“Jus belli, ut qui vicissent, iis quos vicissent, quemadmodum vellent, imperarant.” -Julius Caesar. Once translated into English, this quote makes a significantly more sense. “It is the right of war for conquerors to treat those whom they have conquered according to their pleasure.” This is a big part of how Rome became the absolute monster of an empire it was. They had the weapons and equipment. Rome had the geography, the transport, communication, knowledge, and most importantly, the people, all working in their favor. This paper will take a look at how Rome became the most powerful empire of all time, and what caused its downfall. Rome’s most famous asset was of course its military. They had the best tactics, and the best weaponry for that matter, of its time. As far as any successful strategies used against them, the legions could dissect it, smash it, improve and adopt it into their own military. Take for instance the Greek phalanx. The Romans saw the flaws and perfected it. Rome’s legions typically utilized a full on assault, and their arsenal consisted of weapons such as the gladius, a short Hispanic sword used for stabbing in conjunction with the scutum. The scutum was an oblong shield shaped like a half circle. It was used to deflect …show more content…
Well there is a multitude of reasons. Rome became too large and overextended itself. This caused it to be spread too thin and made it more difficult to defend. Governing was corrupt and made it even harder to ensure a safe Rome. Not only that, but the Romans fell back too much on slave labor. Once they quit conquering, they could not acquire new slaves. This coupled with a poor economy made the empire suffer dearly. Finally, there was a split between the east and west empires, and the legions became weak with a lack of new soldiers to fight. Finally, Rome was overrun with barbarians, and the 1000 years of order and stability, was
Rome was one of the strongest and the greatest Empire, but why did it fall? Rome was found about the time of 700 BCE, and started to expand over its border as Greeks were weakening. In 44 BCE, Julius Caesar became the emperor as he gained political power and shifted to an empire where it is ruled by an emperor and the military that led to dictatorship. By 27 BCE, Pax Romana began. During 200 CE, it was the peak when the Roman terrorists became more common.
One of the biggest empires of all time fell to a small group fleeing from the East. Was this fate, was it destiny, or was it just a bunch of mistakes made by Rome? Rome, which eventually became one of the world’s greatest empires was started around 750 BC. At first it was a peaceful republic, but that eventually changed. Caesar started turning Rome into a powerhouse, taking everything and everyone down. Not all good things last for long though. Others may say that natural disasters were the main reason of Rome’s fall, but really it was due to military mistakes and political instability. The military messed up alot. They were getting lazy and were not motivated. Since they did not want to fight, they lost many battles. Rome’s fall was also due
Rome: the world’s superpower of the time of Christ, until they became so powerful, they gave up. Their laziness, corruption, and weakness lead to their demise. This great empire started as a republic, then a kingdom, and then the blazing empire that conquered the world. Many things led to their demise, but I have gotten the most important factors for the downfall of the Empire of Rome.
One internal factor that contributed to the fall of Rome is the their once legendary army started to become lazy. Romans no longer practiced the same methods the ones before them did. They wanted to wear less armor. According to document 6,Vegetius states’’But negligence and sloth having by degrees introduced a total relaxation of discipline,the soldiers began to think their army too heavy, as they seldom put on it.’’ This quote proves that the Roman soldiers became sluggish. They stopped wearing their proper armor, which resulted in their defeat in battles. They were unprotected against arrows and attack. in addition, another internal problem Rome faced was that
The Decline That Leads Into the Fall of Rome The Roman Empire was a beautiful, magnificent, and powerful empire. That is, until the 5th century when things went downhill. Around 700 B.C.E., Rome was founded on the banks of the Tiber River. Initially, Rome was led by a king but the government soon shifted to a republic where citizens elected officials and had a right to vote.
Rome was the largest and most powerful empire of its time. Its reign from 27 CE to 200 CE was by far the greatest civilization at that point. However, at some point every empire falls. The primary reason for this was the people of Rome. Due to the citizen’s unhappiness, Rome slowly crumbled starting with its leaders, then its army, and finally its economy.
Rome, a grand empire, was known for its bloodshed and wealth, had a powerful period of conquering and culture. But why can an empire so huge and grand, fall to the ashes? Rome was a small settlement around 750 BC, then developed as the wealthy people grew weaker in Greece. Rome gradually expanded, as they conquered lands and made their small settlement into an empire. Even if a grand empire like Rome thrived on, they overcame problems that would lead to their fall. Through the use of primary and secondary source documents, this paper will explore the causes of the Roman Empire's ultimate downfall due to a combination of military problems, unstable government, and natural disasters and disease.
The Roman Empire was once one of the most powerful empires in the world, but still to this day we ask, how did the empire end? Romans built their territory to be the best. They expanded their land across regions, had all the power, a large population, and technological innovations; so how could such a ‘great’ empire end? Rome was once at it’s peak but was destined to fall due to political instability, overconfidence, negligence, and barbarian attacks.
Despite Rome’s impressive amount of money, people, core values, and supposed strength, Rome fell indefinitely due to lower-class problems, foreign invasions, and legal injustice. Because of its lower-class
How did Rome become Great in History is a good question and I want to give you some ideas that I saw during my week reading. Historians divided Roman history into three categories: the kingdom of Rome ( beginning in the 8th century B.C.), the period of the Republic (beginning in 509 B.C.) and the period of the Empire ( beginning in 27 B.C.). All of these played a role in Rome becoming Great in History. Rome did not start off as a big Empire the rule most of the Middle East. Rome began as a small city-state on the western side of central Italy in the 8th century
Between approximately 509 BCE and the third century CE the Roman empire continually expanded and became one of the largest in history. While this expansion was due to many reasons, not the least of which was greed, to a great extent it was made possible because of Rome's overwhelming military and its combination of a democratic and republic government. (Lee) (Ferril)
The Roman Empire was one of the largest empires the world has ever seen. The power and size they managed to obtain has been a constant subject of interest for historians and all those who are interested in history. Julius Caesar’s ascension to power marked the time from where the Romans steadily expanded their territory and by the time the Roman Republic dissolved and the Roman Empire emerged, the Empire had become so big that the Romans had then to face the problem of maintaining their empire. The Roman Empire maintained its power by
In the later half of the fourth century the Western Roman Empire fell after nearly a five hundred years of dominance and is still widely considered the world’s greatest superpower (Andrews). Many people attribute the crumbling of the empire to multiple different reasons, like corrupt and insane leaders to overspending and inflation. As J.B Bury said once “the fall of the roman empire was a series of contingent events. In this paper we are going to cover the three main reasons. Political and Economical problems plus problems with the military(Wood).
Weakness’s eventually lead to the fall of the empire surmounted any fixing. In all ignorance, apathy and economic irresponsibility remain as Rome’s greatest’s weaknesses. Rome was rife with conspiracy. Military takeovers, alliances, secret arrangements, and internal conflict would often paralyze the Roman political machine. A culture is only as strong as its leader, the absolution of a power of the Emperors had often led to inefficiency, political and military advantage would be devastated time and time again. Most of the Roman leadership were arrogant vain even some went so far as to call themselves gods, they spent money frivolously on seeking after strategically worthless strongholds, creating monuments and temples to themselves and wasting valuable people and resources. As administration was a strong point in the Roman Empire it ultimately became too enormous to effectively govern, the financial allocation was lopsided, this led to the creation of the Western and Eastern Empires and the eventual crumble and abandonment of the west.
Many anthropologists and historians have speculated about the different causes and effects of the fall of the Roman Empire. Some have even stated that Rome did not fall but instead, was merely transformed. However, there were many causes that did end this prodigious empire. Many seemingly small decisions made by powerful emperors over the course of just over a century lead to its destruction. In this paper it will be established that the Roman emperors, in an effort to save their political power, made adjustments to warfare/treaty practices and made political changes which over time lead to the inevitable collapse of the realm, this caused a drastic regression in the living standards of the Roman citizens, implying that the Empire did indeed collapse and not transform.