Why Rome fell essays

Why Rome fell essays Rome: Once the largest ruling power, now shattered. What happened so many centuries ago, to make such a eminent power crumble to the ground? Powers come and go but their legacies live on. These legacies are our pedagogues; we learn from them and perfect ourselves and our nations. In researching Romes past, I believe that the primary cause of the fall of Rome was due to political and economic reasons. Rome was contrived to handle a small country, not a leading super power. This created problems in the way situations were handled both domestically and internationally. This ultimately led to the down fall of Rome. From the start, Rome had the makings of a ruling empire. They adapted the best and made it even better. The Romans focused on the practical side of things. Poetry, resplendent architecture, and philosophy was not well known in the Roman world. It was no wonder that the Romans controlled the entire Italian Peninsula by 264 B.C. and by 133 B.C. most of the Hellenistic world became Roman provinces. For the Romans the quandary wasnt being able to conquer but to hold on to what was theirs. The reasons that this proved to be difficult for the Romans were that the government wasnt designed to rule such a large empire. Also the Romans didnt fully develop trade and commerce. Another reason was that there was no formal law of succession. Lastly, slaves were the basis of the economy. One of the biggest influences on the fall of Rome was that Rome was not fabricated to rule such a vast area, But a significantly smaller one. This fact caused many problems. For example corruption was inevitable. Senators and other officials collected taxes for personal gain, publicans became rich by placing unjust tax burdens on people, proconsuls grew wealthy by extorting bribes from the people of the province, and finally politicians set up vile plans for support and called them "bread and circuses". This corruption led...