1.0 The Fall of Rome: Analyzing Contributing Factors

List of Emperors and their cause of deaths from various sources: Many emperors were assassinated, 2 Emperors were killed in battle, 2 were killed by the plague, There was a period of 8 years with no Emperor, There was a year 258 where there were 6 different Emperors.

A Map showing 6 different invaders of the Roman Empire. Vandals, Visigoths, and Ostrogoths traveled quickly. Huns traveled slowly and immigrated to the area. Angles and Saxons attacked England. Visigoths and Vandals entered the city of Rome.

[Before the year 400 CE] footsoldiers wore breastplates and helmets. But when, because of negligence and laziness, parade ground drills were abandoned, the customary armor began to seem heavy since the soldiers rarely ever wore it. Therefore, they first asked the emperor to set aside the breastplates... and then the helmets. So our soldiers fought the Goths without any protection for chest and head and were often beaten by archers. Although there were many disasters, which led to the loss of great cities, no one tried to restore breastplates and helmets to the infantry. Thus it happens that troops in battle, exposed to wounds because they have no armor, think about running and not about fighting.

There can be little doubt that the weaknesses of the late Roman army were largely due to the eventual failure ... to enforce regular conscription [draft of soldiers].... The exempted categories were... numerous. Hosts of senators, bureaucrats, and clergymen were entitled to avoid the draft; and among other groups who escaped were cooks, bakers, and slaves.

The Huns exceed any definition of savagery. They have compact, sturdy limbs and thick necks.... Although they have the shape... of human beings, they are so wild in their way of life that they have no need of fire or pleasant tasting foods, but eat the roots of uncultivated plants and the half-raw flesh of all sorts of animals. This they place between their thighs and the backs of their horses and so warm it a little. Huns are never sheltered by buildings, but ... roam freely in the mountains and woods, learning from their earliest childhood to endure freezing cold, hunger and thirst.... Huns are not well adapted to battle on foot, but are almost glued to their horses, which are certainly hardy, but also ugly.... Like refugees - all without permanent settlements, homes, law, or a fixed way of life - they are always on the move with their wagons, in which they leave.... Like unthinking animals, they are completely ignorant of the difference between right and wrong. Fired with an over- whelming desire for seizing the property of others, these swift-moving and ungovernable people make their destructive way amid the pillage and slaughter of those who live around them.

In the second year of the reign of Valens (366 CE)... the Roman world was shaken by a violent and destructive earthquake.... The shores of the Mediterranean were left dry by the sudden retreat of the sea... but the tide soon returned with the weight of an immense flood which was severely felt on the coasts of Sicily, Greece, and of Egypt.... Fifty thousand persons had lost their lives in the flood [in the city of Alexandria alone].... This disaster... shocked and terrified the subjects of Rome... and they could finally see a connection between the symptoms of a declining empire and a sinking world....

The process of decline started with a series of plagues that swept over the empire...which brought diseases [from] southern Asia to new areas like the Mediterranean, where no resistance had been established even to contagions such as the measles. The resulting diseases destroyed the population. The population of Rome decreased from a million people to 250,000. Economic life worsened in consequence. Recruitment of troops became more difficult, so the empire was increasingly reduced to hiring Germanic soldiers to guard its frontiers. The need to pay troops added to the demands on the state's budget, just as declining production cut into tax revenues.