Article 7: Did the Roman Empire 'fall'?

One of the most powerful empires in history was the Roman Empire. Many described the ending of the empire as a fall, but was it really a fall? I believe so. There was one main problem that led to the fall of Rome, debt. Rome ran out of money.

Rome had made itself such a desirable place to live. Because of this, everyone tried to become part of it. The government did not have enough money to support its vast empire. It had all of Europe and more under its control. Millions of people lived in that space. With all of those people and everything to maintain, such as roads and other public buildings, the bank eventually ran dry.

Rome got most of its wealth from all of the places it conquered. At that time, it was believed the Rome had conquered the whole world. With what was believed to be nothing left to conquer, the only source of income was from taxes paid by the citizens of Rome. Just taxes are not enough to keep an empire as large as the Roman from going into debt. The government had to pay for the upkeep of all of the public buildings including the libraries, the public bathrooms, the roads leading to other parts of Rome’s vast empire, and the senate house. After the empire ran out of money, it eventually imploded. Everything started to deteriorate. Without any money, there was no way to fix all of the problems being generated.

Another problem was that the empire fell during a cooling stage in Earth’s atmosphere. Because of this, there was not being enough crops produced to support the empire. Produce was the main type of food in Rome at that time. With the colder temperatures, fewer crops were growing.

One reason that Roman Empire fell was because of the split into the eastern and western Roman Empires. Because they split, there were then two Roman Emperors, two ways of thinking, and two separate governments. This led to many conflicts, which eventually led to the downfall of Rome.

Some people may argue that the Roman Empire did not fall, but instead that it simple adapted to a more modern way of imperialism. I disagree with this. When an empire goes from being one of the largest in the history of the world, to a normal size, it cannot be called an adaption. It must be called a fall. An adaption would be something like abolishing slavery or the changing of a country’s form of government. Not downsizing from the known world to a regular size.

When such a large empire decreases in size, it can be called no less than a fall, even if Rome is still around today. There are many other reasons that contributed to the fall of Rome than the ones stated here. These are the most important reasons and influential problems that caused its collapse. The Roman Empire fell from the most powerful empire in the world to nothing more than a normal city with a deep history.