Essay 2

Grace Leung

4/12/11

Western Civ Essay 2

Question: Did the Roman Empire 'decline and fall' or did it evolve into something new?

Thesis: The Roman Empire did fall, the cause of this tragedy was the lack of structure in the Roman Government and the lack of discipline among those who ruled the Roman Empire.

The Roman Empire was one of the strongest empires in the beginning of ancient civilization, this large and powerful empire eventually made a large decline. The Roman Empire was first ruled by Augustus, the Roman government was also in a disarray, in choosing the new emperors. This eventually lead to dangerous power struggles between competator’s to the throne. Rome’s large military needed to be taken care of and repaid for their time served, but the great Roman Empire could not help their own soldiers. The Roman Empire did fall and the cause of this tragedy was the lack of structure in the Roman Government and the lack of discipline among those who ruled the Roman Empire.   The Roman Empire did not fall, but instead grew into a different type of government over the years and course of its history.

The government in Rome was a system at the beginning of its empire. The first ruler of Rome of Augustus, who later died leaving his throne to his hiers. The people chosen to rule the throne were not always family, there were many power struggles between people who wanted the throne. Voting for an emperor was based on more of the wealthiest people’s votes, even though the Roman people also had a great amount of influence. “Even the system of voting was weighted to give more influence to the votes of the wealthy. Yet ultimate power lay with the Roman people.”(Beard, 2011) The wealthy were very influential to who was in the government and had a certain amount of control. This was not completely fair to the poor or the un-wealthy. This shows that the Roman Empire was not organized and very partial to those who had the most “worth” in society.

The Roman Empire was controlled by a number of different rulers, this was caused by the amount of desire for power. The Roman Government has a forum, where the new emperor of Rome is chosen. This is a very important meeting. “As one ancient writer put it, this was when 'daggers first entered the forum'.”(Beard, 2011) This quote describes how the intensity of the Roman forum and how much it mounted during 133 B.C. A man named Gracchus, purposed an idea to help the poor. This strong idea was genius, unfortunately Gracchus went straight to the Roman people. This angered the forum causing an uproar in the Roman people.

The Roman Empire also was very strong in its army and it’s military. Many soldiers coming back from the war went into poverty causing an economic obstacle. “How were the needs of such soldiers to be met? Who in Rome was to profit from its empire, which already stretched from Spain to the other end of the Mediterranean?”(Beard, 2011) This quote describes the economic crisis that occurred in Rome after the soldiers came home from war. Rome needed to supply all their soldiers with their needs, but could not afford to. This was a huge part of Rome’s downfall because of threats from other countries, causing Rome to need its army in a big way.

The Roman Empire was a strong empire that fell through the lack of a stable government. Another contribution to the demolishion to this powerful government was the fall of its forum and new ideas coming to the surface. The Roman Empire falling was a very tragic time for Rome since it was such a powerful country.

Works Cited

Beard, Mary. (2011). The fall of the roman republic. BBC.

Evans, J. A. S. "Roman Empire." New Catholic Encyclopedia. 2nd ed. Vol. 12. Detroit: Gale, 2003. 299-322. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 12 Apr. 2011