by Tatiana Emanuel

Created on: November 19, 2010   Last Updated: November 20, 2010

From as far back as the 18th century, historians have been obsessed with explaining the fall of one of the greatest powers of the Middle Ages: The Roman Empire. Some have suggested Rome was destroyed by a mosquito, as malaria spread from the swamps and marshes to weaken the army and the local farmer. Others insist lead poisoning – causing Roman leaders to lose their minds – is to blame. Still others have given up trying to explain the fall, stating simply that Rome was cursed. If we attempt to set a date to the fall of the Roman Empire, we would be referring to 476 CE, when the final Emperor of the west, Romulus Augustus, was deposed by Odoacer, a Germanic chieftain. It was preceded by a decline lasting several centuries, perhaps beginning with the Crisis of the 3rd Century, a period of political anarchy and civil war.

The collapse of the Roman Empire by the 5th Century CE has been discussed as an archetype for every perceived decline in the modern world.  It personifies modern fears of loss and failure, but cannot simply be explained through one factor. To understand the eventual fall of the Western Empire, one must recognize several contributing factors and inherent flaws in the colossus.

Mainly, however, Rome could be held as a victim of its own success. Expansion grew out of a relatively simple agriculturally based society. There were two distinct class separations, the Patricians and the Plebeians, forming a basic patient-client relationship. In just under 250 years this settlement would expand rapidly, eventually stretching to include all the lands of the Mediterranean. The simple societies that had begun with Rome had to adjust. By the 1st Century BCE, five visible classes had emerged.

The Patricians benefited the most from expansion, and monopolized the Roman world. A “middle-class” of knights had also emerged, including entrepreneurs who would also somewhat benefit from the massive Empire. Slaves had been gained through conquest, who took a lot of the jobs previously held by the Plebeians. The Plebs – or Proletariat – were now displaced, poor, and suffering, and perhaps the most influential class was the Roman Army, which became a potential source of political instability.

The establishment of the massive Roman Army and the creation of a Bureaucracy would become a financial burden. Taxes had to be raised to pay for these institutions, and the common citizen was already suffering. The army was the biggest consumer

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