The mighty Roman Empire was unstoppable. It had conquered the entire known world and held it together with an efficient government led by strong rulers. Although, as the empire expanded from the Indus River to Great Britain and farther it began to experience social, economic, and political problems that slowly ate away at the empire until it collapsed. According to Edward Gibbon in his six volume work on this subject, starting with the death of emperor Markus Aurelius, there were eight primary factors that led to the decline and eventual fall of the Roman Empire.

The initial problem for the Romans was the loss of civic virtue. The early Romans had been hard working, self reliant, and loved their family and the Gods. As conquest made families wealthier, they became lazy and indulgent and lost these virtues that made up a Roman. They had slaves do all the manual labor while they relaxed in luxury. Plebeians, the lower class, began to gain land and wealth as well so they decided not to serve in the army anymore. They started outsourcing soldiers from Germanic tribes and Barbarians outside of the empire to fight for them. Now the army consisted of mercenaries with no real loyalty to Rome. With Romans not serving in the army and not doing their own work they became effeminate or soft. These strong virtues are what built Rome and without them Roman citizens could not hold it together.

The Praetorian Guard was an elite army of 6,000 soldiers that acted as the garrison of Rome. They were Rome’s last line of defense, but their most sacred duty was to protect the emperor at all costs. The degeneration of this guard was a big blow to the empire. The Praetorians started to become less virtuous and more vicious. They demanded more pay from the government and did less work. They were corrupted and accessed by special interest groups. The Praetorians even went against their most important responsibility and took part in imperial assassinations. As the army’s elite they had a lot of influence on normal soldiers who began to follow their example. Rome could not function when it was protected by an army that worked for money and power instead of a love for Rome.

Christianity is one of the more controversial factors, but it is a viable one. Religion became more influential on the Romans. Christian ideals of pacifism, love and nonviolence, began to replace soldiers’ zeal and martial spirit. The soldiers were held together by conquest and a love for fighting and the state, but when they took on Christianity it took away these traditional Roman values. Romans were once tough and ready to fight, and when Christianity took that away it weakened Rome.

With such a large area of diverse land under its control, Rome started to experience many social problems. Conquered people had no love and allegiance for Rome and so did not care for the state of the empire. They were only interested in themselves and despised Roman rule. All the new land greatly increased the slave population as well. Slave revolts became more common and more devastating. The largest uprising was led by Spartacus who was able to lead 50,000 slaves in defeating three Roman armies and threatened to liberate Rome before the rebellion was put down Rome’s conquest made them many enemies that would love to see Rome destroyed.

As Rome gained power and momentum, it experience over expansion and inflation as the empire grew immensely in a short amount of time. This rapid growth put large amounts of pressure on administering the empire as well as defending its newly acquired borders. They had to place countless numbers of officials in new lands to govern them and immobilize armies to defend those lands. Inflation is when there is more money chasing the same amount of goods. Roman currency consisted of gold and silver coins and by the end of the Pox Romana, Rome’s gold and silver mines had gone dry. The treasuring was strained with a huge budget for the upkeep of the empire. Structures such as roads, aqueducts and public buildings were constantly being built and maintained to keep up Rome’s infrastructure. These projects required massive amounts of money and labor. To keep up with the expenses taxes were increased which created inflation. Many Romans were farmers who grew grain and when Rome started to import grain that came cheaper from elsewhere in the empire, they were forced to sell their land and move to the city. These unemployed formed a mob which eventually numbered up to 250,000 people. They demanded free grain handouts and entertainment which the government was forced to provide to keep the mob under control. Now Rome had to keep the empire running while satisfying its unemployed citizens which could only lead to disaster.

The increase in size of the empire also led to a growth of government bureaucracy. The outlying areas of the empire were less accountable and so they became more corrupted. Officials in these areas started pocketing tax money for themselves which meant less money going to the treasury. A larger bureaucracy also meant a more expensive administrative payroll that Rome could hardly afford. Leaders only interested in greed and corruption very effectively brought down the empire.

Problems like depopulation started to affect the empire as well. This simply meant that the death rate was higher than the birth rate. Constant warfare with other nations as well as civil wars were killing of the empire’s populations at a frightening rate. Large battles could have a death rate of 50,000 people or more. As families became wealthier there was a lower birthrate because they did not require a large amount of children to help with manual labor since they either hired others to do it or acquired slaves. Sanitary conditions were worsening which made plagues and epidemics more frequent and deadly. They could kill of large chunks of the population in a very short amount of time. Doctors had no knowledge of diseases such as measles and small pox and so could not treat their patients. Contact throughout the empire with foreign people mixed together different diseases with populations that had different immunities because of where they lived. Population loss meant less things getting done and the empire almost ceased to function.

Political corruption and incompetence began to plague the empire as well. As natives in the outlying areas of empire replaced Roman officials and came to power, they started to control the area for themselves. They ignored Roman law and ruled solely for personal gain. People in the area became more loyal to these native leaders and once conquered provinces started to break away from the empire. With such a small percent of the population loyal to Rome the empire began to split apart.

The final blow to the empire was the Barbarian invasions. The Huns from the Far East terrified the Germanic tribes who blocked the Huns from Rome. Fearing its safety Rome made an alliance with the Germanic tribes to defend themselves against their new enemy. Eventually the Huns left but Rome was left weak. Unable to protect itself, Rome was sacked and looted twice in the early 400s. The empire in the west was officially ended when a barbarian chief named Odoacer replaced the last Roman Emperor from the throne and became king of Italy.

At the height of its power Rome seemed invincible. Although it was ended in the West in 476, Roman legacy and ideals continued for 1000 years as the Byzantine Empire in the East. Roman culture still has influence today and is visible almost everywhere in our society. Rome may have become corrupt and frenzied but its historical importance cannot be denied.