Throughout history, empires fall and new one rise, but how could Rome, such a vast and powerful empire, crumble to pieces in front of our eyes? No matter how big and strong an empire and few factors can cause its decline in a matter of decades or centuries. If you had a strong and beautiful sunflower but suddenly stopped taking care of it, it would slowly wilt. The same can happen to civilizations, such as Rome. As many historians analyze this time period, they look at the primary, or main, reasons that caused the decline of Rome, because even though people never thought it would fall, all beautiful things may come to an end. As Rome was challenged by barbarian attacks, an unstable government, and a weak economy in 350-500 A.D.,
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The government needed more money to support the military and fight off barbarians. So they decided to raise taxes, so they grew and more. Soon, many people left because of high taxes. Wealthy citizens and landowners that had left Rome also rebelled against emperors of Rome and the government was weakened from all the attacks from outside the Roman Empire and the military slowly dying. The size of the empire also was too huge, which made communication difficult. When the government passed new laws or had an announcement, it would take them a long time to spread the message throughout Rome. According to Source 2 and 3, it was also hard for Rome to choose a new emperor and didn’t run smoothly. When the emperors were chosen, however, they didn’t stay emperor for very long. Since being an emperor was hard and they were in big threat, they ruled inconsistently. Since some emperors sometimes worried about themselves, they didn’t look at their empire, and made changes to only help themselves. As emperors were killed in battle and were a big threat, the government of Rome altered every time an emperor came to power. The government tried their hardest to keep Rome from decay, but it was truly hard to keep all the elements of crumbling of Rome in the right place and fix
The government needed more money to support the military and fight off barbarians. So they decided to raise taxes, so they grew and more. Soon, many people left because of high taxes. Wealthy citizens and landowners that had left Rome also rebelled against emperors of Rome and the government was weakened from all the attacks from outside the Roman Empire and the military slowly dying. The size of the empire also was too huge, which made communication difficult. When the government passed new laws or had an announcement, it would take them a long time to spread the message throughout Rome. According to Source 2 and 3, it was also hard for Rome to choose a new emperor and didn’t run smoothly. When the emperors were chosen, however, they didn’t stay emperor for very long. Since being an emperor was hard and they were in big threat, they ruled inconsistently. Since some emperors sometimes worried about themselves, they didn’t look at their empire, and made changes to only help themselves. As emperors were killed in battle and were a big threat, the government of Rome altered every time an emperor came to power. The government tried their hardest to keep Rome from decay, but it was truly hard to keep all the elements of crumbling of Rome in the right place and fix