6.4 decline of the roman empire
TRANSCRIPT
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Objectives
• Know the various causes for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.
• The economic reasons
• The social reasons
• The political reasons
• The military reasons
The Roman empire hits its high water mark in AD 180 with the death of Emperor Marcus Aurelius
• It’s all downhill from there.
Economic reasons
• The Roman economy was partially based on constant expansion.
• This brought new land, new money, new treasure, new slaves, and new taxes.
• Once the empire stopped expanding, that influx of goods stopped.
• Rome was losing money! High cost of wars and defense.
• Too much spent on luxury items.
• INFLATION!
• The value of coinage was based on how much gold or silver was in the coin.
• Less gold coming into Empire.
• Less gold being put into coins
• DRASTIC drop in value of money coupled with a rise in prices.
• Grain production also decreased due to over farming and warfare.
• This meant feeding people became more difficult.
• Not keeping up with the times.
• Relied too much on slave labor instead of developing new technologies to make work easier.
Social reasons
• Unemployment.
• Costly to be a government worker, competent people just didn’t want to do it.
• Morals and work ethic
• Many Romans had become accustomed to the easy life of bread and circuses.
• These were also done at state expense, which drained the public treasury.
Political reasons
• The problem with political office being undesirable.
• Imperial Succession
• No established rule for succession
• This meant that it was up for grabs.
• Frequent civil war towards end of Empire!
The split
• The empire is eventually and officially divided into two halves: the western and eastern Roman empires.
Military reasons
• This is a big cause.
• Long borders-expensive to defend
• Mercenaries-
• Rome also began hiring mercenaries. These guys worked for cash, not loyalty, and could be highly unreliable.
• Discipline and Loyalty to Roman Empire collapsed!
• Invasion
• Barbarians started invading the empire and the legions couldn’t stop them.
• Germanic tribes from North and West
• Huns from the East-Attila!
• The barbarians proceed to run rampant over Roman territory.
• Left Rome in CHAOS!
• 476-Romulus Augustulus (14)-LAST emperor of Rome deposed by Odoacer (German general).
• ROME’S POWER IN THE WESTERN HALF OF THE EMPIRE HAD DISAPPEARED!