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Decline of the Roman Empire 1
Decline of the Roman Empire
The Western and Eastern Roman Empires by 476
The theme of the decline of the Roman Empire was
introduced by one of the most influential modern
historians, Edward Gibbon, in his widely read The
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776). There is
ongoing historiographical debate about what actually
happened to the Roman Empire in the 4th5th
centuries. Many theories of causality have been
explored and most concern the disintegration of
political, economic, military, and other social
institutions, in tandem with barbarian invasions and
usurpers from within the empire. Gibbon was not the first to speculate on why and when the Empire collapsed.
"From the eighteenth century onward," American scholar Glen W. Bowersock has remarked, "we have been
obsessed with the fall: it has been valued as an archetype for every perceived decline, and, hence, as a symbol for our
own fears."[1]
The story remains one of the greatest historical questions, and has a tradition rich in scholarly interest.
In 1984, German professor Alexander Demandt collected 210 different theories on why Rome fell, and new theories
have emerged since then.[2][3]
The decline, seen in retrospect, occurred over a period of four centuries; while some modern historians question the
significance of the date,[4]
the final dissolution of the Western Roman Empire is widely recognized as occurring on
on September 4, 476, when Romulus Augustus, the last Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, was deposed by
Odoacer, a Germanic chieftain. One reason was that Julius Nepos, the emperor recognized by the East Roman
Empire, continued to live in Dalmatia, until he was assassinated in 480. The Ostrogoths who succeeded considered
themselves upholders of the direct line of Roman traditions. (The Eastern Roman Empire was going through a
different trajectory as it declined steadily after 1000 AD to 1453 with the Fall of Constantinople to the Turks.) Many
events after 378 worsened the Western empire's situation. The Battle of Adrianople in 378, the death of Theodosius I
in 395 (the last time the Roman Empire was politically unified), the crossing of the Rhine in 406 by Germanic tribes,
the execution of Stilicho in 408, the sack of Rome in 410, the death of Constantius III in 421, the death of Aetius in
454, the second sack of Rome in 455, and the death of Majorian in 461 are emphasized by various historians. A
recent school of interpretation argues that the concept of "fall" points backward, not forward, and says the great
changes can more accurately be described as a complex transformation.
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Decline of the Roman Empire 2
Overview
Romulus Augustus was deposed as Western Roman
Emperor in 476 while still young. However, Julius
Nepos continued to claim the title of Western Emperor
after his deposition.
The decline of the Roman Empire is one of the events
traditionally marking the end of Classical Antiquity and the
beginning of the European Middle Ages. Throughout the 5th
century, the Empire's territories in western Europe and
northwestern Africa, including Italy, fell to various invading or
indigenous peoples in what is sometimes called the Migration
period. Although the eastern half still survived with borders
essentially intact for several centuries (until the Muslim
conquests), the Empire as a whole had initiated major cultural
and political transformations since the Crisis of the Third
Century, with the shift towards a more openly autocratic and
ritualized form of government, the adoption of Christianity as the
state religion, and a general rejection of the traditions and values
of Classical Antiquity. While traditional historiography
emphasized this break with Antiquity by using the term
"Byzantine Empire" instead of Roman Empire, recent schools of
history offer a more nuanced view, seeing mostly continuity
rather than a sharp break. The Empire of Late Antiquity already looked very different from classical Rome.
The Roman Empire emerged from the Roman Republic when Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar transformed it
from a republic into a monarchy. Rome reached its zenith in the 2nd century, then fortunes slowly declined (with
many revivals and restorations along the way). The reasons for the decline of the Empire are still debated today, and
are likely multiple. Historians infer that the population appears to have diminished in many provincesespecially
western Europefrom the diminishing size of fortifications built to protect the cities from barbarian incursions from
the 3rd century on. Some historians even have suggested that parts of the periphery were no longer inhabited because
these fortifications were restricted to the center of the city only. Tree rings suggest "distinct drying" beginning in
250.
By the late 3rd century, the city of Rome no longer served as an effective capital for the Emperor and various cities
were used as new administrative capitals. Successive emperors, starting with Constantine, privileged the eastern city
of Byzantium, which he had entirely rebuilt after a siege. Later renamed Constantinople, and protected by formidable
walls in the late 4th and early 5th centuries, it was to become the largest and most powerful city of Christian Europe
in the Early Middle Ages. Since the Crisis of the Third Century, the Empire was intermittently ruled by more than
one emperor at once (usually two), presiding over different regions. At first a haphazard form of power sharing, this
eventually settled on an East-West administrative division between the Western Roman Empire (centered on Rome,
but now usually presided from other seats of power such asTrier, Milan, and especially Ravenna), and the Eastern
Roman Empire (with its capital initially in Nicomedia, and later Constantinople). The Latin-speaking west, under
dreadful demographic crisis, and the wealthier[citation needed]
Greek-speaking east, also began to diverge politically
and culturally. Although this was a gradual process, still incomplete when Italy came under the rule of barbarian
chieftains in the last quarter of the 5th century, it deepened further afterward, and had lasting consequences for the
medieval history of Europe.
Throughout the 5th century, Western emperors were usually figureheads, while the Eastern emperors maintained
more independence. For most of the time, the actual rulers in the West were military strongmen who took the titles
of magister militum, patrician, or both, such as Stilicho, Aetius, and Ricimer. Although Rome was no longer the
capital in the West, it remained the West's largest city and its economic center. But the city was sacked by rebelliousVisigoths in 410 and by the Vandals in 455, events that shocked contemporaries and signaled the disintegration of
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Decline of the Roman Empire 3
Roman authority. Saint Augustine wrote The City of God partly as an answer to critics who blamed the sack of Rome
by the Visigoths on the abandonment of the traditional pagan religions.
In June 474, Julius Nepos became Western Emperor but in the next year the magister militumOrestes revolted and
made his son Romulus Augustus emperor. Romulus, however, was not recognized by the Eastern Emperor Zeno and
so was technically an usurper, Nepos still being the legal Western Emperor. Nevertheless, Romulus Augustus is
often known as the last Western Roman Emperor. In 476, after being refused lands in Italy, Orestes' Germanicmercenaries under the leadership of the chieftain Odoacer captured and executed Orestes and took Ravenna, the
Western Roman capital at the time, deposing Romulus Augustus. The whole of Italy was quickly conquered, and
Odoacer was granted the title of patrician by Zeno, effectively recognizing his rule in the name of the Eastern
Empire. Odoacer returned the Imperial insignia to Constantinople and ruled as King in Italy. Following Nepos' death
Theodoric the Great, King of the Ostrogoths, conquered Italy with Zeno's approval.
Meanwhile, much of the rest of the Western provinces were conquered by waves of Germanic invasions, most of
them being disconnected politically from the East altogether and continuing a slow decline. Although Roman
political authority in the West was lost, Roman culture would last in most parts of the former Western provinces into
the 6th century and beyond.
The first invasions disrupted the West to some degree, but it was the Gothic War launched by the Eastern Emperor
Justinian in the 6th century, and meant to reunite the Empire, that eventually caused the most damage to Italy, as
well as straining the Eastern Empire militarily. Following these wars, Rome and other Italian cities would fall into
severe decline (Rome itself was almost completely abandoned). Another blow came with the Persian invasion of the
East in the 7th century, immediately followed by the Muslim conquests, especially of Egypt, which curtailed much
of the key trade in the Mediterranean on which Europe depended.
The Empire was to live on in the East for many centuries, and enjoy periods of recovery and cultural brilliance, but
its size would remain a fraction of what it had been in classical times. It became an essentially regional power,
centered on Greece and Anatolia. Modern historians tend to prefer the term Byzantine Empire for the eastern,
medieval stage of the Roman Empire.
Highlights
The decline of the Roman Empire was a process spanning many centuries; there is no consensus when it might have
begun but many dates and time lines have been proposed by historians.
3rd century
The Crisis of the Third Century (234 - 284), a period of political instability.
The reign of Emperor Diocletian (284 - 305), who attempted substantial political and economic reforms, many of
which would remain in force in the following centuries.
4th century The reign of Constantine I (306 - 337), who built the new eastern capital of Constantinople and converted to
Christianity, legalizing and even favoring to some extent this religion. All Roman emperors after Constantine,
except for Julian, would be Christians.
The first war with the Visigoths (376 - 382), culminating in the Battle of Adrianople (August 9, 378), in which a
large Roman army was defeated by the Visigoths, and Emperor Valens was killed. The Visigoths, fleeing a
migration of the Huns, had been allowed to settle within the borders of the Empire by Valens, but were mistreated
by the local Roman administrators, and rebelled.
The reign of Theodosius I (379 - 395), last emperor to reunite under his authority the western and eastern halves
of the Empire. Theodosius continued and intensified the policies against paganism of his predecessors, eventually
outlawing it, and making Nicaean Christianity the state religion.
5th century
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Decline of the Roman Empire 4
The Crossing of the Rhine: on December 31, 406 (or 405, according to some historians), a mixed band of
Vandals, Suebi and Alans crossed the frozen river Rhine at Moguntiacum (modern Mainz), and began to ravage
Gaul. Some moved on to the regions of Hispania and Africa. The Empire would never regain control over most of
these lands.
The second war with the Visigoths, led by king Alaric, in which they raided Greece, and then invaded Italy,
culminating in the sack of Rome (410). The Visigoths eventually left Italy and founded the Visigothic Kingdom
in southern Gaul and Hispania.
The rise of the Hunnic Empire under Attila and Bleda (434-453), who raided the Balkans, Gaul, and Italy,
threatening both Constantinople and Rome.
The second sack of Rome, this time by the Vandals (455).
Failed counterstrikes against the Vandals (461 - 468). The Western Emperor Majorian planned a naval campaign
against the Vandals to reconquer northern Africa in 461, but word of the preparations got out to the Vandals, who
took the Roman fleet by surprise and destroyed it. A second naval expedition against the Vandals, sent by
Emperors Leo I and Anthemius, was defeated at Cape Bon in 468.
Europe in 476, fromMuir's Historical Atlas (1911).
Deposition of the last Western Emperors, Julius Nepos and Romulus Augustus (475 - 480). Julius Nepos, who
had been nominated by the Eastern Emperor Zeno, was deposed by the rebelled magister militumOrestes, who
installed his own son Romulus in the imperial throne. Both Zeno and his rival Basiliscus, in the East, continued to
regard Julius Nepos, who fled to Dalmatia, as the legitimate Western Emperor, and Romulusas an usurper.
Shortly after, Odoacer, magister militum appointed by Julius, invaded Italy, defeated Orestes, and deposed
Romulus Augustus on September 4, 476. Odoacer then proclaimed himself ruler of Italy and asked the Eastern
Emperor Zeno to become formal Emperor of both empires, and in so doing legalize Odoacer's own position as
Imperial viceroy of Italy. Zeno did so, setting aside the claims of Nepos, who was murdered by his own soldiers
in 480.
Foundation of the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy (493). Concerned with the success and popularity of Odoacer,
Zeno started a campaign against him, at first with words, then by inciting the Ostrogoths to take back Italy from
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Decline of the Roman Empire 5
him. They did as much, but then founded an independent kingdom of their own, under the rule of king Theodoric.
Italy and the entire West were lost to the Empire.
Theories of a fall, decline, transition and continuity
The various theories and explanations for the fall of the Roman Empire in the West may be very broadly classified
into four schools of thought, although the classification is not without overlap:
Decay owing to general malaise
Monocausal decay
Catastrophic collapse
Transformation
The tradition positing general malaise goes back to Edward Gibbon who argued that the edifice of the Roman
Empire had been built on unsound foundations to begin with. According to Gibbon, the fall was - in the final
analysis - inevitable. On the other hand, Gibbon had assigned a major portion of the responsibility for the decay to
the influence of Christianity, and is often, though perhaps unjustly, seen as the founding father of the school of
monocausal explanation.
On the other hand, the school of catastrophic collapse holds that the fall of the Empire had not been a pre-determined
event and need not be taken for granted. Rather, it was due to the combined effect of a number of adverse processes,
many of them set in motion by the Migration of the Peoples, that together applied too much stress to the Empire's
basically sound structure.
Finally, the transformation school challenges the whole notion of the 'fall' of the Empire, asking to distinguish
between the fall into disuse of a particular political dispensation, anyway unworkable towards its end, and the fate of
the Roman civilisation which under-girded the Empire. According to this school, drawing its basic premise from the
Pirenne thesis, the Roman world underwent a gradual (though often violent) series of transformations, morphing into
the medieval world. The historians belonging to this school often prefer to speak of Late Antiquity instead of the Fall
of the Roman Empire.
Decay owing to general malaise
Edward Gibbon
In The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (177688), Edward Gibbon famously placed the blame
on a loss of civic virtue among the Roman citizens. They gradually entrusted the role of defending the Empire to
barbarian mercenaries who eventually turned on them. Gibbon held that Christianity contributed to this shift by
making the populace less interested in the worldly here-and-now because it was willing to wait for the rewards of
heaven.
"The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened
the principle of decay; the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and as soon as
time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its
own weight,"
he wrote.
"In discussing Barbarism and Christianity I have actually been discussing the Fall of Rome."
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Decline of the Roman Empire 6
Vegetius on military decline
Writing in the 5th century, the Roman historian Vegetius pleaded for reform of what must have been a greatly
weakened army. The historian Arther Ferrill has suggested that the Roman Empire particularly the military
declined largely as a result of an influx of Germanic mercenaries into the ranks of the legions. This "Germanization"
and the resultant cultural dilution or "barbarization" led not only to a decline in the standard of drill and overall
military preparedness within the Empire, but also to a decline of loyalty to the Roman government in favor of loyaltyto commanders. Ferrill agrees with other Roman historians such as A.H.M. Jones:
...the decay of trade and industry was not a cause of Rome s fall. There was a decline in agriculture and land
was withdrawn from cultivation, in some cases on a very large scale, sometimes as a direct result of barbarian
invasions. However, the chief cause of the agricultural decline was high taxation on the marginal land, driving
it out of cultivation. Jones is surely right in saying that taxation was spurred by the huge military budget and
was thus indirectly the result of the barbarian invasion.[5]
Arnold J. Toynbee and James Burke
In contrast with the declining empire theories, historians such as Arnold J. Toynbee and James Burke argue that the
Roman Empire itself was a rotten system from its inception, andthat the entire Imperial era was one of steady decay
of institutions founded in Republican times. In their view, the Empire could never have lasted longer than it did
without radicalreforms thatno Emperor could implement. The Romanshad no budgetary system and thus wasted
whatever resources they hadavailable. The economy of the Empire was aRaubwirtschaft or plunder economy based
on looting existing resources rather than producing anything new. The Empire relied on riches from conquered
territories (this source of revenue ending, of course, with the end of Roman territorial expansion) or on a pattern of
tax collection that drove small-scale farmers into destitution (and onto a dole that required even more exactions upon
those who could not escape taxation), or into dependency upon a landed lite exempt from taxation. With the
cessation of tribute from conquered territories, the full cost of their military machine had to be borne by the citizenry.
An economy based upon slave labor precluded a middle class with buying power. The Roman Empire produced few
exportable goods. Material innovation, whether through entrepreneurialism or technological advancement, all but
ended long before the final dissolution of the Empire. Meanwhile the costs of military defense and the pomp of
Emperors continued. Financial needs continued to increase, but the means of meeting them steadily eroded. In the
end, due to economic failure, even the armor and weaponry of soldiers became so obsolete that the enemies of the
Empire had better armor and weapons as well as larger forces. The decrepit social order offered so little to its
subjects that many saw the barbarian invasion as liberation from onerous obligations to the ruling class.
By the late 5th century the barbarian conqueror Odoacer had no use for the formality of an Empire upon deposing
Romulus Augustus and chose neither to assume the title of Emperor himself nor to select a puppet, although legally
he kept the lands as a commander of the Eastern Empire and maintained the Roman institutions such as the
consulship. The formal end of the Roman Empire on the West in AD 476 thus corresponds with the time in whichthe Empire and the title Emperor no longer had value.
Michael Rostovtzeff, Ludwig von Mises, and Bruce Bartlett
Historian Michael Rostovtzeff and economist Ludwig vonMises bothargued that unsound economic policies played
a key role in the impoverishment and decay of the Roman Empire. According to them, by the 2nd century AD, the
Roman Empirehad developed a complex marketeconomy in which trade was relatively free. Tariffs were low and
laws controlling the prices of foodstuffs and other commodities had little impact because they did not fix the prices
significantly below their market levels. After the 3rd century, however, debasement of the currency (i.e., the minting
of coins with diminishing content of gold, silver, and bronze) led to inflation. The price control laws then resulted in
prices that were significantly below their free-market equilibrium levels. It should, however, be noted thatConstantine initiated a successful reform of the currency which was completed before the barbarian invasions of the
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Decline of the Roman Empire 7
4th century, and that thereafter the currency remained sound everywhere that remained within the empire until at
least the 11th century - at any rate for gold coins.
According to Rostovtzeff and Mises, artificially low prices led to the scarcity of foodstuffs, particularly in cities,
whose inhabitants depended on trade to obtain them. Despite laws passed to prevent migration from the cities to the
countryside, urban areas gradually became depopulated and many Roman citizens abandoned their specialized trades
to practice subsistence agriculture. This, coupled with increasingly oppressive and arbitrary taxation, led to a severenet decrease in trade, technical innovation, and the overall wealth of the Empire.
[6]
Bruce Bartlett traces the beginning of debasement to the reign of Nero. He claims that the emperors increasingly
relied on the army as the sole source of their power, and therefore their economic policy was driven more and more
by a desire to increase military funding in order to buy the army's loyalty. By the 3rd century, according to Bartlett,
the monetary economy had collapsed. But the imperial government was now in a position where it had to satisfy the
demands of the army at all costs. Failure to do so would result in the army forcibly deposing the emperor and
installing a new one. Therefore, being unable to increase monetary taxes, the Roman Empire had to resort to direct
requisitioning of physical goods anywhere it could find them - for example taking food and cattle from farmers. The
result, in Bartlett's view, was social chaos, and this led to different responses from the authorities and from the
common people. The authorities tried to restore order by requiring free people (i.e. non-slaves) to remain in the same
occupation or even at the same place of employment. Eventually, thispractice was extended to force children to
follow the same occupation as their parents. So, for instance, farmers were tied to the land, and the sons of soldiers
had to become soldiers themselves. Many common people reacted by moving to the countryside, sometimes joining
the estates of the wealthy, and in general trying to be self-sufficient and interact as little as possible with the imperial
authorities. Thus, according to Bartlett, Roman society began to dissolve into a number of separate estates that
operated as closed systems, provided for all their own needs and did not engage in trade at all. These were the
beginnings of feudalism.[7]
Joseph Tainter
In his 1988 book The Collapse of Complex Societies, American anthropologist Tainter presents the view that for
given technological levels there are implicit declining returns tocomplexity, in which systems depletetheir resource
base beyond levels that are ultimately sustainable. Tainter argues that societies become more complex as they try to
solve problems. Social complexity can include differentiated social and economic roles, reliance on symbolic and
abstract communication, and the existence of a class of information producers and analysts who are not involved in
primary resource production. Such complexity requires a substantial "energy" subsidy (meaning resources, or other
forms of wealth). When a society confronts a "problem", such as a shortage of or difficulty in gaining access to
energy, it tends to create new layers of bureaucracy, infrastructure, or social class to address the challenge.
For example, as Roman agricultural output slowly declined and population increased, per-capita energy availability
dropped. The Romans solved this problem in the short term by conquering their neighbours to appropriate their
energy surpluses (metals, grain, slaves, etc.). However, this solution merely exacerbated the issue over the long term;
as the Empire grew, the cost of maintaining communications, garrisons, civil government, etc., increased.
Eventually, this cost grew so great that any new challenges such as invasions and crop failures could not be solved
by the acquisition of more territory. At that point, the Empire fragmented into smaller units.
We often assume that the collapse of the Roman Empire was a catastrophe for everyone involved. Tainter points out
that it can be seen as a very rational preference of individuals at the time, many of whom were better off (all but the
elite, presumably.) Archeological evidence from human bones indicates that average nutrition improved after the
collapse in many parts of the former Roman Empire. Average individuals may have benefited because they no longer
had to invest in the burdensome complexity of empire.
In Tainter's view, while invasions, crop failures, disease or environmental degradation may be the apparent causes ofsocietal collapse, the ultimate cause is diminishing returns on investments in social complexity.
[8]
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Invasionshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Faminehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Diseasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Environmental_degradationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Complexityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Invasionshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Faminehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Diseasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Environmental_degradationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Complexityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Complexityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Complexityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Environmental_degradationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Diseasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Faminehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Invasionshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Agricultural_productivityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Social_classhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Infrastructurehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bureaucracyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Energyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wealthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Natural_resourcehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Communicationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Abstractionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Symbolhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Economichttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Socialhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Tainterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nerohttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bruce_Bartletthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Technologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Taxhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Subsistence_agriculturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=City -
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Decline of the Roman Empire 8
Adrian Goldsworthy
In The Complete Roman Army (2003) Adrian Goldsworthy, a British military historian, sees the causes of the
collapse of the Roman Empire not in any 'decadence' in the make-up of the Roman legions, but in a combination of
endless civil wars between factions of the Roman Army fighting for control of the Empire. This inevitably weakened
the army and the society upon which it depended, making it less able to defend itself against the growing of numbers
of Rome's enemies. The army still remained a superior fighting instrument to its opponents, both civilized andbarbarian; this is shown in the victories over Germanic tribes at the Battle of Strasbourg (357) and in its ability to
hold the line against the Sassanid Persians throughout the 4th century. But, says Goldsworthy, "Weakening central
authority, social and economic problems and, most of all, the continuing grind of civil wars eroded the political
capacity to maintain the army at this level."[9]
Monocausal decay
Disease
William H. McNeill, a world historian, noted in chapter three of his book Plagues and Peoples (1976) that the
Roman Empire suffered the severe and protracted Antonine Plague starting around 165 AD. For about twenty years,waves of one or more diseases, possibly the first epidemics of smallpox and/or measles, swept through the Empire,
ultimately killing about half the population. Similar epidemics, such as the Plague of Cyprian, also occurred in the
3rd century. McNeill argues that the severe fall in population left the state apparatus and army too large for the
population to support, leading to further economic and social decline that eventually killed the Western Empire. The
Eastern half survived due to its larger population, which even after the plagues was sufficient for an effective state
apparatus.
Archaeology has revealed that from the 2nd century onward, the inhabited area in most Roman towns and cities grew
smaller and smaller. Imperial laws concerning "agri deserti", or deserted lands, became increasingly common and
desperate. The economic collapse of the 3rd century may also be evidence of a shrinking population as Rome s tax
base was also shrinking and could no longer support the Roman Army and other Roman institutions.
Rome's success had led to increased contact with Asia though trade, especially in a sea route through the Red Sea
that Rome cleared of pirates shortly after conquering Egypt. Wars also increased contact with Asia, particularly wars
with the Persian Empire. With increased contact with Asia came increased transmission of disease into the
Mediterranean from Asia. Romans used public fountains, public latrines, public baths, and supported many brothels
all of which were conducive to the spread of pathogens. Romans crowded into walled cities and the poor and the
slaves lived in very close quarters with each other. Epidemics began sweeping though the Empire.
The culture of the German barbarians living just across the Rhine and Danube rivers was not so conducive to the
spread of pathogens. Germans lived in small scattered villages that did not support the same level of trade as did
Roman settlements. Germans lived in single-family detached houses. Germans did not have public baths nor as many
brothels and drank ale made with boiled water. The barbarian population seemed to be on the rise. The demographics
of Europe were changing.
Economically, depopulation led to the impoverishment of East and West as economic ties among different parts of
the empire weakened. Increasing raids by barbarians further strained the economy and further reduced the
population, mostly in the West. In areas near the Rhine and Danube frontiers, raids by barbarians killed Romans and
disrupted commerce. Raids also forced Romans into walled towns and cities furthering the spread of pathogens and
increasing the rate of depopulation in the West. A low population and weak economy forced Rome to use barbarians
in the Roman Army to defend against other barbarians.
Culturally, the decline of Roman urban life and of the Roman educational system made it prohibitively difficult for
rulers to maintain Roman civilization in its various manifestations. German barbarians were more easily able to
integrate into the uneducated Roman aristocracy and demand land and, later, demand kingdoms of their own.
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Decline of the Roman Empire 9
This theory can also be extended to the time after the fall of the Western Empire and to other parts of the world.
Similar epidemics caused by new diseases may have weakened the Chinese Han Empire and contributed to its
collapse. This was followed by the long and chaotic episode known as the Six Dynasties period. Later, the Plague of
Justinian may have been the first instance of bubonic plague. It, and subsequent recurrences, may have been so
devastating that they helped the Arab conquest of most of the Eastern Empire and the whole of the Sassanid Empire.
Archaeological evidence is showing that Europe continued to have a steady downward trend in population starting as
early as the 2nd century and continuing through the 7th century. The European recovery may have started only when
the population, through natural selection, had gained some resistance to the new diseases. See also Medieval
demography.
Environmental degradation
Another theory is that gradual environmental degradation caused population and economic decline. Deforestation
and excessive grazing led to erosion of meadows and cropland. Increased irrigation without suitable drainage caused
salinization, especially in North Africa. These human activities resulted in fertile land becoming nonproductive and
eventually increased desertification in some regions. Many animal species become extinct.[10]
This theory was
explored by Jared M. Diamond in Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Also, high taxes and heavyslavery are another reason for decline as they forced small farmers out of business and into the cities, which became
overpopulated. Roman cities were only designed to hold a certain amount of people, and once they passed that,
disease, water shortage and food shortage became common.[citation needed]
Lead poisoning
Jerome Nriagu, a geochemist, argued in a 1983 book that "lead poisoning contributed to the decline of the Roman
empire." His work centred on the level to which the ancient Romans, who had few sweeteners besides honey, would
boil must in lead pots to produce a reduced sugar syrup called defrutum, concentrated again into sapa. This syrup
was used to some degree to sweeten wine and food. If acidic must is boiled within lead vessels the sweet syrup it
yields will contain a quantity of Pb(C2H3O2)2 or lead(II) acetate. Lead was also leached from the glazes onamphorae and other pottery, from pewter drinking vessels and cookware, and from lead piping used for municipal
water supplies and baths.
The main culinary use of defrutum was to sweeten wine, but it was also added to fruit and meat dishes as a
sweetening and souring agent and even given to food animals such as suckling pig and duck to improve the taste of
their flesh. Defrutum was mixed with garum to make the popular condiment oenogarum and as such was one of
Rome's most popular condiments. Quince and melon were preserved in defrutum and honey through the winter, and
some Roman women used defrutum or sapa as a cosmetic. Defrutum was often used as a food preservative in
provisions for Roman troops.
Nriagu produced a table showing his estimated consumption of lead by various classes within the Roman Empire.
However, to produce the table Nriagu assumes all of the defrutum/sapa consumed to have been made in lead vessels:
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Decline of the Roman Empire 10
Population Source Lead level in source Daily intake Absorption factor Lead absorbed
Aristocrats
Air0.05 g/m
320 m
3 0.4 0.4 g/day
Water 50 (50-200) g/l 1.0 liter 0.1 5 (5-20) g/day
Wines 300 (200-1500) 2.0 liters 0.3 180 (120-900) g/day
Foods 0.2 (0.1-2.0) g/g 3 kg (7 lb) 0.1 60 (30-600) g/day
Other/Misc. 5.0 g/day
Total 250 (160-1250) g/day
Plebeians
Less food, same wine consumption. 35 (35-320) g/day
Slaves
Still less food, more water, 0.75 liters wine 15 (15-77) g/day
Lead is not removed quickly from the body. It tends to form lead phosphate complexes within bone. This is
detectable in preserved bone. Chemical analysis of preserved skeletons found in Herculaneum by Dr. Sara C. Bisel
from the University of Minnesota indicated they contained lead in concentrations of 84 parts per million (ppm),
whereas skeletons found in a Greek cave had lead concentrations of just 3ppm. However, the lead content revealed in
many other ancient Roman remains have been shown to have been less than half that of modern Europeans[11]
which
have concentrations between 20-50ppm.
Criticism of lead poisoning theory
The role and importance of lead poisoning in contributing to the fall of the Roman Empire is the subject of
controversy and its importance and validity is discounted by many historians. John Scarborough, a pharmacologist
and classicist, criticized Nriagu's book as "so full of false evidence, miscitations, typographical errors, and a blatant
flippancy regarding primary sources that the reader cannot trust the basic arguments."[12]
He concluded that ancient
authorities were well aware of lead poisoning and that it was not endemic in the Roman empire nor did it cause its
fall.
Although defrutum and sapa prepared in leaden containers would indubitably have contained toxic levels of lead, the
use of leaden containers, though popular, was not the standard and copper was used far more generally. The exact
amount of sapa added to wine was also not standardised and there is no indication how often sapa was added or in
what quantity.
Additionally, Roman authors such as Pliny the Elder[13]
and Vitruvius recognised the toxicity of lead. Vitruvius, who
flourished during Augustus' time, writes that the Romans knew very well of the dangers.
Water conducted through earthen pipes is more wholesome than that through lead; indeed that conveyed
in lead must be injurious, because from it white lead [cerussa, lead carbonate, PbCO3] is obtained, and
this is said to be injurious to the human system. This may be verified by observing the workers in lead,
who are of a pallid colour; water should therefore on no account be conducted in leaden pipes if we are
desirous that it should be wholesome (VIII.6.10-11).
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Augustushttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vitruviushttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pliny_the_Elderhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Endemic_%28epedemiology%29http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Leadhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=University_of_Minnesotahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sara_C._Biselhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Herculaneum -
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Decline of the Roman Empire 11
Catastrophic collapse
J. B. Bury
J. B. Bury's History of the Later Roman Empire (1889/1923) challenged the prevailing "theory of moral decay"
established by Gibbon as well as the classic "clash of Christianity vs. paganism" theory, citing the relative success of
the Eastern Empire, which was resolutely Christian. He held that Gibbon's grand history, though epoch-making in its
research and detail, was too monocausal. His main difference from Gibbon lay in his interpretation of facts, rather
than disputing any facts. He made it clear that he felt that Gibbon's thesis concerning "moral decay" was viable
but incomplete. Bury's judgment was that:[14]
The gradual collapse of the Roman power was the consequence of a series of contingent events. No
general causes can be assigned that made it inevitable.
Bury held that a number of crises arose simultaneously: economic decline, Germanic expansion, depopulation of
Italy, dependency on Germanicfoederati for the military, the disastrous (though Bury believed unknowing) treason
of Stilicho, loss of martial vigor, Aetius' murder, the lack of any leader to replace Aetius a series of misfortunes
which, in combination, proved catastrophic:
The Empire had come to depend on the enrollment of barbarians, in large numbers, in the army, and it was
necessary to render the service attractive to them by the prospect of power and wealth. This was, of course, a
consequence of the decline in military spirit, and of depopulation, in the old civilised Mediterranean countries.
The Germans in high command had been useful, but the dangers involved in the policy had been shown in the
cases of Merobaudes and Arbogastes. Yet this policy need not have led to the dismemberment of the Empire,
and but for that series of chances its western provinces would not have been converted, as and when they were,
into German kingdoms. It may be said that a German penetration of western Europe must ultimately have
come about. But even if that were certain, it might have happened in another way, at a later time, more
gradually, and with less violence.
The point of the present contention is that Rome's loss of her provinces in the fifth century was not an
"inevitable effect of any of those features which have been rightly or wrongly described as causes or
consequences of her general 'decline'". The central fact that Rome could not dispense with the help of
barbarians for her wars (gentium barbararum auxilio indigemus) may be held to be the cause of her calamities,
but it was a weakness which might have continued to be far short of fatal but for the sequence of contingencies
pointed out above.
Peter Heather
Peter Heather, in his The Fall of the Roman Empire (2005), maintains the Roman imperial system with its sometimes
violent imperial transitions and problematic communications notwithstanding, was in fairly good shape during the
first, second, and part of the 3rd centuries AD. According to Heather, the first real indication of trouble was the
emergence in Iran of the Sassanid Persian empire (226651). Heather says:
The Sassanids were sufficiently powerful and internally cohesive to push back Roman legions from the
Euphrates and from much of Armenia and southeast Turkey. Much as modern readers tend to think of
the "Huns" as the nemesis of the Roman Empire, for the entire period under discussion it was the
Persians who held the attention and concern of Rome and Constantinople. Indeed, 2025% of the
military might of the Roman Army was addressing the Persian threat from the late third century onward
and upwards of 40% of the troops under the Eastern Emperors.[15]
Heather goes on to state in the tradition of Gibbon and Bury that it took the Roman Empire about half a
century to cope with the Sassanid threat, which it did by stripping the western provincial towns and cities of their
regional taxation income. The resulting expansion of military forces in the Middle East was finally successful in
stabilizing the frontiers with the Sassanids, but the reduction of real income in the provinces of the Empire led to two
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Middle_Easthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Middle_Easthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Roman_Armyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Roman_legionshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sassanidshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sassanidhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Heatherhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arbogasteshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Merobaudes_%28general%29http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Flavius_A%C3%ABtiushttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stilichohttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=J._B._Bury -
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Decline of the Roman Empire 12
trends which, Heather says, had a negative long term impact. First, the incentive for local officials to spend their time
and money in the development of local infrastructure disappeared. Public buildings from the 4th century onward
tended to be much more modest and funded from central budgets, as the regional taxes had dried up. Second,
Heather says "the landowning provincial literati now shifted their attention to where the money was away from
provincial and local politics to the imperial bureaucracies." Having set the scene of an Empire stretched militarily by
the Sassanid threat, Heather then suggests, using archaeological evidence, that the Germanic tribes on the Empire's
northern border had altered in nature since the 1st century. Contact with the Empire had increased their material
wealth, and that in turn had led to disparities of wealth sufficient to create a ruling class capable of maintaining
control over far larger groupings than had previously been possible. Essentially they had become significantly more
formidable foes.
Heather then posits what amounts to a domino theory namely that pressure on peoples very far away from the
Empire could result in sufficient pressure on peoples on the Empire's borders to make them contemplate the risk of
full scale immigration to the empire. Thus he links the Gothic invasion of 376 directly to Hunnic movements around
the Black Sea in the decade before. In the same way he sees the invasions across the Rhine in 406 as a direct
consequence of further Hunnic incursions in Germania; as such he sees the Huns as deeply significant in the fall of
the Western Empire long before they themselves became a military threat to the Empire. He postulates that theHunnic expansion caused unprecedented immigration in 376 and 406 by barbarian groupings who had become
significantly more politically and militarily capable than in previous eras. This impacted an empire already at
maximum stretch due to the Sassanid pressure. Essentially he argues that the external pressures of 376470 could
have brought the Western Empire down at any point in its history.
He disputes Gibbon's contention that Christianity and moral decay led to the decline. He also rejects the political
infighting of the Empire as a reason, considering it was a systemic recurring factor throughout the Empire's history
which, while it might have contributed to an inability to respond to the circumstances of the 5th century, it
consequently cannot be blamed for them. Instead he places its origin squarely on outside military factors, starting
with the Sassanids. Like Bury, he does not believe the fall was inevitable, but rather a series of events which came
together to shatter the Empire. He differs from Bury, however, in placing the onset of those events far earlier in the
Empire's timeline, with the Sassanid rise.
Bryan Ward-Perkins
Bryan Ward-Perkins's The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization (2005) takes a traditional view tempered by
modern discoveries, arguing that the empire's demise was caused by a vicious circle of political instability, foreign
invasion, and reduced tax revenue. Essentially, invasions caused long-term damage to the provincial tax base, which
lessened the Empire's medium- to long-term ability to pay and equip the legions, with predictable results. Likewise,
constant invasions encouraged provincial rebellion as self-help, further depleting Imperial resources. Contrary to the
trend among some historians of the "there was no fall" school, who view the fall of Rome as not necessarily a "bad
thing" for the people involved, Ward-Perkins argues that in many parts of the former Empire the archaeological
record indicates that the collapse was truly a disaster.
Ward-Perkins' theory, much like Bury's, and Heather's, identifies a series of cyclic events that came together to cause
a definite decline and fall.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bryan_Ward-Perkinshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christianityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Germaniahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hunshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Goths -
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Decline of the Roman Empire 13
Transformation
Henri Pirenne
In the second half of the 19th century, some historians focused on the continuities between the Roman Empire and
the post-Roman Germanic kingdoms rather than the rupture. In Histoire des institutions politiques de l'ancienne
France (187589), Fustel de Coulanges argued that the barbarians simply contributed to an on-going process of
transforming Roman institutions.
Henri Pirenne continued this idea with the "Pirenne Thesis", published in the 1920s, which remains influential to this
day. It holds that even after the barbarian invasions, the Roman way of doing things did not immediately change;
barbarians came to Rome not to destroy it, but to take part in its benefits, and thus they tried to preserve the Roman
way of life. The Pirenne Thesis regards the rise of the Frankish realm in Europe as a continuation of the Roman
Empire, and thus validates the crowning of Charlemagne as the first Holy Roman Emperor as a successor of the
Roman Emperors. According to Pirenne,[4] the real break in Roman history occurred in the 7th and 8th centuries as
a result of Arab expansion. Islamic conquest of the area of today's south-eastern Turkey, Syria, Palestine, North
Africa, Spain and Portugal ruptured economic ties to western Europe, cutting the region off from trade and turning it
into a stagnant backwater, with wealth flowing out in the form of raw resources and nothing coming back. Thisbegan a steady decline and impoverishment so that by the time of Charlemagne western Europe had become almost
entirely agrarian at a subsistence level, with no long-distance trade. Pirenne's view on the continuity of the Roman
Empire before and after the Germanic invasion has been supported by recent historians such as Franois Masai,
Karl-Ferdinand Werner, and Peter Brown.
Some modern critics have argued that the "Pirenne Thesis" erred on two counts: by treating the Carolingian realm as
a Roman state and by overemphasizing the effect of the Islamic conquests on the Byzantine or Eastern Roman
Empire. Other critics have argued that while Pirenne was correct in arguing for the continuity of the Empire beyond
the sack of Rome, the Arab conquests in the 7th century may not have disrupted Mediterranean trade routes to the
degree that Pirenne argued. Michael McCormick in particular has argued that some recently unearthed sources, such
as collective biographies, describe new trade routes. Moreover, other records and coins document the movement of
Islamic currency into the Carolingian Empire. McCormick has concluded that if money was coming in, some type of
goods must have been going out including slaves, timber, weapons, honey, amber, and furs.
Lucien Musset and the clash of civilizations
In the spirit of "Pirenne thesis", a school of thought pictured a clash of civilizations between the Roman and the
Germanic world, a process taking place roughly between 3rd and 8th century.
The French historian Lucien Musset, studying the Barbarian invasions, argues the civilization of Medieval Europe
emerged from a synthesis between the Graeco-Roman world and the Germanic civilizations penetrating the Roman
Empire. The Roman Empire did not fall, did not decline, it just transformed but so did the Germanic populations
which invaded it. To support this conclusion, beside the narrative of the events, he offers linguistic surveys of
toponymy and anthroponymy, analyzes archaeological records, studies the urban and rural society, the institutions,
the religion, the art, the technology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anthroponymyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Toponymyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Linguisticshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Germanic_peopleshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Graeco-Romanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Europehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Medievalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Barbarian_invasionshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lucien_Mussethttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Francehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mediterraneanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carolingianhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Brown_%28historian%29http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Karl-Ferdinand_Wernerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fran%C3%A7ois_Masaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Holy_Roman_Emperorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charlemagnehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Frankish_Empirehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henri_Pirennehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fustel_de_Coulanges -
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Decline of the Roman Empire 14
Late Antiquity
Historians of Late Antiquity, a field pioneered by Peter Brown, have turned away from the idea that the Roman
Empire fell at all - refocusing instead on Pirenne's thesis. They see a transformation occurring over centuries, with
the roots of Medieval culture contained in Roman culture and focus on the continuities between the classical and
Medieval worlds. Thus, it was a gradual process with no clear break. Brown argues in his book that,
Factors we would regard as natural in a 'crisis' - malaise caused by urbanization, public disasters, theintrusion of alien religious ideas, and a consequent heightening of religious hopes and fears--may not
have bulked as large in the minds of the men of the late second and third centuries as we suppose... The
towns of the Mediterranean were small towns. For all their isolation from the way of life of the villagers,
they were fragile excresences in a spreading countryside."[16]
Historiography
Historiographically, the primary issue historians have looked at when analyzing any theory is the continued
existence of the Eastern Empire or Byzantine Empire, which lasted almost a thousand years after the fall of the West.
For example, Gibbon implicates Christianity in the fall of the Western Empire, yet the eastern half of the Empire,
which was even more Christian than the west in geographic extent, fervor, penetration and vast numbers continued
on for a thousand years afterwards (although Gibbon did not consider the Eastern Empire to be much of a success).
As another example, environmental or weather changes affected the east as much as the west, yet the east did not
"fall."
Theories will sometimes reflect the particular concerns that historians might have on cultural,political, or economic
trends in their own times. Gibbon's criticism of Christianity reflects the values of the Enlightenment; his ideas on the
decline in martial vigor could have been interpreted by some as a warning to the growing British Empire. In the 19th
century socialist and anti-socialist theorists tended to blame decadence and other political problems. More recently,
environmental concerns have become popular, with deforestation and soil erosion proposed as major factors, and
destabilizing population decreases due to epidemics such as early cases of bubonic plague and malaria also cited.Global climate changes of 535-536, perhaps caused by the possible eruption of Krakatoa in 535, as mentioned by
David Keys and others, is another example. Ideas about transformation with no distinct fall mirror the rise of the
postmodern tradition, which rejects periodization concepts (see metanarrative). What is not new are attempts to
diagnose Rome's particular problems, with Satire X, written by Juvenal in the early 2nd century at the height of
Roman power, criticizing the peoples' obsession with "bread and circuses" and rulers seeking only to gratify these
obsessions.
One of the primary reasons for the vast number of theories is the notable lack of surviving evidence from the 4th and
5th centuries. For example there are so few records of an economic nature it is difficult to arrive at even a
generalization of the economic conditions. Thus, historians must quickly depart from available evidence and
comment based on how things ought to have worked, or based on evidence from previous and later periods, on
inductive reasoning. As in any field where available evidence is sparse, the historian's ability to imagine the 4th and
5th centuries will play as important a part in shaping our understanding as the available evidence, and thus be open
for endless interpretation.
The end of the Western Roman Empire traditionally has been seen by historians to mark the end of the Ancient Era
and beginning of the Middle Ages. More recent schools of history, such as Late Antiquity, offer a more nuanced
view from the traditional historical narrative.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Middle_Ageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Late_Antiquityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Late_Antiquityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Middle_Ageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ancient_Erahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Inductive_reasoninghttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bread_and_circuseshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Satire_Xhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Metanarrativehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Periodizationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postmodernhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=David_Keys_%28author%29http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Krakatoahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Climate_changes_of_535-536http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Malariahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bubonic_plaguehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Epidemichttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Soil_erosionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deforestationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Natural_environmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Decadencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Socialismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=British_Empirehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Age_of_Enlightenmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Byzantine_Empirehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eastern_Roman_Empirehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Historiographyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Middle_Ageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Brown_%28historian%29http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Late_Antiquity -
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Decline of the Roman Empire 15
Notes
[1] Bowersock, "The Vanishing Paradigm of the Fall of Rome"Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1996) 49#8 pp 29-43 at
p. 31.
[2] Alexander Demandt: 210 Theories (http://crookedtimber. org/2003/08/25/decline-and-fall), from Crooked Timber weblog entry August
25, 2003. Retrieved June 2005.
[3] Alexander Demandt: 210 Theories (http://www.utexas.edu/courses/rome/210reasons. html), Source: A. Demandt,Der Fall Roms (1984)
695. See also: Karl Galinsky in Classical and Modern Interactions (1992) 53-73.[4][4] Arnaldo Momigliano, echoing the trope of the sound a tree falling in the forest, titled an article in 1973, "La caduta senza rumore di un
impero nel 476 d.C." ("The noiseless fall of an empire in 476 AD").
[5] Arther Ferrill, The Fall of the Roman Empire: The Military Explanation (New York: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1986),
[6] See, for instance, "How Excessive Government Killed Ancient Rome" (http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cjv14n2-7. html), by Bruce
Bartlett, and "The Rise and Decline of Civilization" (http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/economics/classics/
3015-politics-ideas-the-rise-and-decline-of-civilization-lecture-6-part-3-of-4. html), by Ludwig von Mises
[7] "How Excessive Government Killed Ancient Rome" (http://www.cato. org/pubs/journal/cjv14n2-7. html), by Bruce Bartlett
[8][8] Tainter, Joseph (1988) "The Collapse of Complex Societies" (Princeton Uni Press)
[9] The Complete Roman Army (2003) p. 214 Adrian Goldsworthy
[10] Lunds universitet (http://www.humecol. lu.se/woshglec/papers/hughes.doc)
[11][11] Drasch 1982:199-231
[12][12] Scarborough, John (1984). The Myth of Lead Poisoning Among the Romans: An Essay Review
[13][13] (Historia Naturalis1 xxxiv.50.167)
[14] Bury, J.B. History of the Later Roman Empire Vol. I Chap. IX (http://penelope. uchicago. edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/
BURLAT/9*.html#7)
[15] Albion's Seedlings: Heather - The Fall of the Roman Empire (http://anglosphere. com/weblog/archives/000350. html)
[16][16] Peter Brown, "The Making of Late Antiquity" (Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1978), 2-3
References
Alexander Demandt (1984).Der Fall Roms: Die Auflsung des rmischen Reiches im Urteil der Nachwelt. ISBN
3-406-09598-4
Edward Gibbon,[1]
"General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West", from the Internet
Medieval Sourcebook. Brief excerpts of Gibbon's theories.
William Carroll Bark (1958). Origins of the Medieval World. ISBN 0-8047-0514-3
Drasch, G A (1982).Lead burden in prehistorical, historical and modern human bodies. The Science of the Total
Environment
Scarborough, John (1984). The Myth of Lead Poisoning Among the Romans: An Essay Review
[1] Fordham.edu (http://www.fordham. edu/halsall/source/gibbon-fall. html)
Further reading
Robert J. Antonio. "The Contradiction of Domination and Production in Bureaucracy: The Contribution of
Organizational Efficiency to the Decline of the Roman Empire,"American Sociological ReviewVol. 44, No. 6(Dec., 1979), pp. 895912 in JSTOR (http://www.jstor.org/stable/2094715)
Arther Ferrill The Fall of the Roman Empire: The Military Explanation" 0500274959 (1998) supports Vegetius'
theory.
Adrian Goldsworthy.How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower(2009); published in Britain as The Fall of the
West: The Death of the Roman Superpower (2010)
Guy Halsall.Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West (Cambridge U.P., 2007) excerpt and text search (http://
www.amazon.com/dp/0521435439/)
Peter Heather. "The Huns and the End of the Roman Empire in Western Europe," '"English Historical Review
Vol. 110, No. 435 (Feb., 1995), pp. 4-41 in JSTOR (http://www.jstor.org/stable/573374)
Peter Heather.Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe (Oxford University Press;2010); 734 pages; Examines the migrations, trade, and other phenomena that shaped a recognizable entity of
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Heatherhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/573374http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Heatherhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/0521435439/http://www.amazon.com/dp/0521435439/http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Adrian_Goldsworthyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arther_Ferrillhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/2094715http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/gibbon-fall.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Internet_Medieval_Sourcebookhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Internet_Medieval_Sourcebookhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edward_Gibbonhttp://anglosphere.com/weblog/archives/000350.htmlhttp://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/BURLAT/9*.html#7http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/BURLAT/9*.html#7http://www.humecol.lu.se/woshglec/papers/hughes.dochttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Adrian_Goldsworthyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bruce_Bartletthttp://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cjv14n2-7.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ludwig_von_Miseshttp://www.capitalismmagazine.com/economics/classics/3015-politics-ideas-the-rise-and-decline-of-civilization-lecture-6-part-3-of-4.htmlhttp://www.capitalismmagazine.com/economics/classics/3015-politics-ideas-the-rise-and-decline-of-civilization-lecture-6-part-3-of-4.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bruce_Bartletthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bruce_Bartletthttp://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cjv14n2-7.htmlhttp://www.utexas.edu/courses/rome/210reasons.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Crooked_Timberhttp://crookedtimber.org/2003/08/25/decline-and-fall -
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Decline of the Roman Empire 16
Europe in the first millennium. excerpt and text search (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0199735603/)
Heather, peter, The Fall of the Roman Empire, 2005, ISBN 0-19-515954-3, offers a narrative of the final years, in
the tradition of Gibson or Bury, plus incorporates latest archaeological evidence and other recent findings.
Jones, A. H. M. The Later Roman Empire, 284-602: A Social, Economic, and Administrative Survey (2 Vol.
1964) excerpt and text search (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0801832853)
Kagan, Donald, ed. The End of the Roman Empire: Decline or Transformation?, ISBN 0-669-21520-1 (3rd
edition 1992) excerpts from historians
Mitchell, Stephen, ;;A History of the Later Roman Empire, AD 284-641: The Transformation of the Ancient
World (2006)
"The Fall of Rome an author dialogue" Part I (http://blog.oup.com/2005/12/the_fall_of_rom2/) and Part 2
(http://blog.oup.com/2005/12/the_fall_of_rom/): Oxford professors Bryan Ward-Perkins and Peter Heather
discuss The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization and The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome
and the Barbarians.
Monigliano, Arnoldo. "Gibbon's Contribution to Historical Method," Studies in Historiography (New York:
Harper and Row, 1966).
Jeanne Rutenburg and Arthur M. Eckstein, "The Return of the Fall of Rome,"International History Review 29(2007): 109-122, historiography
Foreign language
Lucien Musset,Les Invasions : Les vagues germaniques, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1965 (3rd ed.
1994, ISBN 2-13-046715-6)
External links
Fall of Rome Decline of the Roman Empire (http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/romefallarticles/a/
fallofrome.htm) Lists many possible causes with references
http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/romefallarticles/a/fallofrome.htmhttp://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/romefallarticles/a/fallofrome.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lucien_Mussethttp://blog.oup.com/2005/12/the_fall_of_rom/http://blog.oup.com/2005/12/the_fall_of_rom2/http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Donald_Kaganhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/0801832853http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Heatherhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/0199735603/ -
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Article Sources and Contributors 17
Article Sources and ContributorsDecline of the Roman Empire Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=579668125 Contributors: 2D, ASteadyDecline, AVand, Abou Ben Adhem, Agiseb, Aigos100, Aitias,
Ajax151, Ajeezy123, Alansohn, Alexander Domanda, Allens, Alpha 4615, Amin0303, AnonMoos, Anonymous Dissident, Antandrus, Aprogressivist, Aquillion, Arg, Aristides, Attilios, Aua,
Badgernet, BanyanTree, Barbatus, Bart133, Bazuz, Beland, Belligero, Bequal, Berig, Bhadani, Bidgee, Bigbluefish, Bigturtle, Bility, BillyBreen, Birty2k, Bloodofox, Bobblehead, Bobo the
Talking Clown, Bobo192, Bobster111, Bonadea, Bostonfan123123, Br77rino, Burnt-sienna, Businessmouse, C.Fred, CALR, CBM, CWY2190, Cactusframe, Caknuck, Calabraxthis, Calaminh,
Calm, Can't sleep, clown will eat me, Canadian-Bacon, CanadianLinuxUser, Candyroks987, Capecodeph, Capricorn42, Carl.bunderson, Carlosfigara, Catalographer, Charles Matthews, Chino,
Choster, Chovin, Chris the speller, Cirrus Editor, Citing, Ckenniss, Clintville, Coinmanj, Coldfire136, Coppertopolo, Corpx, CowboySpartan, Crimson30, Cst17, Cthuljew, Cuchullain,
CyrilleDunant, Cyrus Andiron, DGG, DH85868993, Daizus, Dalek, Dalliance, Dan 9111, DanielCD, Danilot, Darth Panda, Dausuul, Dave Lohran, Davewild, David R. Ingham, David Schaich,Dejvid, Delirium, Demeter, Denisarona, Deor, DerHexer, Dinkytown, Discospinster, DougsTech, Dppowell, DrSprite, Dreadstar, Drgilberto, Drmies, Drosdaf, Durova, Dylan Lake, Ealdgyth,
Eb.hoop, Edison, Ego White Tray, Ekksel, El C, ElTyrant, EliasAlucard, Epbr123, Eternal Pink, Evangeline, Evecon12, Ewulp, Exacerbation, Excirial, Fallout11, Fenice, Ferkelparade, FilipeS,
Fingy, Firsfron, Fl, Flix2000, Fratrep, Fred Condo, Frustrated american progressive, Fuzzform, G.W., GWhitewood, Gaelen S., Gaius Cornelius, Gaius Octavius Princeps, Garion96, Gay Cdn,
Geoffspear, GeorgeStepanek, Gerbrant, Gerry D, Gilliam, Giov9, Girld22, Glasperlenspiel, Gman124, Godzilla Awoken, GoingBatty, Gomm, Green Cardamom, Gregfitzy, Grimhelm, Grokmoo,
Grover cleveland, Gun Powder Ma, Gunslinger1812, Gurch, Gwen Gale, Gwernol, Gwickwire, HDCase, Hadrian89, HairyDan, Hannaranae, Hans Dunkelberg, Haymouse, HexaChord, Hgger,
Hiberniantears, Hippalus, Hmains, Hne123, Hornvieh, Howa0082, Husond, IRP, IW.HG, Igoldste, Ilikepie2221, InsufficientData, Iridescent, IrishParadox, Iritakamas, IronDuke, Isaac
Rabinovitch, J.delanoy, J04n, JW1805, JaGa, Jackol, Jamie M Hayes, January2007, Jarble, Jasuena, Javier Arambel, Jdsteakley, Jeff G., JesseGarrett, Jgeddes, Jitse Niesen, Jmacwiki, Joel7687,
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MCiura, MKleid, Mac Davis, Mackant1, Madesfuga, Malo, Manoguru, Manuel Anastcio, Marauder40, Marek69, Martin451, Master of Puppets, Matt Gies, Matticus78, Maxis ftw, McSly,
Mcorazao, Meamemg, Meishern, MeltBanana, Mervyn, Metrodyne, Mets501, Michael C Price, Migukin, Mihoshi, Mike Doughney, Minna Sora no Shita, Miquonranger03, Mkamensek, Mlouns,
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RexNL, Reywas92, Rgoodermote, Rich Farmbrough, Richard Keatinge, Richard Weil, Rjensen, Rjwilmsi, Rklawton, Robindch, Robofish, Rogerson9, Roland Kaufmann, Rorschach, Rougher07,
Rummank, Rursus, Ryanmcdaniel, Rykotsusei, SCRA5071, SGGH, SJP, SMC, SaaHc2B, Sam Hocevar, Sardanaphalus, Sceptre, S