The Fall of the Western Roman Empire

February 27, 2008

Ancient Western Rome. Once it was a magnificent city filled with joy. Later, it became a place of barbaric ashes and ruins. Of course, there were many reasons for Rome’s downfall, but the ones that impacted it the most were probably it’s economy, taxing by the government, and a poorly trained army.

The most important reason is the economy of Western Rome (Jobs, wages, wealth, etc). Many unemployed people lived in Rome, due to all of the slaves forced to work in place of them. Not only were there abundant slaves, but also many foreigners coming to Western Rome looked for jobs. "The abundance of slaves… to add to the unemployment there," (Document 3). Also, the Western Roman Empire was too big to control. This caused the Romans to lose money. New markets were also built in semi-barbaric places. This wasn’t good because the new markets weren’t supposed to be built in those specific places.

Taxation was another major problem to the Western Romans. The government was charging too many taxes to build new public things (like public baths, roads, etc). Because of that, people were becoming poor, by giving the government almost all they earned. Also citizens were starving, making the situation even more devastating. Next, many businesses were taken over by the government or some of the Romans that were actually rich. They were taken away just in time before bankruptcy. "Privet enterprises were crushed…"(Document 4). Lots of people started flooding out of Rome.

With a weak army, there’s not much protection to Rome. Moreover, most of the army was made up of foreigners. This was because there was a shortage of children to join in. The part of the army that looked okay was the part made up of mostly Germans. "Internal decay… Roman army [was] composed of entirely Germans…" (Document 5). On top of that, they had many external enemies. After conquering so much land, and defeating many ‘countries’, Rome had to be conquered back sooner or later. Due to the weak army, Rome was an easy target.

A prosperous city coming to its downfall is pretty surprising to some people. If you look close into Rome, you’ll clearly see its flaws. The economy, taxes, and a poor army were all big factors and roles played to Western Rome’s downfall, even though Rome had its glorious moments.