why did the roman empire fall when it had so much domination? they revolutionised so much
In: 76
History Channel has an excellent piece on the fall of Rome.
Mankind The Story of All of Us – History Channel
History Channel has an excellent piece on the fall of Rome.
Mankind The Story of All of Us – History Channel
History Channel has an excellent piece on the fall of Rome.
Mankind The Story of All of Us – History Channel
Since this is ELI5, what it came down to was to a combination economic, military, and succession problems.
But if you want me to be more specific…
What you have to understand about the Roman Empire is that it was formed as a military dictatorship pretending that it was still an oligarchic republic and to control to the empire meant that one had to control the Roman army. Now, since the empire had been formed to pretend that it was not a monarchy (because the Roman people and elites had a serious dislike of kings), there was never a clear method of succession from one emperor to another. So, in order to secure the loyalty of the Roman army, the emperors often needed to give the army a pay raise on their succession. That was feasible enough when the empire was still expanding, but then expansion ceased around 117: what are now Germany, Scotland, Ireland, and Scandinavia didn’t have the kind of natural resources that it make it worth the empire’s effort to conquer to them, conquest deeper into Africa was blocked by the Sahara, and expansion beyond Mesopotamia was blocked by the Persian empires (first the Parthians and later the Sassanians). The lack of booty and new tax revenue from new conquests meant a decrease of the emperors’ resources with which to fund their troops. Not wanting to raise taxes for fear of causing revolt, Septimus Severus and his successors chose to get around those problems by decreasing the amount of silver in their currency, which created a serious inflation problem. To be fair to Septimus Severus, he wasn’t wrong to fear provoking the wrath of the army or the Praetorian Guard. From the days of the Julio-Claudians, both groups felt like they had the right to play kingmaker whenever the current emperor displeased them and have him killed to make way for someone else who would reward them more lavishly. (If you’ve wondered how it was that so many of the Roman emperors were murdered … well, that’s a big part of why).
Meanwhile, even before the inflation problem began, the empire was hit with the Antonine Plague, probably either smallpox or measles, which killed off around 10–25% of the empire’s population. It hit the Roman army and its city dwellers the hardest because they lived in areas with more population density. People often mention that the Roman Empire after the reign of Marcus Aurelius had to increasingly rely on Germanic auxiliaries for their armies, but they neglect to mention that the Antonine Plague was one of the root causes of that.
The empire nearly collapsed entirely beginning in the Third Century and was only restored after Diocletian instituted reforms that did away entirely with the pretense of Rome still being a Republic and divided the empire in half to make it easier to govern. The eventual withering way of the Western half of the empire in the 5th century was a result of this, because it was much more rural than the eastern half, which meant that it didn’t have anywhere near the tax revenues and thus found it for more difficult to fund the Roman army, which in turn made it easy for the Germanic tribes to move into the power vacuum left by the disintegration of the Western empire.
Since this is ELI5, what it came down to was to a combination economic, military, and succession problems.
But if you want me to be more specific…
What you have to understand about the Roman Empire is that it was formed as a military dictatorship pretending that it was still an oligarchic republic and to control to the empire meant that one had to control the Roman army. Now, since the empire had been formed to pretend that it was not a monarchy (because the Roman people and elites had a serious dislike of kings), there was never a clear method of succession from one emperor to another. So, in order to secure the loyalty of the Roman army, the emperors often needed to give the army a pay raise on their succession. That was feasible enough when the empire was still expanding, but then expansion ceased around 117: what are now Germany, Scotland, Ireland, and Scandinavia didn’t have the kind of natural resources that it make it worth the empire’s effort to conquer to them, conquest deeper into Africa was blocked by the Sahara, and expansion beyond Mesopotamia was blocked by the Persian empires (first the Parthians and later the Sassanians). The lack of booty and new tax revenue from new conquests meant a decrease of the emperors’ resources with which to fund their troops. Not wanting to raise taxes for fear of causing revolt, Septimus Severus and his successors chose to get around those problems by decreasing the amount of silver in their currency, which created a serious inflation problem. To be fair to Septimus Severus, he wasn’t wrong to fear provoking the wrath of the army or the Praetorian Guard. From the days of the Julio-Claudians, both groups felt like they had the right to play kingmaker whenever the current emperor displeased them and have him killed to make way for someone else who would reward them more lavishly. (If you’ve wondered how it was that so many of the Roman emperors were murdered … well, that’s a big part of why).
Meanwhile, even before the inflation problem began, the empire was hit with the Antonine Plague, probably either smallpox or measles, which killed off around 10–25% of the empire’s population. It hit the Roman army and its city dwellers the hardest because they lived in areas with more population density. People often mention that the Roman Empire after the reign of Marcus Aurelius had to increasingly rely on Germanic auxiliaries for their armies, but they neglect to mention that the Antonine Plague was one of the root causes of that.
The empire nearly collapsed entirely beginning in the Third Century and was only restored after Diocletian instituted reforms that did away entirely with the pretense of Rome still being a Republic and divided the empire in half to make it easier to govern. The eventual withering way of the Western half of the empire in the 5th century was a result of this, because it was much more rural than the eastern half, which meant that it didn’t have anywhere near the tax revenues and thus found it for more difficult to fund the Roman army, which in turn made it easy for the Germanic tribes to move into the power vacuum left by the disintegration of the Western empire.
Since this is ELI5, what it came down to was to a combination economic, military, and succession problems.
But if you want me to be more specific…
What you have to understand about the Roman Empire is that it was formed as a military dictatorship pretending that it was still an oligarchic republic and to control to the empire meant that one had to control the Roman army. Now, since the empire had been formed to pretend that it was not a monarchy (because the Roman people and elites had a serious dislike of kings), there was never a clear method of succession from one emperor to another. So, in order to secure the loyalty of the Roman army, the emperors often needed to give the army a pay raise on their succession. That was feasible enough when the empire was still expanding, but then expansion ceased around 117: what are now Germany, Scotland, Ireland, and Scandinavia didn’t have the kind of natural resources that it make it worth the empire’s effort to conquer to them, conquest deeper into Africa was blocked by the Sahara, and expansion beyond Mesopotamia was blocked by the Persian empires (first the Parthians and later the Sassanians). The lack of booty and new tax revenue from new conquests meant a decrease of the emperors’ resources with which to fund their troops. Not wanting to raise taxes for fear of causing revolt, Septimus Severus and his successors chose to get around those problems by decreasing the amount of silver in their currency, which created a serious inflation problem. To be fair to Septimus Severus, he wasn’t wrong to fear provoking the wrath of the army or the Praetorian Guard. From the days of the Julio-Claudians, both groups felt like they had the right to play kingmaker whenever the current emperor displeased them and have him killed to make way for someone else who would reward them more lavishly. (If you’ve wondered how it was that so many of the Roman emperors were murdered … well, that’s a big part of why).
Meanwhile, even before the inflation problem began, the empire was hit with the Antonine Plague, probably either smallpox or measles, which killed off around 10–25% of the empire’s population. It hit the Roman army and its city dwellers the hardest because they lived in areas with more population density. People often mention that the Roman Empire after the reign of Marcus Aurelius had to increasingly rely on Germanic auxiliaries for their armies, but they neglect to mention that the Antonine Plague was one of the root causes of that.
The empire nearly collapsed entirely beginning in the Third Century and was only restored after Diocletian instituted reforms that did away entirely with the pretense of Rome still being a Republic and divided the empire in half to make it easier to govern. The eventual withering way of the Western half of the empire in the 5th century was a result of this, because it was much more rural than the eastern half, which meant that it didn’t have anywhere near the tax revenues and thus found it for more difficult to fund the Roman army, which in turn made it easy for the Germanic tribes to move into the power vacuum left by the disintegration of the Western empire.
It never really fell. It just kind of turned in to the Catholic Church and various monarchies. The monarchs of which were usually somehow connected to roman conquest. The administrators that had existed during the more definitively roman era. But in some sense Romes conquest was so extensive that modern society is kind of just what exists inside it. I mean if you read about Roman history it’s filled with regional factions within the empire. What we have today isn’t all that different.
It never really fell. It just kind of turned in to the Catholic Church and various monarchies. The monarchs of which were usually somehow connected to roman conquest. The administrators that had existed during the more definitively roman era. But in some sense Romes conquest was so extensive that modern society is kind of just what exists inside it. I mean if you read about Roman history it’s filled with regional factions within the empire. What we have today isn’t all that different.
It never really fell. It just kind of turned in to the Catholic Church and various monarchies. The monarchs of which were usually somehow connected to roman conquest. The administrators that had existed during the more definitively roman era. But in some sense Romes conquest was so extensive that modern society is kind of just what exists inside it. I mean if you read about Roman history it’s filled with regional factions within the empire. What we have today isn’t all that different.
The “Fall of Civilizations” podcast/YouTube channel does a great episode or two on this (and other empires).
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