Rome: Once the largest ruling power, now shattered. What happened so many centuries ago, to make such a eminent power crumble to the ground? Powers come and go but their legacies live on. These legacies are our pedagogues; we learn from them and perfect ourselves and our nations. In researching Rome s past, I believe that the primary cause of the fall of Rome was due to political and economic reasons. Rome was contrived to handle a small country, not a leading super power. This created problems in the way situations were handled both domestically and internationally. This ultimately led to the down fall of Rome.
From the start, Rome had the makings of a ruling empire. They adapted the best and made it even better. The Romans focused on the practical side of things. Poetry, resplendent architecture, and philosophy was not well known in the Roman world. It was no wonder that the Romans controlled the entire Italian Peninsula by 264 B.C. and by 133 B.C. most of the Hellenistic world became Roman provinces. For the Romans the quandary wasn t being able to conquer but to hold on to what was theirs. The reasons that this proved to be difficult for the Romans were that the government wasn t designed to rule such a large empire. Also the Romans didn t fully develop trade and commerce. Another reason was that there was no formal law of succession. Lastly, slaves were the basis of the economy.
One of the biggest influences on the fall of Rome was that Rome was not fabricated to rule such a vast area, But a significantly smaller one. This fact caused many problems. For example corruption was inevitable. Senators and other officials collected taxes for personal gain, publicans became rich by placing unjust tax burdens on people, proconsuls grew wealthy by extorting bribes from the people of the province, and finally politicians set up vile plans for support and called them “bread and circuses”. This corruption led to revolts which tore down the stableness of the Roman government and made it possible for enemy countries to attack.
Another setback to Rome was that Rome never expanded trade and commerce. They focused more on making food than anything else which resulted in a halt on innovations. Romans, instead of relying on trade, relied on slaves and taxes. Slaves were very difficult to control and expensive to house and feed. Similarly taxes angered people and since people stopped having families and the population declined, less tax money was collected.
In addition to this, slavery was the basis of the Roman economy. Slaves, in addition to being expensive, were difficult to control. They assembled revolts. Between 134 B.C. and 101 B.C. slaves in Sicily revolted twice. Also in 73 B.C., Spartacus led a revolt of 90,000 slaves. This revolt lasted for two years, and devastated much of central and southern Italy.
Lastly, Rome had no formal law of succession. This meant that rivalries, violence, and civil war frequently occurred. This also meant that emperors such as Caligula and Nero came into power. Some of the emperors during this time were said to be either insane, unbelievably cruel, or both. This created even more civil war and turmoil.
In conclusion many thing contributed to the fall of Rome. The political system as well as the economic system. Rome had its great moments and its tragic ones, but on the whole Rome had the biggest effect in the evolution of the political and cultural world. Its fall would mark the end of the Classical Age and would launch the world into the dark Middle Ages.
