The fall of the Western Roman Empire. Why? « Thread Started on Jan 20, 2004, 3:58pm »
I blame Diocletian. By splitting the Empire in two, he created the idea of seperate emperors, a series of weak emperors and emperors trying to take over the other half of the Empire seriously damaged Romes Armies. Basic, but to be expanded upon. Any thoughts? Jim
Joined: Dec 2003 Gender: Male Posts: 41 Location: Auburn, Al.
Re: The fall of the Western Roman Empire. Why? « Reply #1 on Jan 20, 2004, 9:34pm »
I to will expand on this later but tentativley...
The initial founding of Constantinople as an important administrative city was, in my mind, a problem because it fragmented control. Also what I think is maybe overlooked by some is that when it all started everything was fuelled and funded by conquest and when that slowed down and basically stopped a large support for the Empire collapsed. The Roman Senate initially worked fairly well and as corruption and poverty spread (hand in hand really) and the government changed to an Emperor the problems started. The Empire would fluctuate depending on weather the Emperor was a good leader or not while with the Senate the multitude of opinions always had led to decent decisions, if no bold moves.
Of course I agree with what you said about the power struggle between the two halves.
Re: The fall of the Western Roman Empire. Why? « Reply #2 on Jan 21, 2004, 3:26pm »
Hmm, another reason i believe, is the Roman Army itself. Gone were the days of the Republican Army, of completely Romans. The army had large numbers of mercenaries in at this point, something we see again later with the Byzantine Empire. The Roman Army wasn't quite what it use to be... Also, something to do with the Empires conquests: The empire was indeed funded by conquest. Another major problem of this was slaves. The Empire NEEDED slaves for its economy, and the lack of slaves meant less Romans in the army, more Romans farming, more mercenaries in the army, rubisher army. Jim
Joined: Dec 2003 Gender: Male Posts: 41 Location: Auburn, Al.
Re: The fall of the Western Roman Empire. Why? « Reply #3 on Jan 22, 2004, 2:18pm »
Good point the army was getting filled with mercs and others. Definitley not as good as back in the day. And I agree with the fact that they needed slaves.
Joined: Oct 2004 Gender: Male Posts: 3 Location: Franklin, TN
Re: The fall of the Western Roman Empire. Why? « Reply #5 on Oct 9, 2004, 10:40pm »
The fall of this great empire began when the Visigoths were permitted to live in the empire so they could escape the Huns. But when the Visigoths were not given the supplies they were promised they decided to take them for themselves and waged war on Rome. The battle at Adrianople was the battle that truly ended it all for the empire. After this battle many of the other barbarian tribes started to invade rome realizing how weak it was. That is my thought on why the western roman empire fell. I am not much of a history buff but i did just finish this section in my Survery of World Civilization I cl[censored] so i have some clue of what i am saying. So feel free to correct me if i am wrong.
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