THE FALL OF ROME was a culmination of several external and internal factors.
GREAT
WALL OF CHINA: By 220AD, the Later Eastern Han Dynasty had extended
sections of the Great Wall of China along its Mongolian border.
This
resulted in the Northern Huns attacking west instead of east. This
caused a domino effect of tribes migrating west across Central Asia, and
overrunning the Western Roman Empire.
OPEN
BORDERS: Illegal immigrants poured across the Roman borders: Visigoths,
Ostrogoths, Franks, Anglos, Saxons, Alemanni, Thuringians, Rugians,
Jutes, Picts, Burgundians, Lombards, Alans, Vandals, as well as African
Berbers and Arab raiders.
Will and Ariel Durant wrote in
The Story of Civilization (Vol. 3-Caesar and Christ, Simon & Schuster, 1944, p. 366):
"If
Rome had not engulfed so many men of alien blood in so brief a time, if
she had passed all these newcomers through her schools instead of her
slums, if she had treated them as men with a hundred potential
excellences, if she had occasionally closed her gates to let
assimilation catch up with infiltration, she might have gained new
racial and literary vitality from the infusion, and might have remained a
Roman Rome, the voice and citadel of the West."
LOSS
OF COMMON LANGUAGE: At first immigrants assimilated and learned the
Latin language. They worked as servants with many rising to leadership.
But then they came so fast they did not learn Latin, but instead created
a mix of Latin with their own Germanic, Frankish and Anglo tribal
tongues. The unity of the Roman Empire began to dissolve.
THE
WELFARE STATE: "Bread and the Circus!" Starting in 123 BC, Emperor
Caius Gracchus began appeasing citizens with welfare, a monthly hand-out
of a free dole (handout) of grain.
Roman poet Juvenal (circa 100
AD) described how Roman emperors controlled the masses by keeping them
ignorant and obsessed with self-indulgence, so that they would be
distracted and not throw them out of office, which they might do if they
realized the true condition of the Empire:
"Already long ago,
from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our
duties; for the People who ONCE UPON A TIME handed out military command,
high civil office, legions - everything, NOW restrains itself and
anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses."
The Durants wrote in
The Lessons of History (p. 92):
"The
concentration of population and poverty in great cities may compel a
government to choose between ENFEEBLING THE ECONOMY WITH A DOLE or
running the risk of riot and revolution."
Welfare and government jobs exploded, as recorded in
Great Ages of Man-Barbarian Europe (NY: Time-Life Books, 1968, p. 39), one Roman commented:
"Those who live at the expense of the public funds are more numerous than those who provide them."
VIOLENT
ENTERTAINMENT: The Circus Maximus and Coliseum were packed with crowds
of Romans engrossed with violent entertainment, games, chariot races,
and until 404 AD, gladiators fighting to the death.
Gerald Simons wrote in
Great Ages of Man-Barbarian Europe (NY: Time-Life Books, 1968, p. 20):
"In the causal brutality of its public spectacles, in a rampant immorality that even Christianity could not check."
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WARFARE: City centers were abandoned by the upper class, who bought up
farms from rural landowners and transformed them into palatial estates.
The Durants wrote in
The Story of Civilization (Vol. 3-Caesar and Christ, Simon & Schuster, 1944, p.90):
"The
Roman landowner disappeared now that ownership was concentrated in a
few families, and a proletariat without stake in the country filled the
slums of Rome."
Inner cities were destabilized, being also
plagued with lead poisoning, as water was brought in through lead pipes.
("plumb" or "plumbing" is the Latin word for "lead.")
The value
of human life was low. Slavery and sex-trafficking abounded, especially
of captured peoples from Eastern Europe. "Slavs," which meant "glorious"
came to have the inglorious meaning of a permanent servant or "slave."
(Great Ages, p. 18).
TAXES:
Taxes became unbearable, as "collectors became greedy functionaries in a
bureaucracy so huge and corrupt." Tax collectors were described by the
historian Salvian as "more terrible than the enemy." (Great Ages, p.
20).
Arther Ferrill wrote in
The Fall of the Roman Empire: The Military Explanation (New York: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1986):
"The chief cause of the agricultural decline was high taxation on the marginal land, driving it out of cultivation."
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was a loss of patriotism, wealth began to flee the Empire, and with it,
the spirit of liberty. President William Henry Harrison warned in his
Inaugural Address, 1841:
"It was the beautiful remark of a
distinguished English writer that 'in the Roman senate Octavius had a
party and Antony a party, but the Commonwealth had none'...
The
spirit of liberty had fled, and, avoiding the abodes of civilized man,
had sought protection in the wilds of Scythia or Scandinavia; and so
under the operation of the same causes and influences it will fly from
our Capitol and our forums."
More recently, John F. Kennedy observed, January 6, 1961:
"Present tax laws may be stimulating in undue amounts the flow of American capital to industrial countries abroad."
OUTSOURCING: Rome's economy stagnated from a large trade deficit, as grain production was outsourced to North Africa.
Gerald Simons wrote in
Great Ages of Man-Barbarian Europe (NY: Time-Life Books, 1968, p. 39):
"As
conquerors of North Africa, the Vandals cut off the Empire's grain
supply at will. This created critical food shortages, which in turn
curtailed Roman counterattacks."
DEBT PRECEDED FALL: Rome was crippled by huge government bureaucracies and enormous public debt. The Durants wrote in The
Lessons of History (p. 92):
"Huge bureaucratic machinery was unable to govern the empire effectively with the enormous, out-of-control debt."
In Great Ages of Man-Barbarian Europe (NY: Time-Life Books, 1968, p. 20), Gerald Simons wrote:
"The
Western Roman economy, already undermined by falling production of the
great Roman estates and an unfavorable balance of trade that siphoned
off gold to the East, had now run out of money."
SELF-PROMOTING & CORRUPT POLITICIANS: The Durants wrote in
The Lessons of History (p. 92):
"The educated and skilled pursued business and financial success to the neglect of their involvement in politics."
Richard A. Todd wrote in "The Fall of the Roman Empire" (
Eerdmans' Handbook to the History of Christianity, Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Co., 1977, p. 184):
"The
church, while preaching against abuses, contributed to the decline by
discouraging good Christians from holding public office."
CHANGING
DEMOGRAPHICS: Roman families had fewer children. Some would sell
unwanted children into slavery or, up until 374 AD, leave them outside
exposed to the weather to die.
The Durants wrote in
The Story of Civilization, Vol. 3-Caesar and Christ (Simon & Schuster, 1944, p. 134):
"Children were now luxuries which only the poor could afford."
IMMORALITY:
There was court favoritism, the patronage system, injustice in the
legal system, infidelity, perverted bathhouses, sexual immorality,
gluttony, and gymnasiums ("gym" being the Greek word for naked).
5th-Century historian Salvian wrote:
"For
all the lurid Roman tales of their atrocities...the barbarians
displayed...a good deal more fidelity to their wives." (Great Ages, p.
13.)
Salvian continued:
"O Roman people be ashamed; be
ashamed of your lives. Almost no cities are free of evil dens, are
altogether free of impurities, except the cities in which the barbarians
have begun to live...
Let nobody think otherwise, the vices of our bad lives have alone conquered us...
The
Goths lie, but are chaste, the Franks lie, but are generous, the Saxons
are savage in cruelty...but are admirable in chastity...
What hope can there be for the Romans when the barbarians are more pure than they?
Samuel Adams wrote to John Scollay of Boston, April 30, 1776:
"The
diminution of public virtue is usually attended with that of public
happiness, and the public liberty will not long survive the total
extinction of morals. 'The Roman Empire,' says the historian, 'must have
sunk, though the Goths had not invaded it. Why? Because the Roman
virtue was sunk.'"
MILITARY
CUTS: Though militarily superior and marching on advanced road systems,
the highly trained Roman Legions were strained fighting conflicts from
the Rhine River to the Sassanid Persian Empire. Roman borders were
over-extended and the military defending them was cut back to
dangerously low ranks.
The Durants wrote in
The Story of Civilization (Vol. 3-Caesar and Christ, Simon & Schuster, 1944, p.90):
"The
new generation, having inherited world mastery, had no time or
inclination to defend it; that readiness for war which had characterized
the Roman landowner disappeared."
TERRORIST ATTACKS:
Pope Leo rode out to meet Attila in 452AD, and persuaded him not to sack Rome, delaying the inevitable a few more decades.
Finally the barbarian Chieftain Odoacer attacked, and Rome is considered to have officially fallen on SEPTEMBER 4, 476AD.
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