After the wars, farmland was destroyed and farmers wereforced to move into the city to find employment. There were very littlejob opportunities though. Prisoners of war became slaves and therewas no longer a need for paid workers. The cities became overpopulated which led to extreme poverty. The rich showed no

concern for the poor citizens. Instead of helping them, they gavethem entertainment and bread to keep them happy and out of trouble. This is commonly known as bread and circus. Family values wentdown which caused traditions to go down. There was less disciplineand fewer enrolled in the army. There were also many economic reasons for the fall of theempire. The widespread slavery discouraged citizens from inventingnew tools and using technology. Products such as pottery andtextiles were made as cheaply, simply, and easily as possible. Whena plague hit the empire the population went drastically down. Therewere many frequent civil wars and attacks and taxes were constantlybeing increased. Although the size of the Empire was very large and they hadstrengths in law, language and engineering, there were manyproblems that caused the empire to fall in 476 AD. Poor leaders,unfair laws, and frequent assassinations contributed to the politicalproblems. Some of the social problems were over-populated citiesand an increase in slaves. Economic problems were the lack ofinvention and technology, increased taxes and civil wars.