Rome and the Barbarians
The Roman empire lasted as a huge military power until its fall in about 476 CE. Three main factors attributed to its destruction: decentralization, economic decline, and external invasion. After its collapse, the territory was split into half: east and west. The eastern half, better known as Byzantium or the Justinian Empire, managed to avoid these three factors that had led to their predecessor’s demise. The first characteristic of Rome that led to its fall was decentralization. The empire had overextended. Although transportation had made it easy to send troops and news to the edges of the empire, it did not stop the separation of areas throughout the Roman territory. Along with differentiation in culture and religion,…show more content… Luxury goods were a huge problem, as class differentiations allowed wealthy Roman nobles to import resources from around the empire, leaving locals with nothing to sustain themselves. Social classes were hugely divided through the stark difference in income and property. The government tried to repair this difference and prevent class warfare through two main strategies: patron-client relationships and bread and circuses. Patron-client relationships were a way to strengthen the dependency of upper class patricians and lower class plebeians on one another, and create a sort of a peace between the two classes. Bread and circuses was initially a government provided service to give food and entertainment to the poor, but soon became a way for the government to avoid resistance. As the plebeian population increased and the middle class dissolved, the warfare became exponentially worse. Constant warfare with outside forces drained tax money, and climate change caused harvests to hugely decrease. Most of these economic problems came from the financial inequities that were prominent in Roman society. However, the changes that Diocletian and Constantine had brought out boosted the economy in eastern and western Rome, and created an era of
