primary reasons for the fall of rome essay

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8 Reasons Why Rome Fell

By: Evan Andrews

Updated: September 5, 2023 | Original: January 14, 2014

1. Invasions by Barbarian tribes

The most straightforward theory for Western Rome’s collapse pins the fall on a string of military losses sustained against outside forces. Rome had tangled with Germanic tribes for centuries, but by the 300s “barbarian” groups like the Goths had encroached beyond the Empire’s borders. The Romans weathered a Germanic uprising in the late fourth century, but in 410 the Visigoth King Alaric successfully sacked the city of Rome.

The Empire spent the next several decades under constant threat before “the Eternal City” was raided again in 455, this time by the Vandals. Finally, in 476, the Germanic leader Odoacer staged a revolt and deposed Emperor Romulus Augustulus. From then on, no Roman emperor would ever again rule from a post in Italy, leading many to cite 476 as the year the Western Empire suffered its death blow.

2. Economic troubles and overreliance on slave labor

Even as Rome was under attack from outside forces, it was also crumbling from within thanks to a severe financial crisis. Constant wars and overspending had significantly lightened imperial coffers, and oppressive taxation and inflation had widened the gap between rich and poor. In the hope of avoiding the taxman, many members of the wealthy classes had even fled to the countryside and set up independent fiefdoms.

At the same time, the empire was rocked by a labor deficit. Rome’s economy depended on slaves to till its fields and work as craftsmen, and its military might had traditionally provided a fresh influx of conquered peoples to put to work. But when expansion ground to a halt in the second century, Rome’s supply of slaves and other war treasures began to dry up. A further blow came in the fifth century, when the Vandals claimed North Africa and began disrupting the empire’s trade by prowling the Mediterranean as pirates. With its economy faltering and its commercial and agricultural production in decline, the Empire began to lose its grip on Europe.

3. The rise of the Eastern Empire

The fate of Western Rome was partially sealed in the late third century, when Emperor Diocletian divided the Empire into two halves—the Western Empire seated in the city of Milan, and the Eastern Empire in Byzantium, later known as Constantinople. The division made the empire more easily governable in the short term, but over time the two halves drifted apart. East and West failed to adequately work together to combat outside threats, and the two often squabbled over resources and military aid.

As the gulf widened, the largely Greek-speaking Eastern Empire grew in wealth while the Latin-speaking West descended into an economic crisis. Most importantly, the strength of the Eastern Empire served to divert Barbarian invasions to the West. Emperors like Constantine ensured that the city of Constantinople was fortified and well guarded, but Italy and the city of Rome—which only had symbolic value for many in the East—were left vulnerable. The Western political structure would finally disintegrate in the fifth century, but the Eastern Empire endured in some form for another thousand years before being overwhelmed by the Ottoman Empire in the 1400s.

4. Overexpansion and military overspending

At its height, the Roman Empire stretched from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to the Euphrates River in the Middle East, but its grandeur may have also been its downfall. With such a vast territory to govern, the empire faced an administrative and logistical nightmare. Even with their excellent road systems, the Romans were unable to communicate quickly or effectively enough to manage their holdings.

Rome struggled to marshal enough troops and resources to defend its frontiers from local rebellions and outside attacks, and by the second century, the Emperor Hadrian was forced to build his famous wall in Britain just to keep the enemy at bay. As more and more funds were funneled into the military upkeep of the empire, technological advancement slowed and Rome’s civil infrastructure fell into disrepair.

5. Government corruption and political instability

If Rome’s sheer size made it difficult to govern, ineffective and inconsistent leadership only served to magnify the problem. Being the Roman emperor had always been a particularly dangerous job, but during the tumultuous second and third centuries it nearly became a death sentence. Civil war thrust the empire into chaos, and more than 20 men took the throne in the span of only 75 years, usually after the murder of their predecessor.

The Praetorian Guard—the emperor’s personal bodyguards—assassinated and installed new sovereigns at will, and once even auctioned the spot off to the highest bidder. The political rot also extended to the Roman Senate, which failed to temper the excesses of the emperors due to its own widespread corruption and incompetence. As the situation worsened, civic pride waned and many Roman citizens lost trust in their leadership.

6. The arrival of the Huns and the migration of the Barbarian tribes

The Barbarian attacks on Rome partially stemmed from a mass migration caused by the Huns’ invasion of Europe in the late fourth century. When these Eurasian warriors rampaged through northern Europe, they drove many Germanic tribes to the borders of the Roman Empire. The Romans grudgingly allowed members of the Visigoth tribe to cross south of the Danube and into the safety of Roman territory, but they treated them with extreme cruelty.

According to the historian Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman officials even forced the starving Goths to trade their children into slavery in exchange for dog meat. In brutalizing the Goths, the Romans created a dangerous enemy within their own borders. When the oppression became too much to bear, the Goths rose up in revolt and eventually routed a Roman army and killed the Eastern Emperor Valens during the Battle of Adrianople in A.D. 378. The shocked Romans negotiated a flimsy peace with the barbarians, but the truce unraveled in 410, when the Goth King Alaric moved west and sacked Rome. With the Western Empire weakened, Germanic tribes like the Vandals and the Saxons were able to surge across its borders and occupy Britain, Spain and North Africa.

7. Christianity and the loss of traditional values

The decline of Rome dovetailed with the spread of Christianity, and some have argued that the rise of a new faith helped contribute to the empire’s fall. The Edict of Milan legalized Christianity in 313, and it later became the state religion in 380. These decrees ended centuries of persecution, but they may have also eroded the traditional Roman values system. Christianity displaced the polytheistic Roman religion, which viewed the emperor as having a divine status, and also shifted focus away from the glory of the state and onto a sole deity.

Meanwhile, popes and other church leaders took an increased role in political affairs, further complicating governance. The 18th-century historian Edward Gibbon was the most famous proponent of this theory, but his take has since been widely criticized. While the spread of Christianity may have played a small role in curbing Roman civic virtue, most scholars now argue that its influence paled in comparison to military, economic and administrative factors.

8. Weakening of the Roman legions

For most of its history, Rome’s military was the envy of the ancient world. But during the decline, the makeup of the once mighty legions began to change. Unable to recruit enough soldiers from the Roman citizenry, emperors like Diocletian and Constantine began hiring foreign mercenaries to prop up their armies. The ranks of the legions eventually swelled with Germanic Goths and other barbarians, so much so that Romans began using the Latin word “barbarus” in place of “soldier.”

While these Germanic soldiers of fortune proved to be fierce warriors, they also had little or no loyalty to the empire, and their power-hungry officers often turned against their Roman employers. In fact, many of the barbarians who sacked the city of Rome and brought down the Western Empire had earned their military stripes while serving in the Roman legions.

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Essay on the Fall of Rome

Introduction, the main reasons for the fall of rome, works cited.

The founders of Rome appear to have lived in heroic poverty, sacrificing the little they had to ensure that the empire prospered. However, their successors who had not participated in the struggle to make the empire big and wealthy did not face any pressure to exercise austerity (Brown 57). The new Rome became famous for ostentatious parties and a shared sense of enthusiasm in the high and low classes, who lived a laxer way of life (Brown 57).

As this essay shows, the main reason for the fall of Rome was the lack of financial austerity. The empire grew too big and allowed corruption to reign. It also failed to become innovative in its economic sectors to survive the eventual loss of revenue and gold reserves. When observed in another way, the primary cause of the collapse was the conflict between the need to manage wealth and the desire to spend it.

Moreover, there was a conflict between those who invaded the city and those who lived in the city. Rome also fell because it was expanding. It experimented with the delegation of power to other entities that were not originally Roman, thereby causing the primary ideals and identities, as well as central control of Rome to disappear. Another argument for the fall of Rome is that it did not fall due to an invasion, but it disappeared after losing relevance and being replaced with other civilizations (Ward-Perkins 47-50). This paper will stick to the idea of an actual fall that happened after about 500 years of running as the world’s greatest superpower (Andrews par. 1).

The major reasons for the collapse of Rome are discussed below. First, there was a persistent invasion of the Barbarian tribes. The prosperity of Rome attracted other civilizations around it, who wanted to overthrow the empire (Thompson 17). They opted to use military invasions to take a part of the empire. They did this from all sides, encroaching a little of the empire’s territory at a time. On its part, the empire did everything possible to keep the invaders away (Andrews par 2). German-speaking groups surrounded the Roman Empire. They fought each other and sometimes colluded to fight the Roman Empire (Heather 54).

Each conquest of the groups around the empire somehow modified the structure and culture of the entire empire. The empire had grown big and multifaceted by the time it fell. The expansion of the Empire also created an additional need for bureaucracy, which would eventually undermine a responsive ruling class. Overall, the inclusion of the Barbarians, a term used to describe the collective tribes surrounding the empire, and the vandals created factions in the Empire and diverted fiscal revenue meant for the capital. With insufficient funds, Rome could not hold together and defeat breakaway groups from the Empire.

Accommodating groups, instead of fighting them, also led to the weakening of the Roman army. The army lost its focus on enemies and became weak in battle following many years of peace (Rosenwein 23). Leaders also became less concerned with security and focused on dealing with bureaucracy to enhance their power in the Empire. The quest for power and greatness among the ruling class led to a continuous progression towards the fall of Rome.

Success in the distant wars that the Roman Empire fought increased the wealth of the Empire. The property was acquired from the defeated groups. However, when the wars diminished, rulers continued to live as if Rome had an unlimited supply of wealth. They failed to notice the consequences of their behavior. There was no way out of the mess other than falling, given the lack of any additional warfare to enrich the coffers of the empire and sustain the extravagance of its people. Foreign citizens had taken a part of the Empire and would later create their empires at the time of the decline. Some of them were the Visigoths, who settled in Moesia after being allowed to do so by Emperor Valens (Waldman and Mason 139).

Rome fell because of internal disintegration. Failure to sustain a strong military and exercise moderation in enjoying its wealth made it vulnerable to any attack. Eventually, Rome went through a severe financial crisis, as it was losing its revenue sources from the areas that the factions had developed when they split from the center of power. Rome also increased in size, but it had not participated in conquests for a long time.

Moreover, it did not have a sufficient source of wealth to support the behavior of its ruling class. The imperial coffers could not keep up with wages and other recurrent demands and fund various projects and traditions at the same time. The only solution at the time was to increase taxation and boost the supply of money. However, these actions led to inflation and increased the division between the rich and the poor.

Rome built an internal enemy to its prosperity, given that many poor people failed to afford the basics of life (Atkins and Osborne 205). The rulers of Rome, such as Constantine, reached the extent of hiring mercenaries to join the military because the population was becoming smaller. This weakened the Roman military further. The trend allowed foreigners to gain control of the Roman military. Eventually, the Germanic Goths and Barbarians had too much influence in the military, and they turned against their Roman employers (Andrews par. 9).

Politicians in Rome had bodyguards. The emperor also had guards. However, with hardly any warfare happening in and out of the Empire, the bodyguards became motivated to use their proximity to power for personal enrichment. Eventually, corruption had become so common that the soldiers who worked as bodyguards became independent from the power of the ruler. Instead, they acted as equal partners in the government. They could decide when to remove an emperor and make a replacement. Such was the extent of their power, which led to more corruption because it made the emperors and politicians bribe them to obtain their protection. In the provinces, the poor workers became disillusioned, as their earnings and taxes paid for the affluent and arrogant behaviors of the patriarch (Ward-Perkins 108-115).

Meanwhile, the empire had to do something about the increasing number of poor people caused by the plundering of its coffers by members of the ruling class. The empire provided free food to the poor in Rome and Constantinople. However, the larger proportion of expenditure on food went to the purchase of exotic spices and other delicacies outside the empire. Eventually, the empire would run out of gold to replenish its coffers and became bankrupt. The rulers stripped assets from provinces, such that they were unable to sustain the Empire’s expenditure. They borrowed from central coffers and fell into debt. It was easy for the emerging factions to break away and seek self-rule because many provinces were in debt, and there were no signs of prosperity. The empire had expanded so much that its system of governance could not support it. The ungovernable size stretched from Spain to the modern day Egypt.

Another cause of the fall of Rome was the natural plagues that affected the health of the Roman population. Diseases coming from West Europe wiped out a significant population. The cost of dealing with the diseases, in addition to the loss of revenue because of workers dying from diseases, became a major contributor to the decline of the Empire.

Christianity flourished in the Roman Empire at the time of Constantine. The emperor gave Christians the freedom to practice their religion within the Empire. He was also available to handle any Christian disputes that emerged regarding control or jurisdiction. Embracing Christianity created conflict with the traditional pagan cults that the Romans practiced. Christianity enjoyed power given to it by the emperor; thus, the other Roman religions died.

The growth of Christianity and its linkage to the rulers of Rome created a complex relationship, where the church officials became as influential as the political leaders. In addition, the political leaders appointed bishops to the early Christianity in the Roman Empire. This arrangement created avenues for lobbying for political or church leadership. With the ongoing corruption in the Empire, Christianity became another channel for exercising opposing powers that would eventually destroy the fabric of leadership in Rome. Christianity eventually became the dominant determinant of morals in Rome, following the destruction of other religions due to the lack of political support. However, the corruption in its leadership served as a bad example to the rest of the Empire and contributed to the overall loss of morals.

The traditional Roman values disappeared as the new faith rose to become a state religion in 380 AD. The Emperor was viewed as a divine being, thereby making people revere the empire. Such beliefs provided the meaning of hard work, sacrifice, and order in the Empire as part of their reverence for the divine one. However, the dominance of Christianity and the destruction of the polytheistic beliefs detached people’s actions from direct implications on the emperor. The popes and church leaders acted as opinion shapers in political matters; thus, the center of spiritual power became decentralized and caused people to have varied inclinations to obey moral conduct. It also created a habit of thinking about self-gain before thinking of the overall welfare of the Empire. The change of beliefs and attitudes contributed to the corruption and plunder of wealth in the Empire (Andrews par. 8).

A combination of corruption and political influences in Rome created laxity in the enforcement of moral conduct among public officials. Eventually, the citizens of Rome became accustomed to their new way of life. Respect for life dwindled; people could easily kill each other following disputes and get away with it because of their affiliation with those in power or because they belonged to a higher social class than their victims.

There was a salient disrespect for human and animal life. The lack of morals eventually created chaos in the public life. At the time, Rome also depended on slave labor. Rome had a high influx of slaves who provided cheap labor for its citizens when the Empire was growing through conquests. Unfortunately, the dependence on slaves became an obsession and a way of life. The citizens failed to do their duties of taking care of others and themselves.

They also reduced their efforts of building wealth and being innovative in finding better ways of doing things. Eventually, the entire Rome was lazy because it mainly relied on slave labor to accomplish even the simplest duties. There was no motivation to excel, while things became mediocre because of too much cheap labor. The standards of work plummeted, and the Empire became uncompetitive.

The problem of depending on slaves added to the problem of the affluent behavior of the rich, who opted to import goods that were not available in the Empire. The quality of products in the Empire was poor; thus, people chose to import rather than focus on improving the quality of the Roman products. Eventually, the imports were more than the exports, and the Empire got into the balance of payment problems.

Rome could not support its huge import bill, in addition to the lack of sufficient technological capacity to support domestic production (Fenner par. 2-4). Slavery dependence robbed Rome of the hard work ethics that it had cultivated among its people during the years of early expansion. The Romans had lost the value of being productive, in addition to their lack of the ability to enhance their production prowess. They had little motivation to find superior sources of energy that would sustain competitiveness and make the Empire prosper in trade, transport, and communications. As a result, the Empire lacked sufficient industries to employ its population and grow its wealth. The economic decline became a significant catalyst for the other problems highlighted above, which eventually caused the fall of Rome (Fenner par. 6-8).

The division of the empire into the West and East side, with capitals in Milan and Constantinople respectively, could also be another reason for the decline. There was a bigger chance of the two halves drifting apart in their political and economic ways due to the lack of a central leadership. The two sides failed to work as one Empire when facing outside threats, which made the Empire vulnerable. Language dominance in the two halves also created divisions, with the Greek-speaking East side enjoying moderate economic success, while the Latin-speaking West side was descending into misery. The symbolic capital of the empire was Rome, which remained vulnerable to the invasion of the Barbarians, as Constantinople remained guarded (Andrews par. 6).

In summary, the key events and causes that led to the fall of Rome were the wrong decisions made by several emperors and the increase in the civilization of the people in the empire. These events led to reduced reliance on military support, which caused the weakening of the army. Invasion of the neighboring Barbarians and their habitation of Rome, such as the settlement of the Visigoths in Moesia, also played a part in destabilizing revenue sources for the Empire. Overall, the lack of innovativeness in the economy and a lot of expenses on an unsustainable expansion and consumption of the ruling class caused Rome to fall. Moderation in expenditure and expansion would have saved Rome from falling.

Andrews, Evan. “8 Reasons Why Rome Fell.” 2014. History Lists. Web.

Atkins, Margaret and Robin Osborne, Poverty in the Roman World . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Print.

Brown, Peter. Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350 -550 AD . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012. Print.

Fenner, Julian. To What Extent Were Economic Factors to Blame for the Deterioration of the Roman Empire in The Third Century A.D? 2015. Web.

Heather, Peter. The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print.

Rosenwein, Barbara H. A Short History of the Middle Ages: Fourth Edition, Volume 1 . Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014. Print.

Thompson, Edward Arthur. Romans and Barbarians: the Decline of the Western Empire. Madison: Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2002. Print.

Waldman, Carl and Catherine Mason. Encyclopedia of Europeans Peoples . New York, NY: Facts on File, Inc., 2006. Print.

Ward-Perkins, Bryan. The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. Print.

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The Fall of Rome: How, When, and Why Did It Happen?

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When Did Rome Fall?

How did rome fall, why did rome fall, christianity, barbarians and vandals.

• Decadence and Decay of Rome's Control

Lead Poisoning

Additional references.

• M.A., Linguistics, University of Minnesota
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The phrase " the Fall of Rome " suggests that some cataclysmic event ended the Roman Empire, which stretched from the British Isles to Egypt and Iraq. But in the end, there was no straining at the gates, no barbarian horde that dispatched the Roman Empire in one fell swoop.

Instead, the Roman Empire fell slowly as a result of challenges from within and without, changing over the course of hundreds of years until its form was unrecognizable. Because of the long process, different historians have placed an end date at many different points on a continuum. Perhaps the Fall of Rome is best understood as a compilation of various maladies that altered a large swath of human habitation over many hundreds of years.

In his masterwork, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, historian Edward Gibbon selected 476 CE, a date most often mentioned by historians.   That date was when Odoacer, the Germanic king of the Torcilingi, deposed Romulus Augustulus, the last Roman emperor to rule the western part of the Roman Empire. The eastern half became the Byzantine Empire, with its capital at Constantinople (modern Istanbul).

But the city of Rome continued to exist. Some see the rise of Christianity as putting an end to the Romans; those who disagree with that find the rise of Islam a more fitting bookend to the end of the empire—but that would put the Fall of Rome at Constantinople in 1453!   In the end, the arrival of Odoacer was but one of many barbarian incursions into the empire. Certainly, the people who lived through the takeover would probably be surprised by the importance we place on determining an exact event and time.

Just as the Fall of Rome was not caused by a single event, the way Rome fell was also complex. In fact, during the period of imperial decline, the empire actually expanded. That influx of conquered peoples and lands changed the structure of the Roman government. Emperors moved the capital away from the city of Rome, too. The schism of east and west created not just an eastern capital first in Nicomedia and then Constantinople, but also a move in the west from Rome to Milan.

Rome started out as a small, hilly settlement by the Tiber River in the middle of the Italian boot, surrounded by more powerful neighbors. By the time Rome became an empire, the territory covered by the term "Rome" looked completely different. It reached its greatest extent in the second century CE. Some of the arguments about the Fall of Rome focus on the geographic diversity and the territorial expanse that Roman emperors and their legions had to control.  

This is easily the most argued question about the fall of Rome. The Roman Empire lasted over a thousand years and represented a sophisticated and adaptive civilization. Some historians maintain that it was the split into an eastern and western empire governed by separate emperors caused Rome to fall.

Most classicists believe that a combination of factors including Christianity, decadence, the metal lead in the water supply, monetary trouble, and military problems caused the Fall of Rome.   Imperial incompetence and chance could be added to the list. And still, others question the assumption behind the question and maintain that the Roman empire didn't fall so much as adapt to changing circumstances.

When the Roman Empire started, there was no such religion as Christianity. In the 1st century CE, Pontius Pilate, the governor of the province of Judaea, executed their founder, Jesus, for treason. It took his followers a few centuries to gain enough clout to be able to win over imperial support. This began in the early 4th century with Emperor Constantine , who was actively involved in Christian policy-making.

When Constantine established a state-level religious tolerance in the Roman Empire, he took on the title of Pontiff. Although he was not necessarily a Christian himself (he wasn't baptized until he was on his deathbed), he gave Christians privileges and oversaw major Christian religious disputes. He may not have understood how the pagan cults, including those of the emperors, were at odds with the new monotheistic religion, but they were, and in time the old Roman religions lost out.

Over time, Christian church leaders became increasingly influential, eroding the emperors' powers. For example, when Bishop Ambrose (340–397 CE) threatened to withhold the sacraments, Emperor Theodosius did the penance the Bishop assigned him. Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the official religion in 390 CE. Since Roman civic and religious life were deeply connected—priestesses controlled the fortune of Rome, prophetic books told leaders what they needed to do to win wars, and emperors were deified—Christian religious beliefs and allegiances conflicted with the working of empire.

The barbarians, which is a term that covers a varied and changing group of outsiders, were embraced by Rome, who used them as suppliers of tax revenue and bodies for the military, even promoting them to positions of power. But Rome also lost territory and revenue to them, especially in northern Africa, which Rome lost to the Vandals at the time of St. Augustine in the early 5th century CE.

At the same time the Vandals took over the Roman territory in Africa, Rome lost Spain to the Sueves, Alans, and Visigoths . The loss of Spain meant Rome lost revenue along with the territory and administrative control, a perfect example of the interconnected causes leading to Rome's fall. That revenue was needed to support Rome's army and Rome needed its army to keep what territory it still maintained.

Decadence and Decay of Rome's Control

There is no doubt that decay—the loss of Roman control over the military and populace—affected the ability of the Roman Empire to keep its borders intact. Early issues included the crises of the Republic in the first century BCE under the emperors Sulla and Marius as well as that of the Gracchi brothers in the second century CE. But by the fourth century, the Roman Empire had simply become too big to control easily.

The decay of the army, according to the 5th-century Roman historian Vegetius , came from within the army itself. The army grew weak from a lack of wars and stopped wearing their protective armor. This made them vulnerable to enemy weapons and provided the temptation to flee from battle. Security may have led to the cessation of the rigorous drills. Vegetius said the leaders became incompetent and rewards were unfairly distributed.

In addition, as time went on, Roman citizens, including soldiers and their families living outside of Italy, identified with Rome less and less compared to their Italian counterparts. They preferred to live as natives, even if this meant poverty, which, in turn, meant they turned to those who could help—Germans, brigands, Christians, and Vandals.

Some scholars have suggested that the Romans suffered from lead poisoning.   Apparently, there was lead in Roman drinking water, leached in from water pipes used in the vast Roman water control system; lead glazes on containers that came in contact with food and beverages; and food preparation techniques that could have contributed to heavy metal poisoning. The lead was also used in cosmetics, even though it was also known in Roman times as a deadly poison and used in contraception.

Economic factors are also often cited as a major cause of the fall of Rome.   Some of the major factors described are inflation, over-taxation, and feudalism. Other lesser economic issues included the wholesale hoarding of bullion by Roman citizens, the widespread looting of the Roman treasury by barbarians, and a massive trade deficit with the eastern regions of the empire. Together these issues combined to escalate financial stress during the empire's last days.

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• Dorjahn, Alfred P., and Lester K. Born. “Vegetius on the Decay of the Roman Army.”   The Classical Journal , vol. 30, no. 3, Dec. 1934, pp. 148–158.
• Phillips, Charles Robert. “Old Wine in Old Lead Bottles: Nriagu on the Fall of Rome.”   The Classical World , vol. 78, no. 1, Sept. 1984, pp. 29–33.

Gibbon, Edward. History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. London: Strahan & Cadell, 1776.

Ott, Justin. "The Decline and Fall of the Western Roman Empire." Iowa State University Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations . Iowa State University, 2009.

Damen, Mark. "The Fall of Rome: Facts and Fictions." A Guide to Writing in History and Classics. Utah State University.

Delile, Hugo, et al. “ Lead in Ancient Rome's City Waters. ”  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , vol. 111, no. 18, 6 May 2014, pp. 6594–6599., doi:10.1073/pnas.1400097111

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Major Causes of the Fall of the Western Roman Empire

by World History Edu · November 26, 2019

Fall of the Western Roman Empire

After a rise, comes a fall. And of course, good times don’t last forever. This was the deplorable situation that struck a once unified and soaring Roman Empire. Somewhere in the 5th century, Rome’s influence and standing in the world took a nosedive, ushering in its worse days of disunity and conflicts. Whether you cast your mind on the Western Empire that crumbled earlier in the 5th century or the Eastern side that followed suit centuries later, the fact is that Rome (as a whole) did fall eventually, after witnessing unprecedented growth.

What were the causes of Rome’s decline? This remains the million-dollar question that has prodded the minds of historians as they debate frequently to find the truth.

In this article, we share historical insights into the major causes of the fall of the Roman Empire.

Why Rome Fell

Just like any normal civilization fall, the stories behind Rome’s decline are rooted in a plethora of internal and external factors. It’s hard to pinpoint one causative factor of Rome’s fall, but we do know that invasions, religion, imperial incompetence, diseases, and divisions were just some of the reasons why Rome fell.

Barbarian Invasion

Barbarians sacking Rome in 410 CE

Most people hold strong assertions that the underlying cause of the collapse of the mighty Rome was the empire’s inability to defend herself from the Barbarian invasion. For many centuries, Romans warred with Germanic tribal groups, but they didn’t succumb to them. But around 300 CE, Barbarians penetrated Rome and caused considerable havoc. In 410 CE , King Alaric of the Visigoths did the impossible thing when he literally conquered Rome and sacked them from the city.

The Roman Empire became vulnerable to attacks; its troubles increased further when the Vandals attacked the Eternal City in 455 CE. In 476 CE, still not finished yet, King Odoacer cleared down the remaining legs of Roman rule in Italy when he rose up against Emperors Romulus & Augustulus. It’s no wonder why some historians state 476 CE as the exact year the Western Empire got annihilated.

• The Five Bad Roman Emperors
• Four Gruesome Acts Committed by Emperor Nero

Division and Cracks in Rome

The rulers of ancient Rome failed to pay heed to unity – “Divided we fall, united we stand”. When Emperor Diclotian controversially divided a once unified Rome into West and East during the late 3rd century CE, he created room for a quick fall of the Western side.

Government wise, the division favored the effective rule of both halves, but in the long, the two empires stood far apart. Instead of working together as Roman citizens, the West and East weakened their ties by engaging in minor conflicts over resources.

As time went on, the East grew stronger than the West. The weak Western Empire, therefore, became a vulnerable target to the Barbarian attacks. By the 5th century CE, the West had collapsed, but the East would go on to live for 1000 years before succumbing to the Ottoman Empire in 1453.

Introduction of Christianity

Christianity became a turning point when it was introduced to the Romans as a new religion. When Emperor Constantine (306-337 CE ) brought religious change (Christianity) to Rome, he was naïve about the long-term consequences of what he did. For centuries, Romans were used to the idea of many gods and goddesses (polytheism); emperors like Caligula even viewed himself as a god.

When Christianity came preaching a monotheistic (one) God, it was completely contrary to the established religious doctrines of ancient Romans. Consequently, Christians faced a series of persecutions. But they were once again saved by the anti-persecution principles of Emperor Constantine.

By embracing this new religion and throwing away their core traditions, Romans severely committed a suicidal change of faith. To speed up the Roman decadence, Christianity was made the empire’s main religion. This lessened the authority of their imperial rulers; within an eye’s blink, Roman emperors became nobody. How could the empire have survived without a respected leader?

Ides of March: Origin Story & Major Facts

Lead Poisoning

Some historians move the fall issue from social problems to chemical poisoning. It’s unbelievable how ancient Romans played with the tail of a lion – they were drinking lead-infested water from water pipes. Even though ancient Romans supposedly had some knowledge of the dangers of lead, they went ahead to carelessly tamper with it.

With time their bodies absorbed and accumulated lethal amounts of the poisonous metal. Scholars argue that lead poisoning could have decreased the fertility rate and intelligence of Romans, leaving them with unwise population and leaders. In all, this might have contributed to their vulnerability and eventual breakdown.

Military Decay

Why Rome fell – Military Decay

According to historian Vegetus, the Roman army degraded internally. In the long absence of wars, the army retired to sleep without training. This made them ill-prepared for the invasions that finally came their way. They were struck down by relatively superior enemy weapons. This decay of the army was partly caused by incompetent leadership. Due to a lack of motivation (rewards), soldiers laid down their tools and lived as ordinary civilians.

Economic Downturn

After the reign of the Great Marcus Aurelius , Romans made little to no expansionism efforts. When you erect a building and leave it uncompleted at the peak, it would gradually fall down. This may have been the exact case of the Romans when they grew tired of expanding their empire.

Moreover, they spent lavishly at a time when gold supply to the empire was scaled down. The Roman currency lost its value when minting of their coins was done with little gold. In this vein, some theorists suggest that the empire collapsed on itself because it expanded so high. The bigger it got, the harder it became to govern.

History and Major Facts about the Battle of Allia

Diseases and Misery

What can wipe out a civilization better than a disease? Historians think that massive depopulation hit hard at Western Rome, leaving them to be downtrodden by the Barbarian invasion. Between the 2nd & 3rd centuries CE, two catastrophic plagues visited the Roman Empire and killed the majority of its workforce. The Antonine & Cyprian epidemics were able to devastate Rome because of the empire’s extended trade links to China, India, and the East African coastline.

The number of Roman lives that were claimed by diseases was quite significant – some towns became empty, but exact death figures are unavailable. Consequently, the unhealthy Roman soldiers could hardly defend against the Barbarian invasion.

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Home — Essay Samples — History — Ancient Rome — The Fall of Rome: Understanding the Causes and Consequences

The Fall of Rome: Understanding The Causes and Consequences

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Published: Sep 7, 2023

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Internal factors: the empire's achilles' heel, external pressures: invaders at the gates, consequences of the fall: shaping subsequent history.

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• Ancient History

The rise and fall of the Roman Republic explained

The Roman Republic was one of the most influential and powerful empires in the world, lasting for almost 500 years before it was replaced by the Roman Empire.

In this article, we will provide an overview of the Roman Republic, including its history, its government, and its culture. We will also discuss some of the most important events in Roman Republican history.

Mythical founding of Rome

According to legend, the city of Rome was founded in 753 BC by Romulus , after killing his twin brother, Remus.

The two boys were believed to have been raised by a she-wolf. This story is the most well-known version of the mythical founding of Rome, but archaeological evidence tells a different story.

The city of Rome is thought to have grown from a series of small villages on the banks of Tiber River over a series of centuries.

By around the 6th century BC, there is evidence that the separate villages were already working together to form a larger community.

This is probably the real origins of the city.

The Etruscans

Much of the early cultural influences on the Romans came from the nearby people called the Etruscans.

The Etruscans were a powerful people who ruled over much of the modern region of Tuscany, which is located to the north of Rome.

The Etruscans were skilled warriors and master builders, who appeared to have been heavily influenced by Greek culture themselves.

As a result, the Romans adopted modified forms of Etruscan gods that may have been based upon Greek originals.

For example, the Roman god Jupiter appears to be the same as the Greek god Zeus.

The Etruscans were in trading contact with Greek colonies in the south of Italy. It is assumed that it is by these connections that they discovered the Greek alphabet.

Over time, the Etruscans developed their own writing system based upon the Greek original, and this influenced what would later become the Roman alphabet, and the Latin language.

The seven kings of Rome

In its earliest history, Rome was a kingdom, which meant that it was ruled by a monarch with absolute power.

Romulus was believed to be the first king, followed by Numa Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius, Ancus Marcius, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius, and finally Lucius Tarquinius Superbus.

Each of these kings were thought to have contributed something significant to the cultural identity and infrastructure of the Roman state.

However, each one also became progressively more corrupt and despotic, which fostered resentment of the kings among the people of Rome.

The Roman Republic was founded in 509 BC, after the end of the Roman Kingdom, when Rome’s last king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, was overthrown by the Roman people .

The first consul of the Republic was Lucius Junius Brutus.

Republican government

The Roman Republic was founded on the idea of representational government. This meant that the people of Rome would elect representatives to make decisions on their behalf. 

The Romans were incredibly proud of their republic, and it became a central part of their identity. 

This system of government helped to prevent any one person or group from having too much power.

In the Roman republican system, rather than a single king holding all of the power, authority was divided among a number of different institutions.

The two most important of these were the Senate and the Assembly. The Senate was a group of wealthy landowners who had inherited their positions from their ancestors. 

The Assembly was a group of citizens who elected officials and passed laws.

The most important officials were the consuls. The two consuls were elected by the people and held office for one year.

They were responsible for leading the army.

However, people could also be elected to other positions every year including aedile , Tribune of the Plebs, plus many more.

Since there were only a limited number of positions available every year, competition was fierce to be elected to these roles.

As time went on, people resorted to underhanded means to achieve success in the elections.

The Punic Wars

The Punic Wars were a series of wars fought between Rome and Carthage, two powerful empires in the western Mediterranean.

The First Punic War began in 264 BC, when Rome and Carthage fought for control of Sicily.

The Second Punic War began in 218 BC, when Hannibal , a Carthaginian general, invaded Italy.

The Third Punic War began in 149 BC, after which the Romans finally destroyed the city of Carthage in 146 BC. 

By the end of the Punic Wars, Rome had become one of the most powerful empires in the world. It controlled all of Italy and much of Europe and North Africa.

During this conflict, Rome had rapidly developed more effective systems of military and economic dominance.

It was thanks to the lessons learned through the Punic Wars that Rome was able to rapidly expand further eastward and conquer Greece by the end of 146 BC as well.

Political problems

Following Rome's successful military expansion, several negative consequences occurred. 

Many of Rome's allies began to resent its power, and some even rebelled. In addition, the Senate became increasingly corrupt.

Senators began to use their positions of power for personal gain, rather than for the good of Rome. This led to increased social unrest among the people of Rome. 

A significant social divide appeared between the plebeians and the patricians . The plebeians were the common citizens of Rome, while the patricians were the wealthy landowners.

The plebeians began to feel that they were being treated unfairly by the government. This led to civil unrest.

Eventually, the patricians were forced to grant more equality to the plebeians and by the time of the Third Punic War, the two social classes were generally equal in economic, political and social standing.

However, this led to a different social divide. This time, it was around who really held the political power in Rome.

Was it the wealthy elite, which was now both plebeians and patricians, or was it the common people of Rome? 

Traditionally, the Senate, which was dominated by the rich aristocratic nobles, was seen as the real power, as they are the ones who created and enforced laws.

However, there was a growing movement that suggested that the common people really held the power, as they were the ones who voted on who would hold which political office every year, and they usually voted on which laws to adopt.

This disagreement developed into severe tensions that threatened to tear Roman society apart if the Senate did not recognise the power of the common people.

The Gracchi brothers

In an effort to address these problems, two reformers named Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus were elected to the position of Tribune of the Plebs in 133 and 123 BC respectively.

Tiberius proposed a law that would have given land to poor farmers.

However, his law was opposed by the Senate, and he was eventually assassinated for threatening to take power away from them.

Gaius then took up his brother's cause ten years later. He proposed a series of reforms that would have helped the poor.

However, his laws were also opposed by the Senate. Gaius was also hunted down and killed. 

Following their time as tribunes, the ideological divide created two competing factions within the Senate itself. 

The two groups were called the optimates (meaning the 'best men') and the populares (meaning 'the popularisers').

The optimates were the senators who believed that political power resided with the Senate, while the populares believed that the citizens of Rome should have the final say in political decisions.

Politicians who favoured either side began to clash in open conflict with each other.

Powerful generals and politicians on either side rose to prominence in Rome over the next fifty years.

Men like Marius and Pompey had the support of the populares , while those like Sulla were on the side of the optimates .

Each of these leaders gradually relied upon the support of their armies to enforce their version of politics in Rome.

One of the most famous examples of how far this could go was the life of Sulla . On two separate occasions, Sulla marched his army on the city of Rome itself.

Once in control of the city, he hunted down politicians who disagreed with him and had them killed.

The example set by Sulla would both be used as a warning of what could go wrong in Rome, but it was also used as a precedence for what could be done if all other options had failed a person in their attempt to achieve their goals.

The First Triumvirate

The political turmoil in Rome culminated with a powerful political alliance between three men: Julius Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus. 

This alliance was known as the First Triumvirate , and it was founded in 60 BC. This alliance allowed these three individuals to illegally dominate the entire political system.

When the Senate realised what the First Triumvirate had done, they sought to bring them to justice, particularly Caesar.

Crassus and Pompey avoided punishment for their part in the alliance . Crassus eventually died in 53 BC while on military campaign in the east, and Pompey switched political allegiance to the optimates .

As a result, Caesar was left to take the full blame for what had occurred.

Caesar tried to use every political tool he had available to avoid being charged with his illegal actions.

In particular, he was able to have himself awarded a ten-year military campaign in Gaul .

As long as he had the position of commander, he was technically immune from prosecution by the Senate.

His command was due to expire at the end of 50 BC, and Caesar knew that he would have to return to Rome.

Aware that this would mean a legal trial and punishment, Caesar asked Pompey to help him out.

However, by this time, Pompey was on the side of the Senate and was not willing to intervene.

Having to choose between the end of his political career or follow Sulla's example, Caesar called for the support of his army.

In 49 BC, Caesar led his legions across the Rubicon River in northern Italy and attacked Rome itself.

This act started a civil war between Caesar and Pompey. This was a direct challenge to the Senate's authority.

The Senate then declared Caesar an enemy of Rome. 

Caesar quickly gained control of Italy and then defeated Pompey. Caesar was then declared the dictator of Rome .

He ruled for over three years before he was assassinated by a group of senators in 44 BC who feared that he wanted to become a new king of Rome.

Second Triumvirate

After Caesar's assassination, a new civil war broke out. This time, the main combatants were Julius Caesar's nephew Octavian and two of Caesar's former generals, Mark Antony and Lepidus, who swore to hunt down and kill Caesar's assassins.

The three men formed an alliance known as the Second Triumvirate in 43 BC.

This alliance was successful, and the last of Caesar's assassins were defeated at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC.

However, this success meant that there was once more an alliance of three powerful men who dominated the Roman republic.

Just like the First Triumvirate, the Second Triumvirate threatened to lead to another civil war between its members to decide who would ultimately lead the Roman world. 

The Second Triumvirate was eventually dissolved after Antony began a relationship with Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt.

Octavian proactively hunted down Lepidus and forced him into retirement after attempting to seize control of Sicily, a region under Octavian's authority.

Then Octavian's forces defeated Antony at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. Following his defeat, Antony returned to Egypt where he and Cleopatra committed suicide.

Therefore, Octavian emerged as the sole ruler of Rome, just as Julius Caesar had done.

To recognise his dominance, he took the name 'Augustus' in 27 BC, which means "the exalted one", and became the first Roman emperor.

For all intents and purposes, Augustus was the king of Rome. However, both he and the Senate avoided using the word 'king' due to its negative connotations in Roman history.

However, the Roman people now looked to Augustus to guarantee peace after a century of constant civil war and strife.

The position of emperor now became the most important role in the entire Roman world, and it superseded all other political powers, including the consuls.

As a result, modern historians consider the life of Augustus to be the end of the Roman republican system.

The new system, which revolved around who was emperor, became known as the Roman Empire.

The Roman Empire

The Roman Republic came to an end, and Rome became an empire ruled by one man, the emperor.

Augustus ruled for over 40 years and oversaw a period of peace and prosperity known as the pax Romana , or "Roman Peace."

Under the emperors, Rome became a huge empire that stretched from Britain in the west to Syria in the east.

Further reading

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Read the May magazine issue on food and climate change

A ‘plague’ comes before the fall: lessons from Roman history

By Colin Elliott | May 15, 2024

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The Pax Romana— the 200-year “ golden age ” of the Roman Empire—was a marvel of diversity, connectivity, and unchallenged hegemony. By the middle of the second century AD, imperial Rome ruled territory across three different continents. Roughly one-quarter of the Earth’s population, some 60 million people, lived under Rome’s vast aegis, and the emperors of the age—most notably Marcus Aurelius—enjoyed the consent of those they governed. The Empire’s elites—witnessing the disciplined legions, widespread religiosity, cultural efflorescence, and dominant economy—likely expected their world order to endure forever.

In the year 166 AD, however, seemingly eternal Rome was caught completely off-guard as a deadly novel disease swept across the Eurasian landmass. It ransacked Rome’s cities for at least a decade and preceded centuries of decline. This major biological event—now known as the Antonine plague—appears to have been the world’s first pandemic .

Historians hotly debate its death toll—with estimates ranging from 2 percent to 35 percent mortality—and its broader social and economic effects. The disease itself remains undiagnosed. The great Greek physician Galen described its main symptoms as fever, throat ulcers, and a pustular rash. Some have suspected it was measles or smallpox, but modern analysis provides reasons to doubt these as the possible culprits. Human remains from the Antonine plague period, meanwhile, have thus far failed to yield genetic evidence sufficient to identify the pathogen.

Although the plague did not on its own cut short Rome’s dominance, it struck an empire that was confronting multiple challenges beneath a veneer of prosperity and growth—factors that modern-day infectious disease experts might recognize as creating the ideal conditions for pandemics. Much remains unknown about the Antonine plague; in some ways, modern scholars are just as in the dark about this first pandemic as its contemporary victims. But interdisciplinary researchers, trying to understand how the plague could have helped push such a powerful empire to the breaking point, have recently been unravelling some of its mysteries.

Probing the plague . Historians, archaeologists, and scientists have been sharing data and expertise, working together to develop histories of past pandemics—including the Antonine plague—that are surprisingly comprehensive and nuanced. Paleogenetic and paleoclimatological evidence reveal the crucial role of environmental and demographic factors in the pandemic. Insights from modern economics and sociology have improved historians’ understanding of how the institutions of the Roman Empire were affected by disease mortality. Even before the pandemic arrived, the pre-existing ecological, economic, and demographic context of mid-second century Eurasia prepared the way for the disease that would accelerate the end of Rome’s era of efflorescence.

Research assessing the severity of modern anthropogenic climate change, for example, has compiled a vast array of climatological data dating back to the Roman period, and well before. Such research offers historians an increasingly detailed and comprehensive view of the ecosystems of ancient Eurasia and Africa. The ancient Mediterranean was (and still is) polka-dotted with microclimates; meanwhile, ice cores from Greenland, ancient tree rings from northern Europe, and sediment cores from Egypt and Italy suggest that some regions in and around Roman territory endured cooler temperatures and droughts about a decade ahead of the Antonine plague pandemic. These climatological shifts were hardly severe, nor did they affect the entire Mediterranean Basin. Many of the affected regions, however, happened to play outsized roles in supplying Roman cities with grain.

The annual Nile flood in Egypt, for instance, reliably nourished well-irrigated grainfields with nutrient-rich water from the Ethiopian highlands. The resulting harvests, often abundant, were stored and then shipped in massive vessels across the Mediterranean to Rome for distribution to the city’s masses. But from the 150s onward, a series of droughts near the Nile headwaters in equatorial east Africa disrupted the flood, reducing the productivity of Rome’s main breadbasket. Meanwhile, at the same time, increased storm activity in the western Mediterranean—as confirmed by sediment cores extracted from the coast of southern France—made shipping already scarce grain far riskier than in previous centuries. As a result, denizens of Rome and several other major cities, and possibly also some of Rome’s soldiers, endured greater food insecurity and malnutrition—weakening their bodies ahead of the pandemic’s arrival in the 160s.

An interconnected, vulnerable ancient world. Historians still don’t know exactly where and when the pandemic entered Roman territory. But, again, historical circumstances conspired in favor of the novel disease.

An outbreak today can jump continents as quickly as an airplane can fly. Travel and transportation can facilitate the spread of infectious diseases. It may not be coincidental, therefore, that by the time of the Antonine plague, the Eurasian landmass was better-connected than ever before. In 166 AD, for the first time in recorded history, the imperial Han court in Luoyang, China, received visitors from the Roman Empire. Merchants from India, sub-Saharan Africa, Arabia, and Egypt rode the trade winds to ports all around the Indian Ocean. Roman soldiers, seeking to police and tax such abundant trade, ventured well outside Roman borders—as Latin inscriptions in the Farasan Islands of southern Arabia attest. In short, there were plenty of opportunities for novel diseases to cross political and geographic barriers into new populations, transforming what might have otherwise been a regional epidemic into a pandemic that spread across three different continents.

In the Roman Empire, an impressive transportation infrastructure—once a source of economic and military power—became a sudden liability once the pandemic breached its borders. Roman roads and ships weren’t themselves responsible, but larger movements and migrations transported the disease from city to city.

Because of the shifts in local climates, and resulting food insecurity, desperate and hungry rural peasants had already flooded into cities in Asia Minor (present day Turkey) and Italy. Beyond Roman borders, nomadic peoples on the Eurasian Steppe in search of food pushed against the Germanic tribes along the Danube River, sending hordes of migrants and invaders into Roman frontier provinces. Contemporary sources from the Han Empire reference a series of epidemics in several Chinese cities, as well as the army. Concerns over ever-present sickness were partly responsible for the famed Yellow Turban Rebellion —a peasant rebellion that unleashed decades of civil war and instability in much of eastern China.

At the exact same time, tens of thousands of Roman soldiers were uprooted from their military bases and sent thousands of miles—first to fight a war on the Empire’s eastern frontier in Persia (Iran), then back into Europe to resist the surging tide of Germanic migrants. At multiple points along these journeys, soldiers could have collected the Antonine plague pathogen.

The plague and the capital. Rome’s large legions might have sustained disease transmission for weeks, if not months, as armies passed back-and-forth through the same densely populated cities of Asia Minor and Italy that were taking on underfed refugees from the budding crisis.

None of these cities, however, were as packed as Rome—a cosmopolis of over one million people. In October of 166 AD, just as the pandemic reached Italy, the city held a massive triumphal parade for the legions, fresh off their victory in Persia. Perhaps 100,000 or more citizens crammed into the city center to celebrate, creating what may have been the world’s first super-spreader event.

Shortly following the triumph, the streets of Rome must have resembled a war zone. Bodies were so strewn about the city that Marcus Aurelius and his co-emperor imposed strict regulations on burials and tombs. They funded corpse removal. They sought out the gods for aid. At some point, perhaps after the first wave abated, the emperors commissioned statues to memorialize elite victims, while the masses were commemorated in remembrance events.

The ancient Romans had limited means to treat the Antonine plague, although they developed many remedies of unknown or suspect effectiveness. Elites, including the emperor Marcus Aurelius, used a concoction called “theriac”—an aged blend of exotic spices and expensive substances, mixed with a dose of opium. Others tried various smell therapies—including smelling laurel leaves. Galen claimed that fresh urine applied directly to the skin could help—the younger the urinator, the better.

The Antonine plague would continue to rage in the cities and military camps of the Roman Empire for at least another decade. A second wave of an undiagnosed epidemic disease hit Rome in 190 AD; if this too was part of the Antonine plague, then the pandemic lasted at least a quarter-century. However long it endured, the plague was an unprecedented test the resilience of Roman systems; Galen named it “the everlasting pestilence.”

Marcus may have rallied Rome during the first wave. But when the plague struck northern Italy a few years later, he abandoned his friends and soldiers to a dark winter of sickness. Officials responded to drought and high grain prices with price controls, most likely disincentivizing production and making shortages even worse. In response to plague and war deaths in the legions, Marcus recruited criminals and slaves into the military. This proved fateful when, a few years later, many of them deserted and, now well-equipped and trained, turned on the cities of the Empire, pillaging and murdering in a crime wave that stretched from Asia Minor to western Europe.

While it might seem like the pandemic single-handedly caused the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, it was clearly more complicated than that. The western Roman Empire would muddle along for over 200 years, but its heyday ended with the Antonine plague. The plague exposed and exacerbated pre-existing fragilities. Many Roman achievements may have been grand, but the Empire was a product of its pre-industrial context, in which weather, famine, and other factors could be destabilizing. The agricultural economy was subject to the vagaries of its ecosystem and the limitations of fledgling markets. Roman cities, for all the attention paid to aqueducts and baths, were contaminated by poor sanitation and grappled with persistent malnutrition. They may have been temporarily well-connected enough to enjoy the commodities of distant regions, but these same populations were simultaneously “immunologically naive” to pathogens from outside their immediate area. While it is no coincidence that the pandemic and the end of the Pax Romana occurred at the same time, exploring the connections between them underscores the interconnectedness and even interdependence of past human societies and their environmental contexts.

Present societies now easily mitigate much of what ailed Rome during the Antonine plague. The wonders of modern medicine—treatments, vaccines, and proven sanitation measures—render once-deadly scourges innocuous or even eradicated. A globalized society is one which collaborates and coordinates—orienting markets, scientific research, and communication channels towards responding to threats and, even better, predicting and preventing them before they occur. And yet, like the Roman Empire, the strengths of the modern world order have inbuilt weaknesses. Travel and transportation are so cheap and easy that pandemic diseases seem virtually impossible to contain.

The collaborative process that permeates most democratic societies nevertheless requires seemingly slow and cumbersome debate and consensus building. Yet all told, the modern world’s capacity to understand and adapt to our natural context—clumsy as it is at times—so far continues to outpace the rapidly evolving diseases that surround us. A vital part of our strategy must be to learn from the pandemics of the past.

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Keywords: Antonine Plague , Roman Empire , pandemics Topics: Biosecurity

I thought there were multiple factor that led to the downfall of the Roman Empire, such as over taxation, public unrest, weak military, not just what a plague may have contributed to the collapse.

My grandfather lived thru the 1918 Influenza Pandemic. While his professors covered it in medical school, most people preferred to act as though it never happened within a few years. When we discussed the influenza pandemic he told me that the next one will be worse because of our jet aircraft and extensive highway network. Back in 1918 people traveled by steamer or by steam train, which were slow enough for the crew to realize if they had infected passengers on board. His prognosis about the next pandemic was shown to be correct by COVID 19… Currently we don’t have …  Read more »

Colin Elliott

Colin Elliott is Associate Professor of History at Indiana University and host of The Pax Romana Podcast. He is author of  Pox Romana: The Plague that Shook the Roman World  (Princeton,... Read More

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