Like the ancient Greeks, the Romans called barbarian tribes whose language was incomprehensible to them. But the great migration of peoples that began in the 4th century somewhat reduced the arrogance of the Romans, putting the empire before new, previously unknown problems.
After the Huns who came from Asia began to push the Germans to the west, Emperor Theodosius I allowed the Germans to settle in the north of the empire. But at the beginning of the fifth century other barbarian tribes, including the Huns themselves, began to invade the territory of the empire.
The Huns are a barbarian tribe that came from Central Asia. By 447, a huge army of the Huns, led by Attila, conquered all the countries located in the territory between the Black and Mediterranean Seas. The Huns defeated the Roman troops three times, but they failed to capture either Rome or Rome.
In battles with the troops of the Germans, who were in the service of Rome, the Huns conquered entire regions in Europe that used to belong to the Roman Empire. In 395, after the death of Theodosius I, the Eastern and Western empires actually ceased to be single state, but the West continued to receive financial and food aid from the East.
In 410, the king of another barbarian horde, the Visigoths Alaric, led his troops to Rome and captured the city. In 455, Rome was sacked by another barbarian tribe - the Vandals. The Eastern Empire refused to help the completely weakened West, and in 476 the Western Empire ceased to exist. This year is considered to be the year of the fall of the Roman Empire. The last emperor of the West, Romulus Augustulus, was poisoned by his conquerors in exile.
The leader of the barbarian tribe of the Vandals Geiseric in 455 arrived with an army in Ostia. His soldiers captured Rome and subjected the city to terrible sack. In 12 days, they removed all valuables from the houses, tearing even the gilded tiles from the roofs of public buildings. The widow and daughters of Emperor Valentinian III were taken hostage by Geiseric.
Among the reasons for the fall of the Western Roman Empire, both external and internal can be distinguished. The internal reasons include the decline of the economy, the demographic crisis, civil wars tearing apart the empire and the weakening of the army.
The frequent change of emperors became a symbol of the decline of the Roman Empire. Their low competence, the constant struggle for power and the civil wars that shook the country did not at all increase the effectiveness of the Empire's management. Increasingly, representatives of non-Roman nationalities became representatives of power, which reduced the authority of power and eradicated the feeling of patriotism in citizens.
The economy was no better. Land reforms, which led to the development of subsistence farming (and the weakening of the processing industry) caused a rise in the cost of transportation and degradation of trade. Interaction between the provinces was in decline. The growth of taxes and, as a result, the fall in the solvency of the population, contributed to the ruin of small landowners, which caused pockets of discontent among the general population.
The army also deteriorated. The former invincible legions of Rome were replaced by an army almost entirely composed of barbarian mercenaries.
Could the weakened Empire resist the expansion of numerous hordes seeking to seize the fertile lands of the Empire and take advantage of the benefits of a decrepit civilization?
However, most historians agree that the reason for the fall of the Western Roman Empire was not the great migration of the people and not the decline of Roman civilization - the internal problems that so weakened the Roman Empire were only outward signs the crisis of civilization, the fundamental moments of which were slavery and militarism.
The fall of the Western Roman Empire did not end Roman civilization. While the Western Empire was nearing its end, the Eastern Empire, called Byzantium, flourished. Its capital grew and grew rich. Located between Europe and Asia, this city became the largest commercial and administrative center of the empire. The borders of Byzantium extended west to Greece, south to Egypt, and east to Arabia. Although Greek was the official language in the East as well, Latin was spoken at the emperor's court. Emperor Justinian (r. 527-565) regained control of certain areas in North Africa, Italy and Spain, but it was not possible to keep them for a long time. After the fall of Rome, the Eastern Empire existed for another 1000 years. Byzantium did not have a strong army, and Byzantine diplomats tried to resolve conflicts with their neighbors peacefully. Its inhabitants professed Christianity, and they sought to convert hostile barbarians to their religion.
The final division of the empire was predetermined by the peculiarities of the historical development of the two regions of the Mediterranean - the Romanized West and the Hellenistic East. In the western provinces of the once united state, proto-feudal relations developed at an accelerated pace, due to unbearable fiscal oppression, cities fell into decay, and with them commodity production, crafts and trade, the naturalization of the economy progressed, a general economic decline and the ruin of the taxable population were observed, the central part and the influence of magnates increased, the barbarization of the population increased, which led to the degradation of the military machine and the decline of culture. On the contrary, there was a strong imperial power in the East, the eastern provinces were less ruined than the western ones, the development of proto-feudal relations did not reach such a depth here as in the West, and the urban system (in socio-economic and cultural terms) was preserved to a much greater extent. These objective circumstances determined the different historical destinies of the two parts of the former Roman Empire.
In 395 - 396 years. The rebellious Visigothic federates, led by King Alaric, subjected Macedonia and Greece to a terrible defeat. The vandal Stilicho, who opposed the Visigoths and guardian of Emperor Honorius, defeated the hordes of Alaric in southern Greece. Nevertheless, the government of the Eastern Empire hastened to conclude an agreement with Alaric, recognizing him as the ruler and supreme commander of the Illyrian provinces (397). Under the banner of Alaric, detachments of barbarians, fugitive slaves and columns flocked from all over the Eastern Empire. By the beginning of the 5th c. he already had a formidable army.
In 401, Alaric, at the head of his hordes, moved to Italy. The following year, at the cost of extreme effort (in particular, troops from the provinces were called in to defend Italy, freed slaves and columns were recorded in the legions), Stilicho managed to defeat the Visigoths twice and oust them from Italy. On the occasion of the victories of Stilicho over the hordes of Alaric in Rome, a triumph was celebrated for the last time. Nevertheless, the government of Honorius is forced to agree to the settlement of the Visigoths in Illyria. In 405, Italy was invaded by an alliance of Germanic tribes led by King Radagaisus. In a bloody battle near Florence, Stilicho defeated the barbarian army (Radagaisus himself died). Meanwhile, the undefended western provinces were easily overrun by the Germanic tribes. Stilicho tried to persuade Alaric to ally with Honorius, but in 408 he was slandered before the emperor and, with the connivance of the insignificant Honorius, was treacherously killed. In him, Italy lost its only defender.
Upon learning of the death of Stilicho, Alaric moved to Rome and besieged The eternal City. Having received 5,000 pounds of gold and 30,000 pounds of silver as a ransom, he left Italy. The following year, Alaric again laid siege to Rome, but the walls of the city were impregnable, so the leader of the Visigoths, together with the usurper Attalus (409 - 410), went on a campaign to Ravenna, where Honorius took refuge. The barbarians also failed to take Ravenna, and Alaric laid siege to Rome for the third time, abandoned by the emperor to the mercy of fate. In the capital of the empire cut off from supply, hunger and disease began to rage. In August 410, the doomed city fell (slaves opened the city gates at night) and was sacked by the barbarians. The fall of Rome made a strong impression on his contemporaries. Alaric moved to the south of Italy, but fell ill on the way and died at the age of 40. A few years later, the Visigoths settled in Aquitaine, where they created their own kingdom.
The mediocre emperor Honorius, who died of dropsy, was replaced by the usurper John (423 - 425), after which the throne passed to the nephew of Honorius, the son of his co-ruler Constantius III and the sister of Galla Placidia, Valentinian III (425 - 455). Meanwhile, the Western Roman Empire was falling apart before our eyes. In 407, the Roman troops of the usurper Constantine III left Britain, and the island gained independence. The Burgundians settled in southeastern Gaul (formally in the position of federates), the Sueves settled in the northwestern part of Spain, and the kingdom of the Vandals arose in Africa with its capital in Carthage (439).
Huns who settled in Pannonia posed a great danger to the dying empire. In 451, under the leadership of Attila, they invaded Gaul. In the "battle of the peoples" on the Catalaunian fields, the commander of Valentinian III Flavius Aetius, under whose banner the Visigoths, Franks and Burgundians fought, defeated the hordes of Attila. The following year, the Huns invaded northern Italy and devastated it. In 453, Attila suddenly died, and the nomadic union of the Huns fell apart. The following year, Aetius fell victim to court intrigues. A few months later, Valentinian III was also killed. In June 455, under the pretext of revenge for the murder of the emperor, the Vandal king Gaiseric captured Rome. Valentinian III's successor Petronius Maximus died in a street fight, and the vandals robbed and devastated the Eternal City for two weeks, in connection with which the term "vandalism" later arose, meaning the senseless destruction of cultural property.
Shortly after the departure of the Vandals, the actual power over Rome and Italy passed into the hands of the commander Flavius Ricimer. The all-powerful temporary worker, at his own will, appointed and dismissed emperors: thus, one after another, Gaul Avitus (455 - 456), Julius Majorian (457 - 461), Libius Severus (461 - 465) and the Greek Procopius Anthemius (467 - 472) were replaced on the throne . All of them were killed. In 472, first Ricimer and then the emperor Olybrius died of the plague. Ricimer's nephew Gundebald in March 473 proclaimed Glycerius (473-475) emperor, who was forced to abdicate by the Dalmatian Julius Nepos, who put on the imperial diadem (474-475). He was deposed by the Illyrian Orestes, who made his teenage son Romulus Augustus (475 - 476) emperor, who, ironically, bore the names of the founder of the Eternal City and the creator of the principate system. The young emperor of the Romans was derisively nicknamed "August".
In August 476, the Scythian leader Odoacer seized power in Rome and became the ruler of Italy. Orestes was killed, and Romulus Augustulus was deposed (August 23) and sent into exile in a villa near Naples, where he died the same year. Odoacer achieved an official decision to eliminate the title of emperor of the Western Roman Empire and sent the imperial regalia to Constantinople (formally, it was about restoring the unity of the Roman Empire under the scepter of the emperor of the East). This imperceptible event ended the history of ancient Rome.
Research article on the eight main factors behind the fall of the Western Roman Empire
At the end of the fourth century AD, the Western Roman Empire literally crumbled after being the world's greatest superpower for nearly 500 years. Historians blame the collapse and fall of Rome on hundreds of different factors, ranging from military failures and the decline of the tax system due to natural disasters and even climate change. The western Roman Empire collapsed in 476 AD, while the eastern half of the empire continued for another thousand years as the Byzantine Empire.
Why did the empire fall? This question remains the subject of debate. Read on to find out the top eight reasons.
The Power of the Barbarians - Invasion of the Barbarian Tribes
The simplest theory of the collapse of western Rome lays the blame for the fall on a series of military losses suffered in battles against external forces. Rome fought the Germanic tribes for many centuries, and barbarian groups such as the Goths encroached on the empire's borders. The Romans put down a Germanic uprising at the end of the fourth century, but in 410 the Visigoth barbarian king Alaric successfully sacked the city of Rome.
The empire spent the next few decades under constant barbarian threat before the "Eternal City" was raided again in 455, this time by the Vandals. Finally, in 476, the German leader Odoacer staged a rebellion and overthrew the emperor Romulus Augustulus. From then on, no Roman emperor would ever reign again in Italian territory, causing historians to regard 476 as the moment when the Western Empire received the mortal blow from the barbarians.
Economic problems and excessive fascination with slave labor
Rome was under attack from outside forces, but also crumbling from within due to a severe financial crisis. Constant warfare and budget overruns greatly lightened the imperial treasury, while excessive taxation and inflation widened the gap between the rich and the poor. Hoping to get away from the taxman, many members of the wealthy classes even fled to the countryside and set up independent fiefdoms, which hastened the fall of Rome.
At the same time, the empire was suffering from a shortage work force. The economy of Rome depended on slaves, slave labor: military power traditionally provided for the Roman fields a fresh influx of conquered peoples. But when the expansion of the empire stalled in the second century, Rome's supply of slaves and other military treasures began to dry up. Another blow to slave labor came in the fifth century, when the Vandals established themselves in North Africa and began disrupting the empire's trade by prowling the Mediterranean like pirates. With the economic decline, the empire began to lose its power in Europe, and the fall of Rome became a matter of time.
Growth of the Eastern Roman Empire
The fate of Western Rome was partially predetermined at the end of the third century, when the emperor Diocletian divided the empire into two halves - Western empire, and the Eastern Roman Empire, Byzantium, later known as Constantinople. The division made the empire manageable in the short term, but over time the two halves drifted apart. East and West failed to adequately work together to deal with external threats, and also often quarreled over resources and military assistance. The Eastern Empire grew in wealth, adopted Greek language, expanded its possessions, while the Latin-speaking West fell into an economic crisis.
Most importantly, the strength of the Eastern Empire was directed to divert barbarian invasions to the West. The city of Constantinople was fortified and well guarded, but Italy and the city of Rome, which, alas, had only a symbolic meaning for many in the East, remained vulnerable. The Western political structure will finally collapse in the fifth century AD.
The Eastern Empire will live on in one form or another for another thousand years until the moment when it is taken over by the Ottoman Empire in the 1400s - this will be the final fall of Rome.
overextension
At its height, the Roman Empire stretched from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to the Euphrates River in the Middle East, but size may also have been the cause of its collapse. On such a vast territory, the rulers of the empire faced an administrative and logistical nightmare. Even with excellent road systems, practically the best in the world at that time, the Romans could not communicate quickly and effectively enough to manage their "holding".
Rome went out of its way to mobilize enough troops and resources to defend its borders from local rebellions and outside attacks, and in the second century Emperor Hadrian was forced to build his famous wall in Britain just to keep the enemy at bay. Because more and more more funds sent to the military maintenance of the empire, technical progress slowed down and Rome's civilian infrastructure fell into disrepair.
Government corruption and political instability
If the sheer size of Rome made it difficult to manage, inconsistent leadership only served to increase the problem. Being a Roman emperor has always been a particularly dangerous job, but during the tumultuous times of the second and third centuries it almost became a death sentence. Civil War threw the empire into a chaos of corruption and violence, and more than 20 people came to the throne in a mere 75 years, usually after the assassination of their predecessor. It got to the point that the emperor was killed by his own bodyguards, and a new sovereign was appointed according to own will, and once even auctioned a stain from the blood of a murdered man for the highest price. How could the fall of Rome not happen here?
The political rot also extended to the Roman Senate, which was unable to moderate the excess spending of the emperors due to its own widespread corruption. As the situation deteriorated, Roman civic pride waned and many Roman citizens lost confidence in the leadership.
The emergence of the Huns and the migration of barbarian tribes
The barbarian attacks on Rome stemmed in part from the mass migration of barbarians caused by the Huns' invasion of Europe at the end of the fourth century. When these Eurasian warriors arrived in northern part Europe, they forced many Germanic tribes to retreat to the borders of the Roman Empire. The Romans reluctantly allowed members of the Visigoth tribe to enter Roman territory, treated them with particular cruelty.
According to the historian Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman officials forced the starving Goths to sell their children as slaves in exchange for dog meat. Some historians believe that by treating the Goths harshly, the Romans created a dangerous enemy within their own borders and sealed the fall of Rome. When the oppression became too much to endure, the Goths rebelled, and eventually defeated the Roman army and killed the eastern emperor Valens during the Battle of Adrianople in 378 AD.
The shocked Romans agreed on a bad peace with the barbarians, but the flimsy truce was "soaked" in 410, when the Goth king Alaric moved west and sacked Rome. With the weakening of the Western Empire, Germanic tribes such as the Vandals and Saxons crossed its borders and occupied Britain, Spain and North Africa.
Christianity and the Loss of Traditional Values
Some of the historians argue that the emergence of a new Christian faith contributed to the fall of the empire and. The Edict of Milan legalized Christianity in 313, and it later became the state religion in 380. These decrees ended centuries of Christian persecution, but they also arguably undermined the traditional Roman value system. Christianity supplanted the polytheistic Roman religion, which viewed the emperor as having divine status, and the attention of the populace shifted from the glory of the state to a single deity. At the same time, Christian churchmen began to play an even more active role in political affairs, which made governance more difficult. The 18th century historian Edward Gibbon was the most famous proponent of this theory.
Most scholars today argue that the influence of Christianity in the fall of Rome still pales in comparison to military, economic and administrative factors.
Weakening of the legendary Roman legions
For most of its history, Rome's military might was the envy of ancient world. But during the decline, the composition of the once mighty Roman legions began to change. Unable to recruit enough soldiers from Roman citizens, and in an attempt to contain the fall of Rome, the emperors Diocletian and Constantine began to hire foreign mercenaries into the Roman legions to support the army. The ranks of the Roman legions eventually filled with Germanic Goths and other barbarians, so that the Romans began to use latin word"Barbarus" instead of "soldier".
These German soldiers of fortune proved to be fierce warriors, they also had little or no loyalty to the empire, and their power-hungry officers often rebelled against their Roman employers. In fact, many of the barbarians who sacked the city of Rome and demolished the Western Empire completely earned their military experience by serving in the Roman legions.
Traveling around Rome and admiring the preserved sights, every tourist reflects on why such a strong civilization ceased to exist. The decline and fall of the Roman Empire cannot be traced back to a single cause.
One version dates the death of the Roman Empire to 410 AD, when the territory was invaded by the Gothic tribes led by Alaric. The tribes of the Goths were Christians, so they did not commit massacres and did not destroy buildings, but only robbed, took out jewelry, and removed valuable decorations from buildings.
According to the second version, Rome was destroyed to the ground later, in 476, by Odoacer, the leader of the barbarian Germanic tribe of the Heruli, who forced him to abdicate. last emperor Rome of the young Romulus Augustus.
However, according to many researchers, the fall of Rome began much earlier and was caused not only by such obvious reasons as the raids of external aggressors. The beginning of the crisis phenomena in the Roman Empire was noted as early as the 3rd century, after the political, economic, religious and cultural life of the Romans had profoundly changed. Now historians name more than 210 reasons for the fall. Let's dwell on some of them.
Lack of a strong leader
In the Roman Empire, there was a frequent change of emperors, rulers of regions and provinces, who did not have political strength, authority and foresight.
Among the representatives of power, people of non-Roman nationalities are increasingly appearing, which also reduces authority and absolutely destroys the patriotic idea.
barbarization
A significant proportion of the population of Rome during the period of decline were representatives of barbarian tribes who did not have a developed culture and ideology. Due to the difference in the level of development public relations the assimilation of representatives of these tribes into Roman society is insignificant. However, Rome is forced to maintain peaceful relations with the barbarians, since a significant part of the army was formed from their ranks.
army crisis
External enemies, advancing from all sides in small and numerous detachments, did not meet with resistance from the Roman army, weakened by poor maintenance and extreme exploitation, which did not have strong leaders and was not inspired by the patriotic idea.
Most military commanders appropriated the salaries and allowances of soldiers, therefore the lower ranks were extremely demoralized, cases of looting directed against compatriots became more frequent. The ranks of the armed forces were replenished insignificantly for a number of reasons:
- The decline in fertility;
- The unwillingness of the landowners to give their slaves and hired workers as soldiers and lose cheap labor;
- The reluctance of urban residents to join the army because of low wages.
Sometimes these phenomena are associated with such a movement as pacifism. However main reason crisis - the destruction of a professional army, the loss of military discipline, an increase in the number of soldiers from among poorly trained recruits - former peasants - and barbarians who settled on the territory of the Roman Empire.
Slave owners and slaves
Official version of school textbooks: Rome ruined. Exploitation gave rise to revolts and uprisings of slaves that flared up regularly. The uprisings were of different scales: the dwellings of landowners were burned, tools and domestic animals were destroyed, slaves refused to work.
To suppress the uprisings of slaves, the help of the military was required, but they barely had time to repel the attacks of external enemies.
Slavery led to extreme decline Agriculture destroying the country's economy.
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Economic crisis
The Roman Empire was going through a period of fragmentation into provinces, while large possessions were divided into small ones, partially rented out to small landowners and slaves. Subsistence economy began to predominate, the share of processing sectors of the economy decreased, and prices for the transportation of goods increased. Trade is going through an extreme degree of decline, relations between some provinces are finally terminated.
The state raised taxes, but the solvency of the population fell sharply, and there was nothing to pay taxes. Inflation was followed by a reduction in the amount of money in the country.
Small agricultural holdings began to unite in communes or ask for protection from large land owners - the process of separating large feudal lords and the final ruin of the small peasantry began.
Demographic crisis
The decline of the economy and the lean years that followed each other caused famine in the country, a wave of infectious diseases. The death rate rises, the birth rate falls sharply. The government issues several decrees to support families with children, on benefits for the children of barbarians, but in Rome the number of older and elderly people is steadily increasing, society is aging.
Social causes
The middle class is gradually ruined, urban culture, production and trade are falling into decay, riots are arising. The second side is the so-called social apathy, the destruction of spirituality and patriotism.
Crisis of Spirituality
Gradually destroyed and forgotten ideal harmoniously developed person, a proud Roman who serves his city-state, builds his life on the basis of social principles. There comes a crisis of art: literature, architecture, sculpture.
The moral decay of the population is often associated with the flourishing of vices, depravity, and homosexuality.
Sorry for a lot of bacuffCauses of the fall of the Western Roman Empire (Dryazgunov K.V.)
Publications December 27, 2006
Dryazgunov K.V.Crisis phenomena in the empire actually began in the 3rd century, when there were profound changes in political, economic and cultural life. Political anarchy associated with the constant change of emperors and usurpers in different parts states combined with the invasion of the Germanic tribes led to the destabilization of the entire empire. Barbarians constantly penetrated the border, and the emperors did not have enough time, strength and resources to drive them out of the provinces.
Economy of the Roman Empire for a long time developed unevenly. The western regions were less economically developed than the eastern ones, where more significant labor, industrial and commercial resources were concentrated, and thus an unfavorable balance of trade was formed.
According to S.I. Kovalev, the progressive barbarization of the army more and more destroyed the opposition between those who defended the empire and those who attacked it.
The crisis hit the entire state, numerous problems within it and constant intrusions from outside led to its liquidation.
Here is a list of the reasons for the fall of the empire in the form of a complex plan for their better perception.
military bloc
1. The inability of the rulers to control the actions of their commanders gave rise to:
1.1. Loss of combat capability by the army:
A) poor leadership
b) exploitation of soldiers (appropriation of most of their salaries)1.2. Dynastic crises
2. The lack of a combat-ready army due to:
2.1. Impossibility or insufficient recruitment due to:
A) demographic crisis
b) unwillingness to serve, since there were no incentives to do so (the empire no longer inspired the soldiers, did not arouse in them a patriotic desire to fight for its salvation)
c) the unwillingness of large landowners to send workers to the army (the focus of recruitment shifted to the rural population, and this inevitably affected agricultural production. It would have suffered even more damage if only draft evasion had not become widespread)2.2. Large losses in the army, including most of its professional units
2.3. Recruits of "low quality" (the townspeople were unsuitable for military service, "unnecessary" people were called up from the village
3. Hiring barbarians for service led to:
A) weakening the army
b) the penetration of barbarians into the territory and into the administrative apparatus of the empire4. Mutual feeling of hostility of the army and civilian population. The soldiers did not fight as much as terrorized the local population, which aggravated:
A) the economic situation of the population and the empire as a whole
b) the psychological climate and discipline in the army and the population5. Defeats in combat operations led to:
A) the loss of manpower and equipment of the Roman army
b) crisis demographic and economic phenomenaEconomic bloc
1. The decline of the main base of the empire's economy - medium land ownership:
1.1. unprofitable housekeeping within small villas
1.2. breaking up large estates into small plots and leasing them either to freemen or slaves. Colonial relations arose, which led to:
A) to the emergence of subsistence forms of economy: both on large plots and within the emerging rural communities of peasants
b) to the decline of cities and the ruin of urban farmers
c) to sever ties between individual provinces, the landed nobility of which aspired to independence2. There is a formation of a split form of ownership of a new type, which in the future will develop into various forms feudal property.
3. Heavy tax burden. It was unfair, since the poorest of the agricultural areas suffered the most from it.
4. Forced engagement of citizens to provide various services
5. High cost of transporting products, stagnation in production and reduction in acreage as a result of encroachments by foreign invaders:
A) the deterioration of the situation of the population, the ruin of farms
b) tax evasion
b) the emergence of protest moods of the population
c) appeal for patronage to the military command or large local landowners, who, for a certain remuneration, assumed the responsibility to manage all the affairs of the inhabitants with the imperial tax collectors. The formation of the fortress system begins.
d) The emergence of gangs of robbers and robbers due to the inability to earn honestly6. Galloping inflation
7. Naturalization of the economy with a sharp social stratification
8. Destruction of the monetary system
The wealthy sections of the population and the government more often saw eye to eye with each other. So, for example, entire villages began to apply for patronage to the military command, which, for a certain fee, assumed the responsibility to manage all the affairs of the inhabitants with the imperial tax collectors. However, many more villages chose their patrons not from among the officers, but from among the big local landowners. Individuals were also looking for such patrons, for example, the former owners of small peasant farms, who in desperation left their homes and land and found shelter in the nearest large farm.
At the same time, there were still too many cases of exemption from service, which put those in a more privileged position. social groups who made it pretty easy. Corruption was also rampant, as evidenced by numerous but ineffective attempts to combat it.
In the political sphere, it was expressed in the frequent change of emperors, who ruled for several years, if not months; many of them were not native Romans.On the other hand, the urban culture was fading away. The class of wealthy citizens, vital for the urban structure, disappeared. Urban production and trade fell into decline, the size of policies was reduced, as evidenced by archaeological evidence.
Colon received housing, a plot of land and the necessary tools for production, for which he paid the magnate part of the crop. The magnates surrounded their estates with walls, built luxurious villas in them, organized fairs, recruited armed guards, and sought to free their possessions from state taxes. Such estates became new centers of social life, preparing the transition to feudal relations in the Middle Ages.
On the other hand, by the 3rd century, having hardly had time to take shape, the national culture had practically fizzled out and the Roman people as such had disappeared. Cosmopolitanism has become an integral part of the worldview of citizens, since the syncretism of the early imperial era did not lay the foundations for civil unity among the inhabitants of the empire. The state was eating itself.
The decline of Rome was due to economic, political, and social reasons, but first of all, the crisis began in the spiritual sphere and its first symptoms arose not in the 5th and not in the 4th century, but much earlier, when the ideal of a harmoniously developed person was lost, the polis religion and ideology, which embodied the real worldview of ancient man, collapsed, after the abolition of the republic and the establishment of a de facto monarchy. That is, the real crisis originates from the era of Augustus, when the Roman state reached the peak of its power and began a gradual rollback, as in the case of a pendulum, which, having deviated as much as possible to the side, begins to move in the opposite direction. The Roman state did not collapse after Augustus and not only existed, but even prospered, as evidenced by the reign of the Antonines (II century), called the "golden age", but its spiritual framework was already broken: Roman history lost the spiritual foundation that cemented it. In the words of one thinker, this kind of civilization is capable of "pulling its dry branches" for a long time to come.
social bloc
1. The rich and the government were in confrontation with each other. The influence of the rich increased while governments declined:
A) Class consciousness, snobbery of the rich reached extreme limits
b) The estates were something like small principalities, closed socio-economic entities that contributed to the usurpation of control over the country
c) The senators of the fourth and fifth centuries stubbornly kept aloof from the life of society. Many of them did not hold any government positions. They did not take their due part in public affairs either in Rome or in the provinces.
d) Often, senators undermined the well-being of the empire, sharply opposing imperial officials, providing refuge to deserters and robbers. Sometimes they took over the functions of justice, creating private prisons.
e) Difficulty recruiting recruits, as they lost their hands2. The ruin of the middle class (attacks by external enemies, internal rebellions, inflation, recruitment) and the decline of city councils
2.1. Decline of urban civilization
3. Strict regulation of all life to meet the needs of the army and preserve the imperial system
3.1. Loss of loyalty and personal initiative of the population
3.2. Generation of social tension:
A) economic decline
4. A cumbersome and increasingly inefficient civil service apparatus that was self-evolving as many of its institutions became hereditary.
4.2. Decreased management efficiency:
A) Unrest in various spheres of society
5. At the imperial court, there were carefully thought-out ceremonials, hypocrisy and servility flourished:
A) Reduced the effectiveness of empire management
6. Unsuccessful attempt to assimilate the living Germans, or at least reach a realistic agreement with their leaders
6.1. Deputies and military commanders subjected immigrants to blatant brutal exploitation
6.2. The Romans kept the Germans in spiritual and social isolation:
A) unrest and rebellious moods in mercenary troops
b) social tension in the German community
c) armed clashes, territorial seizures, violence against the Romans, usurpation of power7. Refuse everything more people to participate in public life. Hermits, monks, etc. appeared:
A) Loss of labor resources
b) Fertility decline8. Violence against pagans and Christians of various persuasions
9. Christian theologians actively urged Christians not to work for Rome, either in peace or in the military field.
9.1. Social apathy:
A) the decline of spiritual and economic life
