10 CAUSES OF THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE - HISTORY - 2025

There are more than 10 causes of the fall of the Roman Empire. In fact, the reasons were multiple and all of them interconnected, according to experts. The Roman Empire lasted from 27 BC to 476 AD, lasting more than 500 years.

During its most powerful time, the Roman territories extended into the lands of western and southern Europe (along the Mediterranean Sea), Britain, Asia Minor, and North Africa, which included Egypt.

Massive losses of territory began in AD 376, with a large-scale invasion by Goths and barbarians. In 395, after winning two very destructive civil wars, Emperor Theodosius died, leaving a major collapse in the army. In addition, the territories that were still plagued by Goths, were left in the hands of his two sons who were not able to rule.

The invading barbarians had established their own power in most of the Western Empire area, which never had the strength to rise again, despite the fact that its legitimacy stood for centuries and its cultural legacy remains to this day.

It is interesting to note that in the period preceding the fall of the Roman Empire, (known as Late Antiquity) the empire's cultural contribution was emphasized, through and even beyond its political fall. This was what marked the end of the Old Age and the beginning of the Middle Ages.

Top 10 most important causes of the fall of the Roman Empire

1- Decline in values ​​and morals

Even during the Pax Romana (stable and relatively peaceful period), there were more than 30,000 prostitutes in Rome. Emperors like Caligula and Nero are historically famous for their waste of money at lavish parties, where guests ate and drank wine and spirits until they became ill.

The most famous popular entertainment during this time was watching the gladiator fights in the Roman Coliseum.

2- Public health and diseases

In the Roman Empire there were many environmental and public health problems. Only the wealthiest had water that reached their homes through lead pipes. Prior to that, aqueducts even purified water, but eventually lead pipes were thought to be better.

Due to the poisoning of the water, the death rate was very high in the citizens of higher status.

But lead poisoning caused not only death, but also infertility, memory loss and a significant reduction in cognitive abilities, in addition to other symptoms that spread in the Roman nobility. The ruling class became less intelligent, another cause of the fall of the Empire.

In addition to this, the continuous interaction of the people with the coliseum, where contact with dead bodies and blood were frequent, spread a lot of diseases. The most affected were the people who lived on the streets, catching a large number of diseases.

Also, alcohol consumption was significant, creating another significant public health problem.

3- Poor technological development

Another factor that contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire was that during the last 400 years of the empire, the scientific achievements of the Romans were limited only to engineering and the organization of public services.

The Romans came to build wonderful roads, bridges and aqueducts, in addition to establishing the first system of medicine for the benefit of the poor.

The problem is that they relied too much on human and animal labor, so they lagged behind inventing a lot of machinery that could have performed the same tasks much more efficiently, such as producing raw materials.

The Romans reached the point of not being able to provide enough goods for their entire growing population, while in parallel they no longer conquered other civilizations to absorb their technology. In this way, they began to lose territories that they could not maintain with their legions.

4- Inflation

The Roman economy suffered from inflation (excessive price increases) just after the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. When the conquests of the Roman Empire stopped, the flow of gold from the new territories to Rome began to diminish.

In addition to this, the Romans had spent a lot of gold to pay for their luxurious goods, therefore there was less gold to use for coins. In this way, while the amount of gold used in the coins decreased, the coins became less valuable.

In order to sustain this loss of value, merchants raised the prices of the goods they were selling. Due to this measure, many people stopped using coins and began to barter for the things they needed.

Eventually, wages began to be paid on food and clothing and taxes to be collected in the form of fruits and vegetables.

5- Urban decline

Wealthy Romans lived in "domus," or houses with marble walls, floors made of multi-colored tiles, and windows closed by small glass. But most of the Romans were not rich.

The common population lived in small, smelly houses, like apartments of six or more stories that were known as islands. Each island covered a full block. In the beginning there were more than 44,000 apartments within the walls of the city of Rome.

The apartments on the first floor were not occupied by the poor, since the rent was more expensive. But the higher the flimsy ladder they had to climb, the cheaper the rent. The high-rise apartments rented by the poorest were dirty, unventilated, crowded, dangerous, and too hot.

However, if people did not have the money to pay these rents, they had to live on the streets, infested with crime and disease. All these events caused the cities to begin to decline.

6- An Empire divided

The Roman Empire was divided not only geographically, but also culturally. There was a Latin empire and a Greek empire, where the Greek had survived only because they had more population, a better army, more money, and more effective leadership.

By the 3rd century, the city of Rome was no longer the center of the Roman Empire, which had spread from the British Isles to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Egypt, Africa. The vast territory presented a problem that needed a quick solution, and this came during the reign of Emperor Diocletian.

He decided to divide the empire in two, leaving the capital in Rome and another to the east of Nicomedia. Later, the eastern capital would be moved to Constantinople - ancient city of Byzantium - by Emperor Constantine. Each of the capitals had its own emperor.

On the other hand, the Senate, which had always functioned for its ability to advise the emperor, began to be largely ignored and power to focus on a stronger militia.

Rome stopped being the center of the Roman Empire - some emperors did not even know it - and the cultural, economic and political center of the Empire began to be Constantinople or Nova Roma.

In addition to this, there were competitions between the same members of positions of power and the aspirations of the commanders of the armies to become emperors. In Ancient Rome, the Romans were held together by a common belief, something they believed in and what they served.

During his last years, the emperors were afraid of being overthrown by their army commanders and assassinated them, as was the case of the great general Flavius ​​Stilicho, who died on the orders of the Emperor Valente. If the Roman Empire itself killed its generals, then they had no one to protect them.

7- Invasions of barbarians

Rome received the barbarians, a term that was used for all kinds of foreigners and groups that came to the Roman Empire. These served as tax providers or soldiers for the militia, some of them even reaching positions of power.

However, Rome began to lose territories at the hands of the barbarians - Vandals and Goths -, especially in North Africa, which never managed to be recovered.

Despite this, historians agree that a culture as strong as the Roman was not going to fall so easily in relation to the culture of the barbarians, who had no knowledge of politics, economics or social issues.

This is why it was not culture that brought down the Roman Empire, but rather the weaknesses that the system itself had within it, including decaying cities (both in material and moral terms), lack of taxes, overpopulation, inadequate leadership and more importantly, a defense that was not capable of withstanding the sieges of the invaders.

An example of this was the fall of the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, at the hands of Odoacer, who had been a commander of the Roman Army. Entering the city unopposed, Odoacer easily dethroned the 16-year-old young emperor.

By taking the city, Odoacer became the leader of the only thing left of the mighty west of the Roman Empire, the Italian peninsula. By this time, Rome had already lost control of Britain, Spain, Gaul, and of course North Africa.

8- Too much military spending

Maintaining an armada to defend the borders of the Roman Empire from constant barbarian attacks was a permanent expense for the government. The funds earmarked for maintaining the military left very few resources for other vital activities, such as providing public shelters, maintaining quality roads, and improving aqueducts.

The Romans - frustrated by these decadent living conditions - lost the desire to defend their Empire. Because of this, the army had to start hiring foreign soldiers, recruited from other countries or drawn from the hordes and crowds. Such an army was not only very unreliable and also tremendously expensive.

This is why the emperors were forced to raise taxes frequently and this again drove the economy into inflation.

9- Christianity and decrease in civic virtue

The famous historian Edward Gibbon explains that it was the adoption of Christianity that made the Romans go "soft." From being a brutal and stubborn Republic, with a fierce resistance to the invaders, they became a population more interested in life after death, than living in the present.

This is a rather ideological theory, since Christianity also served as cohesion for the Roman Empire when it split into Rome and Constantinople.

10- Political corruption

Rome is famous for some questionable emperors, including Nero and Caligula, to name a few. Choosing a new emperor was always a difficulty and the Roman Empire never clearly determined (unlike the Greeks) how a new ruler should be chosen.

The choice was always a debate between the old emperor, the Senate, the Praetorian Guard (the emperor's private army) and the common army. Eventually, the Praetorian Guard began to have all the power to choose the new emperor, who subsequently rewarded them.

This began to cause problems as in the year 186, when the Guard strangled the new emperor. Then the practice of selling the throne to the highest bidder became an institution. The Roman Empire had 37 emperors who were assassinated over 25 years.

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