In Edward Gibbons, DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE he argues that the reason for Rome's fall is because of Germanic invasions, a decline in public morality, and the rise of Christianity. With all of the above statements I would agree that Edward Gibbons is correct. They all help in the fall of the Roman empire. Where I think he did go wrong was in neglecting to state the other numerous reasons that help contribute to its fall. Three of these other factors that I think are also very important are; the lack of further expansion, the low level of technological advances, and the natural reaction of the rulers to hole up in their country estates with all their slaves at the first sign of weakening markets.
The first of these reasons does not begin at Rome's collapse but at its starting point. From the begenning Rome had always grown in both wealth and size. It was with this constant expansion that Rome's economy continued to flouris
. . .
The epitome of this problem rests in the Roman economy, which was now staggering drastically. By doing so, they left the offices of business in the city which out of this neglect began to disappear. It could have been something like the lead pipes used in their aqueducts or even an evolution of human society to the next level. This general collapse in Rome's overall economy was a result of the empire consuming at a rate far greater than allowed. Technological advance did not increase at a rate proportional to the increase of the people per square mile. What then started as a nick, grew to a life threatening wound. The bulk of work done in the Roman Empire was always carried out by the slaves. It was the combanation of these above reasons and the ones listed by Edward Gibbons, that triggered the roman empires decline and fall.
A reason that lead to Rome's inability to remain self-sustaining as an Empire was it's lack of technology. As the Roman rulers of the time noticed this problem they slowly but increasingly moved back to their country estates. When Rome quit going to war it lost it's ability to gain POWs, or slaves. This trend, although very strong in the west was comparably weak in the east, where the cities were older and more schooled and prepared to deal with economic recession. This lead to the inability of the Romans to become self-sustaining. But we can never be absolutely sure reasons.
Approximate Word count =
642
Approximate Pages =
3 (250 words per page double spaced)
Simply subscribe to view this paper, and 100,000 others.
| CREDIT CARD |
ONLINE CHECK |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
JOIN BY PHONE
|
|
|
