Ancient Civilizations: The End of the Roman Empire

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The Roman Empire came to an end slowly, over a period of 200-plus years, and there are many reasons why.

As you probably know from your study of history, empires tend to rise and fall. As an empire grows bigger, it becomes harder and harder to maintain.

• Do you remember just how big the Roman empire was?

That's a very large area to control, right? There were the people to unite and govern, the borders to guard, and the armies to pay. Eventually, Rome just could not manage it all.

So, let's look at some of the factors that caused the Roman Empire to come to an end.

Poor Leadership

After the death of Emperor Marcus Aurelius in 180 AD, things started to go badly for the Romans. He was the last of the strong and effective emperors. Rome entered a time of confusion and instability, when military leaders battled each other for power.

The Roman army would back a certain man to become emperor. Then another group would oppose him, kill him, and bring in a new emperor. Most emperors of this period lasted only a short time in power, many only six months or so!

Money Problems

While the expanding empire brought in wealth and slaves from the conquered areas, eventually Rome ran out of areas to conquer. Remember that it covered most of the known world at that time. And it cost a lot to maintain the empire.

Many of the Roman emperors were foolish in their use of money, too, building grand palaces for themselves rather than using it to govern the people, pay the army, and build roads and bridges.

Weakening of the Army

The once-great Roman Legions were weakening. Many Romans didn't want to serve in the army anymore because it meant long months away from their families, and the pay was not that good either.

So the empire had to hire outsiders to serve in its army. These foreigners did not have the commitment to Rome that the former Legions did, and their independent attitudes broke down the army's discipline.

Slave Labor

^{Image by Pascal Radigue, via Wikimedia Commons, is licensed under the CC BY 3.0 license.}

The Roman economy depended on slave labor. The Roman Legions brought home captives as slaves whenever they conquered a new territory. The slaves worked in the fields and crafted the tools and household items that Romans needed.

However, when the empire stopped expanding, there were no new slaves arriving and, therefore, not enough workers to keep the economy going.

Splitting the Empire

The Emperor Diocletian thought he had a solution to Rome's problems: he would split the empire in two, making it easier to govern.

^{Image by AKIKA3D, via Wikimedia Commons, is licensed under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.}

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but this eventually weakened the empire even more. The Eastern and Western Roman empires began to drift apart as the Eastern empire grew stronger, and the Western empire weaker.

While the Western empire came to an end in 476 AD, the Eastern empire lived on for another 1,000 years!

Persecutions of Christians

Some historians actually blame the rise of Christianity for the decline of the empire claiming that, as more Roman citizens became Christians, they lost their loyalty to Rome along with rejecting Roman gods. And so the empire lost one of the things that united its people.

In the previous Related Lesson, found in the right-hand sidebar, you learned that the Colosseum Games included throwing criminals to wild animals to be torn apart. Many of these were Christians, who were labeled criminals due to theif beliefs. A lot of time, energy, and money was spent tracking them down, persecuting, and executing them.

Barbarians

The word barbarian comes from a Greek word for babbler. That was what the Greeks called anyone who was not a Greek and did not speak their language. The Romans adopted the word and used it for those who lived outside the Roman Empire.

These barbarians were Germanic tribes from northern Europe. (They're called Germanic because they spoke languages that were similar to modern German.) There were also Asian tribes from the east that attacked the empire. They all wanted Roman lands, and eventually they were able to overrun the Western Empire and bring it to an end.

In 476 AD, a man named Odoacer from one of the barbarian tribes, removed Emperor Romulus Augustulus from his throne in Rome, and that was the end of the Western Empire.

You'll learn more about the barbarians when you pick a tribe to research in the Got it? section! So head over there next.