Fall of Roman Empire

Beginning in the late second century there were various problems which intensified

during the third century and is known as the third century crisis. This paved the way for the

falling of the Roman Empire. There were various barbaric invasions during this period. In the

northern side, Germanic tribes started pressurizing and from the eastern side the resurgence of

Persians pressurized them. The sub-saharan tribes also pushed the roman empire from the south.

In the far north Irish tribes invaded British islands. There were many socio-economic problem

that also contributed in this crisis. There was decline in population caused by flooding, crop

destruction, famine and plague. Also, due to abortion and birth control there was decrease in

population. This decline led to lack of revenue in the empire. This caused more production of

money and led to inflation. The government was also starting to be dominated more by the army.

A general Septimius Severus became emperor. He tried to make major changes in the

structure of the government. He focused more in military rather than in constitutional sanctions.

He gave a dominant role to the army by filling the leading positions with people from the army.

He had won the support of the soldiers by increasing their pay and permitting them to marry. He

ignored the senate and this caused decrease of senatorial power. The act of recruiting people

from military rather than from senatorial order led army more into politics than into fighting.

There were many emperors who tried settling this dispute but the works done by Diocletian and

Constantine are of more importance.

Diocletian held his office from 284 AD to 305 AD. He did reforms in various areas. In

Military field he reversed the policies of Septimius Severus. He also built new fortifications and

contributed in increasing the size of army. He also levied heavy taxes which led to collection of
more revenue. He fixed price and wages and also forced the youths to stay in their father's’

profession. This implementation was not successful as it was a forceful one and led to anger and

resistance. During his time there was very few persecution of the Christians. If there was one it

was a mass persecution. He called the Roman people for mass worship to Roman Pagan Gods.

This meant to be a worship and loyalty to the motherland. People who did not attend were

persecuted as they did not pay a tribute to their motherland. Diocletian also introduced a new

system for governing Roman Empire. He thought that the empire was too big for a single person

to govern and he divided the empire to western and eastern halves. The emperors for the west

and east empire were different and were given the title of ‘Augustus’. They could assign an

assistant who would be their heir and they were referred to as ‘Caesar’. After his resignation

from the position of emperor, the 4 men started becoming power hungry and started fighting

among themselves. This led to a civil war between those men.

Constantine, the Augustus of the west emerged as powerful and reunified the empire. The

four posts are combined by him during his reign. He maintained other reforms of Diocletian and

added some more for solving the disputes. He introduces a system of dynasty to solve the issue

of succession. The heir of emperor would be his son. There existed various discrimination

against the Christians in the empire. This discrimination was removed by Constantine and made

christianity tolerated in Rome. Before going to the battle against Maxentius in Milvian Bridge,

he dreams of seeing a symbol ‘Chi Rho’ which he thought to be a symbol of the Christians. He

painted the soldiers’ shields with the symbol and went to the battle and successfully defeated

Maxentius. He believed that Christian God brought him success in the battle. Edict of Milan was

signed during his reign which was the beginning of official tolerance of Christianity in the

Empire. The last reform done by Constantine was moving the capital from Rome to Byzantium.
Due to various wars, Rome was exhausted and it was good to move the capital to somewhere

else. Byzantium was a perfect place to shift the capital to as it was a better strategic location for

defend and to supply materials. Also, Byzantium was full of wealth with productive land and

plenty of urban economy. These efforts by both emperors were noticeable but not effective

enough to solve the crisis.

There were various external pressure that contributed to fall of the Empire. Germanic

Barbarian tribes started being active. They pushed the border of Rome further inside. Visigoths

were one of the germanic tribes which asked for shelter in Roman Empire as they were attacked

by the Huns from upper Asia. Visigoths were given shelter at Balkan but they were suppressed

by Roman people there. This led into conflict between them and the Roman emperor Valens.

They were attacked by the army of Valens but Visigoths destroyed the army. They also went to

Rome, burnt and looted them. This was the first time after 387 BC, an outer enemy entered

Rome. Theodosius was one Roman Emperor who tried settling this dispute. He tried stopping

this chaos by accommodating the tribes to Roman society as their capability. This also led to

decrease in loyalty in the army. After the death of Theodosius the situation was as before. By the

mid 400s the territory under the Roman kingdom was the Italian Peninsula. Odoacer, one of the

barbaric people chased the last emperor of Rome to become the King of Rome. His reign marked

the end of Roman Empire.

The fall of Roman Empire changed the European world entirely. This marked the

transition from the ancient world to medieval world. There were many factors that contributed to

the collapse of Roman Empire. This also included the fact that the army was not loyal as it

consisted of many different kinds of people. The fall of Roman Empire caused a power vacuum

which led to emergence of other civilizations like Byzantine, Latin and Islamic Civilization.