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Reasons For The Fall Of The Roman Empire

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One can argue that the Roman Empire was one of the most influential societies in history. It dramatically influenced the legal systems of western civilizations for centuries after its collapse. But if the civilization was so substantial, why did it crumble by 476 AD? Why did the empire not continue to gain power? Many factors contributed to the empire’s demise, but the most commonly theories mentioned by historians are slavery and the spread of Christianity. Some historians argue that the empire’s overreliance on slave labor collapsed the civilizations; while others argue that the spread of Christianity changed the face of the civilization so that it was almost unrecognizable. After examining the evidence, I believe that the fall of the Roman Empire can be directly attributed to its overreliance on slave labor, even though the spread of Christianity did expedite its collapse.
Many historians believe that Rome’s overreliance on slave labor caused its fall. As the early Roman empire was mainly agricultural, it used the majority of slaves as agricultural laborers. After decades of fighting war after war, Rome was teeming with slave labor gained from prisoners of war. Peter Temin, a professor at MIT, estimated that the population of slaves in Italy was “around 6 million, 1 million of whom lived in Rome itself.” This would mean that over one-third of Italy’s population was slaves. Even though they were a huge portion of the population, slaves were treated terribly. Masters

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