Event
Event · until 476 CE
The fall of the Western Roman Empire, also called the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Rome, was the loss of central political control in the Western Roman Empire, a process in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its vast territory was divided among several successor polities. The Roman Empire lost the strengths that had allowed it to exercise effective control over its Western provinces; modern historians posit factors including the effectiveness and numbers of the army, the health and numbers of the Roman population, the strength of the economy, the competence of the emperors, the internal struggles for power, the religious changes of the period, and the efficiency of the civil administration. Increasing pressure from invading peoples outside Roman culture also contributed greatly to the collapse. Climatic changes and both endemic and epidemic diseases drove many of these immediate factors. The reasons for the collapse are major subjects of the historiography of the ancient world and they inform much modern discourse on state failure.
In 376, a large migration of Goths and other non-Roman people, fleeing from the Huns, entered the Empire. Roman forces were unable to exterminate, expel or subjugate them (as was their normal practice). In 395, after winning two destructive civil wars, Theodosius I died. He left a collapsing field army, and the Empire divided between the warring ministers of his two incapable sons. Goths and other non-Romans became a force that could challenge either part of the Empire. Further barbarian groups crossed the Rhine and other frontiers. The armed forces of the Western Empire became few and ineffective, and despite brief recoveries under able leaders, central rule was never again effectively consolidated.
By 476, the position of Western Roman Emperor wielded negligible military, political, or financial power, and had no effective control over the scattered Western domains that could still be described as Roman. Barbarian kingdoms had established their own power in much of the area of the Western Empire. In 476, the Germanic barbarian king Odoacer deposed the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire in Italy, Romulus Augustulus, and the Senate sent the imperial insignia to the Eastern Roman emperor Zeno.
While its legitimacy lasted for centuries longer and its cultural influence remains, the Western Empire never had the strength to rise again. The Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire, survived and remained for centuries an effective power of the Eastern Mediterranean, although it lessened in strength. While the loss of political unity and military control is universally acknowledged, the fall of Rome is not the only unifying concept for these events; the period described as late antiquity emphasizes the cultural continuities throughout and beyond the political collapse.
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Height of power, systematic weaknesses as direct causes The Roman Empire reached its greatest geographical extent under Trajan (r. 98–117), who ruled a prosperous state that stretched from Armenia to the Atlantic Ocean . The Empire had large numbers of trained, supplied, and disciplined soldiers, drawn from a growing population. It had a comprehensive civil administration based in thriving cities with effective control over public finances. The literate elite considered theirs to be the only worthwhile form of civilization, giving the Empire ideological legitimacy and a cultural unity based on comprehensive familiarity with Greek and Roman literature and rhetoric . The Empire's power allowed it to maintain extreme differences of wealth and status. [ 1 ] Its wide-ranging trade networks permitted even modest households to use goods made by professionals far away. [ 2 ] The empire had both strength and resilience. Its financial system allowed it to raise significant taxes which, despite endemic corruption, supported a large regular army with logistics and training. The cursus honorum , a standardized series of military and civil posts organised for ambitious aristocratic men, ensured that powerful noblemen had the opportunity to become familiar with military and civil command and administration. At a lower level within the army, connecting the aristocrats at the top with the private soldiers, a large number of centurions were well-rewarded, literate, and responsible for training, discipline, administration, and leadership in battle. [ 3 ] City governments with their own properties and revenues functioned effectively at a local level; membership of city councils involved lucrative opportunities for independent decision-making, and, despite its obligations, became seen as a privilege. Under a series of emperors who each adopted a mature and capable successor, the Empire did not require civil wars to regulate the imperial succession. Requests could be submitted directly to the better emperors, and the answers had the force of law, putting the imperial power directly in touch with even humble subjects. [ 4 ] The cults of polytheist religion were hugely varied, but none claimed that theirs was the only truth. Their followers displayed mutual tolerance , producing a polyphonous religious harmony. [ 5 ] Religious strife was rare after the suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt in 136, after which the devastated Judaea ceased to be a major centre for Jewish unrest. Nevertheless, it remained a culture based on an early subsistence economy , with only ineffective inklings of a germ theory of disease . Despite its aqueducts , the water supply did not allow good hygiene. Sewage was disposed of on the streets, in open drains, or by scavenging animals. Even in the Roman Climatic Optimum , local harvest failures causing famines were always a possibility. [ 6 ] [ page needed ] And even in good times, Roman women needed to have, on average, six children each in order to maintain the population . [ 7 ] Good nourishment and bodily cleanliness were privileges of the rich, advertised by their firm tread, healthy skin color, and lack of the "dull smell of the underbathed". [ 8 ] Infant mortality was very high, and diarrhoeal diseases were a major cause of death. Malaria was endemic in many areas, notably in the city of Rome itself, possibly encouraged by the enthusiasm of rich Romans for water features in their gardens. [ 6 ] [ page needed ] Rise of Christianity, possible decline of the armed forces Further information: History of late ancient Christianity See also: Christianization of the Roman Empire as diffusion of innovation In 313, Constantine the Great declared official toleration of Christianity . This was followed over the ensuing decades by the search for a definition of Christian orthodoxy all could agree upon. Creeds were developed, but Christianity has never agreed upon an official version of its Bible or its doctrine; instead it has had many different manuscript traditions. [ 9 ] Christianity's disputes may have effected decline. Official and private action was taken against heterodox Christians (heretics) from the fourth century up to the modern era. Limited action against pagans , who were mostly ignored, was based on the contempt that accompanied Christianity's sense of triumph after Constantine. [ 10 ] Christianity opposed sacrifice and magic, and Christian emperors made laws that favored Christianity. Constantine's successors generally continued this approach, and by the end of the fourth century, Christianity had become the religion of any ambitious civil official. The wealth of the Christian Church increased dramatically in the fifth century. Immense resources, both public and private, were used for building churches, storage barns for the grain used for charity, new hospitals for the poor, and in support of those in religious life without other income. [ 11 ] Bishops in wealthy cities were thus able to offer patronage in the long-established manner of Roman aristocrats. Ammianus described some who "enriched from the offerings of matrons, ride seated in carriages, wearing clothing chosen with care, and serve banquets so lavish that their entertainments outdo the tables of kings". But the move to Christianity probably had no significant effects on public finances. [ 12 ] The large temple complexes, with professional full-time priests, festivals, and large numbers of sacrifices (which became free food for the masses), had also been expensive to maintain. They had already been negatively impacted by the empire's financial struggles in the third century. [ 13 ] : 353  [ 14 ] : 60  The numbers of clergy , monks , and nuns increased to perhaps half the size of the actual army, and they have been considered as a drain on limited manpower. [ 15 ] [ 16 ] The numbers and effectiveness of the regular soldiers may have declined during the fourth century. Payrolls were inflated, so that pay could be diverted and exemptions from duty sold. The soldiers' opportunities for personal extortion were multiplied by residence in cities, while their effectiveness was reduced by concentration on extortion instead of military exercises . [ 17 ] However, extortion , gross corruption , and occasional ineffectiveness [ 18 ] were not new to the Roman army. There is no consensus whether its effectiveness significantly declined before 376. [ 19 ] Ammianus Marcellinus , himself a professional soldier, repeats longstanding observations about the superiority of contemporary Roman armies being due to training and discipline, not to individual size or strength. [ 20 ] He also accuses Valentinian I of being the first emperor to increase the arrogance of the military, raising their rank and power to excess, severely punishing the minor crimes of the common soldiers, while sparing those of higher rank who felt able to commit shameful and monstrous crimes. [ 21 ] Despite a possible decrease in the Empire's ability to assemble and supply large armies, [ 22 ] Rome maintained an aggressive and potent stance against perceived threats almost to the end of the fourth century. [ 23 ] ^ Piganiol 1950 , p. 66. ^ Ward-Perkins 2005 , pp. 87–121. ^ Goldsworthy 2003 , pp. 68–73. ^ MacMullen 1988 , p. 110. ^ Gibbon, Edward . "2. Fall In The West". The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire . Archived from the original on 2012-10-15 . Retrieved 2012-06-26 . ^ a b Harper 2017 . ^ Hanson, Ann Ellis. "A Division of Labor." Roles for Men in Greek and Roman Births. Thamyris 1.2 (1994): p=157 ^ Brown 2012 , pp. 220–221. ^ Barton, John (2019). A History of the Bible: The Story of the World's Most Influential Book (illustrated ed.). Penguin. p. 15. ISBN   978-0525428770 . ^ Brown, Peter (1998). "21 Christianization and religious conflict". In Garnsey, Peter; Cameron, Averil (eds.). The Cambridge Ancient History . Vol. 13. Cambridge University Press. p. 641. ISBN   978-0521302005 . ^ MacMullen 1988 , p. 51. ^ Heather 2006 , p. 123. ^ Bradbury, Scott (1995). "Julian's Pagan Revival and the Decline of Blood Sacrifice". Phoenix . 49 (4): 331– 356. doi : 10.2307/1088885 . JSTOR   1088885 . ^ Brown 2003 . ^ The Later Roman Empire, 284–602: A Social, Economic, and Administrative Survey – 1986 by A. H. M. Jones, volume II, p. 933, quote: "The huge army of clergy and monks were for the most part idle mouths." ^ Harper 2017 , p. 186. ^ MacMullen 1988 , p. 175. ^ Tacitus , Annals , book 11, chapter 18. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Tacitus/Annals/11B*.html Corbulo   ... recalled the legions, as lethargic in their toils and duties as they were ardent in pillage, to the old code with its prohibitions against falling out on march or beginning an action without orders. ^ Nicasie 1998 , p. 187. ^ Ward-Perkins 2005 , p. 37. ^ Ammianus Marcellinus Book XXVII 9.2 ^ MacMullen 1988 , pp. 173–175, 181. ^ Nicasie 1998 , p. 261.
Legacy Main article: Legacy of the Roman Empire The Roman Empire was not only a political unity enforced by the use of military power; it was also the combined and elaborated civilization of the Mediterranean Basin and beyond. It included manufacture, trade, and architecture, widespread secular literacy, written law, and an international language of science and literature. [ 1 ] The Western barbarians lost much of these higher cultural practices, but their redevelopment in the Middle Ages by polities aware of the Roman achievement formed the basis for the later development of Europe. [ 2 ] Observing the cultural and archaeological continuities through and beyond the period of lost political control, the process has been described as a complex cultural transformation , rather than a fall. [ 3 ] ^ Halsall 2007 , p. 287. ^ Ward-Perkins 2005 , pp. 87–122. ^ Bowersock 2001 , pp. 87–122.
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