Josh Mannion
April 12, 2011
Western Civ.
The Roman Empire ended in 476 due to constant changing and new uprisings. The Roman Empire basically had its own people turn on them like the Crusaders and Christians. The people of Rome disagreed on almost everything the government did or issued. Whenever the Emperor would try to fix something, it did the opposite most of the time. The Roman Empire 'declined and fell' gradually over a long period of time due to constant changing, attacks on the empire, and somewhat Christianity.
Christianity in the Roman Empire was gaining popularity and pretty much taking over. Gibson stated: “the active virtues of society were discouraged; and the last remains of the military spirit were buried in the cloister; a large portion of public and private wealth was consecrated to the specious demands of charity and devotion” (Gibson, n.d). This shows that as Christianity was becoming more powerful, the religion was actually taking over the Roman culture. Christianity basically distracted the Roman people from everything else, and everyone concentrated on Christianity. When the people of Rome where distracted, it left them vulnerable because they didn’t pay attention to the issues surrounding them. Because they didn’t pay attention to the issues, the issues overtook the people, and basically lead to the downfall. Christianity took over the people of Rome and the things that used to be important to the people of Rome weren’t so important when Christianity came into play. Christianity drew the intention of the people from major issues to the religion and culture, and in addition to that there was constant changing.
The constant changing in the empire also lead to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. The History Channel also states: “The stability of this system suffered greatly after Diocletian and Maximian retired from office. Constantine (the son of Constantius) emerged from the ensuing power struggles as sole emperor of a reunified Rome in 324” (History Channel, 2011). This quote from the history channel describes how change can often lead to suffering. When Emperors kept changing, dying, and retiring; the people could not get used to one good emperor. The people of Rome eventually got tired of getting a new emperor almost every year. Each new emperor would be different and try new things to try fix the struggles already, and when the people realized the new emperors didn’t really work they rebelled. The constant change of the emperors made people angry, and the people started to turn against its own government, which eventually lead to the fall of the great Roman Empire.
Because of the constant changing and the distraction of Christianity, the Roman Empire was left vulnerable to the surrounding forces that wanted to seize the Roman Empire included Germans, Parthians, and Goths. The History Channel states: “Meanwhile, threats from outside plagued the empire and depleted its riches, including continuing aggression from Germans and Parthians and raids by the Goths over the Aegean Sea” (History Channel, 2011).This quote reveals how when the ‘outside threats’ attacked, they deprived the Romans of everything. This quote also shows how the Roman Empire decreasingly lost its power overtime. As everything else was going on this quote demonstrates that the surrounding forces that were attacking the Roman Empire were aggressive, brutal, and took everything for the Romans. As the Germans, Goths, Parthians attacked like a ‘plague’, the Roman Empire was declining and fading from the map slowly.
Through these quotes, one must realize that the Roman Empire collapsed and declined because of constant changes, attacks from surrounding forces, and religions powerful influence on culture. If the Roman Empire just changed then why didn’t they just still keep the name as the Roman Empire? If the empire just evolved then, why was it destroyed by the surrounding forces and then rebuilt their way? Christianity distracted the people of Rome from the big issues around them, which lead them vulnerable of attacks from surrounding sources. As the Germans, Goths, and Parthians attacked Rome, the Romans kept changing its government and emperor just seeing if they could make something work. Obviously, Rome collapsed because it was just destroyed by its attackers while it was left vulnerable by issues inside Rome.
Works Cited
Gibbon, E. (n.d.). Medieval Sourcebook: Gibbon: The Fall of the
Roman Empire .FORDHAM.EDU.
Roman Empire .FORDHAM.EDU.
History Channel, (2011). In Decline and Disintegration.
HistoryChannel.com. Retrieved Apr. 12,
HistoryChannel.com. Retrieved Apr. 12,
Really nice job; I especially like how you build your argument with well considered sources.
ReplyDeleteSuggestion: "Somewhat Christianity" in your thesis statement is awkward phrasing. Also, beware of making your thesis too much of a "laundry list" of ideas. I think you manage to balance that well in the body of the paper, but I'd suggest integrating the ideas of change and invasion within the context of Christianity -- which is basically what you've done in the paper itself as opposed to in the thesis.