Preview

Before The Fall Of Rome Dbq

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1163 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Before The Fall Of Rome Dbq
“Loves are like empires: when the idea they are founded upon crumbles, they, too, fade away” - Milan Kundera. Even something as strong as love can crumble, and such was the case with the Roman Empire. The Romans forged a powerful empire that could have been just as strong as the power of love. It all began in 753 BCE when Rome was first founded on the Italian peninsula. The humble village on the palatine grew and grew, until eventually it became a Republic in 509 BCE, “Rome’s rise to power came with the thrust of a spear and the slash of the sword.”(background essay) Yet even in times of war, Rome before the fall was a stable place with a sturdy government. In 31 BCE, the Roman Republic turned to empire with “territory from modern-day Scotland …show more content…
For one, as reported by Priscus, a Roman ambassador(449 CE), who was interviewing a former citizen of Rome: “the condition of Roman subjects during a time of peace [was] worse than war.”(Doc. E) The Roman people were in bad shape because of an unfair law, “taxes [were] very severe, and unprincipled men inflict[ed] injuries on others.”(Doc. E) The dire situation convinced the Roman citizens more and more that they should protest. And when the people did fight back, internal problems surfaced in Rome. However, not only were there harsh taxes causing turmoil, the Roman government was corrupt as well. “The climax of misery is to have to pay in order to obtain justice.”(Doc. E) The rich were bribing the lawmakers so they could get out of facing the law, and the poor didn’t have enough money to get out of punishment as well! Therefore, a great hatred between the rich and the poor was established. Rome may have been able to withstand battles on the outside, but if faced harsh battles within. The patricians believed that they could get away with whatever they wanted to, all they had to do was pay. Murder, theft, abuse and bribery were now tolerated in a place that would not have allowed them to be before. To sum up, Rome’s destruction was induced by legal injustice inside the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Fall Of Rome Dbq Analysis

    • 257 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Barbarian attacks caused the fall of the Roman Empire because the Roman Soldiers left the border wide open for attacks. The Roman soldiers were forced to retreat from the frontier to go fight in the civil wars to protect their citizens and family. Since the border was wide open and ready to attack, German hunter and herders invaded Gaul and Greece in the third century A.D (Ten Theories 1). Eventually, Odovacar took over the last part of the Roman Empire in A.D. 476. The raids were from a group that called themselves The Huns and they originate from Central Asia. The Huns bombarded kingdoms after they took over south-eastern Europe (Bernstein and Shek 362). The Empire was worried for the next several decades about being…

    • 257 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 500 years of no nation has everything stayed the same and Rome is no exception. While the economics of Rome managed to stay the same between 100 and 600 CE, and the laws of Rome with it, government and religion in 600 CE would not be recognizable to leaders and civilians from 100 CE.…

    • 689 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fall Of Rome DBQ Essay

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Imagine a domino. You are lining them side-by-side in a chain. If you get lazy and start speeding up, you will knock one over and, one by one, all of the dominos will eventually fall. This is the same with Rome. Rome “developed a soft belly”, as quoted from the background essay, which means that Rome started becoming lazy. At that point, Rome knocked over one domino in the chain. One domino at a time, the “one of the world's greatest empires”, as said in the background essay, became nothing but ruins. But that wasn't the main reasons of Rome's fall. Then what caused Rome to tumble? Economic corruption, weak army, and foreign invaders played a key role leading to the decline of the Roman Empire. Of these, the foremost reason was its weak army.…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Roman government was very unstable. Military generals and commanders fought among themselves for the throne, and this also led to an untrustworthy army. There was a strong sense of distrust among the army men, and so there was also feelings of loyalty weakening among average citizens as well. In a desperate effort to reconstruct their army, the government employed mercenaries, although these were also not trustworthy because their loyal lied in whoever paid them. Inflation also caused major problems. A drastic drop in the value of money coupled with a rise in prices caused famine and increased poverty, leading to the deaths of many and a significant drop in population. All these problems opened the empire to invading peoples.…

    • 777 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fall Of Rome Dbq Essay

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages

    These documents show that Rome’s economy was very poor because of low tax revenue, labor shortages, and trade. There were natural disasters like the destructive earthquake and the flood that was responsible for the death of fifty thousand people(document 6). Then a series of plagues decimated the population(document 7). Approximately 75% of the population died from natural disasters. With more than half the population dead, there will be labor shortages throughout the empire because there aren’t enough people to support the needs of the empire. Labor shortages bring many problems. Tax revenue drops because the small population cannot pay enough taxes to support the empire as it did before the population plunged. The empire stops growing without sufficient enough money. Eventually, the Roman empire will have less resources because the empire stopped trading. There will be a lot more draftings because the army is a lot…

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rome before 264BC

    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Romans had a basic law of sorts, called the laws of the Twelve Tables. This governed a lot of Roman daily life and proceedings, and was the basis of a sort of equal rights scheme for the plebeian class. In addition to this, the Lex Hortensia, passed in 287BC, further blurred the distinctions between plebeians and patricians. The twelve tables, and any laws passed by a plebeian assembly, would now be binding to both plebeians and patricians, a sort of social justice.…

    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the world we live in today our military are not able to get more eligible recruits because of obesity which has caused obesity which has caused obesity. Rome had a problem almost like this as well. Rome was a republic became a dictatorship and it “fell”. This means that the government and people became weakened. This all took place in the country of Italy. The Primary reasons Rome “fell” because of a poor government, they misunderstood their enemies, and natural disasters & disease.…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Western Roman Empire Dbq

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages

    …Part of the money went into … the maintenance of the army and of the vast bureaucracy required by a centralized government…the expense led to strangling taxation… The heart was taken out of enterprising men…tenants fled from their farms and businessmen and workmen from their occupations. Private enterprise was crushed & the state was forced to take over many kinds of businesses to keep the machine running. People learned to expect something for nothing. The old Roman virtues of self-reliance & initiative were lost in that part of the population on relief (welfare)…The central government undertook such far reaching…

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rome and China Dbq

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages

    While both the Roman and Han empires were very successful, they went through very different obstacles in accomplishing what they did. The two empires were located in very different geographic settings providing them with different challenges. The geographic factors of Europe helped the economic development of the Roman Empire while the geographic factors in China mostly hindered the economic development of the Han empire.…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Why Did Rome's Collapse?

    • 1003 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Have you ever wondered what the what the main causes for Rome’s collapse? Multiple Roman historians believe Rome’s declining empire was caused by military weakness, legal justice/lack of trust, followed by political instability. Rome began as a sparsely populated western town in 750 BCE that was rarely known by any large empire such as Greece. Then at it’s height; it expanded, covering most of the Mediterranean, a small part of Africa, Asia, and Europe. After defeating many threats; the Romans began to feel that luxury was a need, not a necessity to the Romans. Rome became lazy and developed soft bellies. They began to neglect multiple social and political problems. People could not trust each other because of the heinous crimes and mysterious…

    • 1003 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Roman Empire Dbq

    • 621 Words
    • 3 Pages

    From C.A. 300 CE to 476 CE Rome began a steady decline to its collapse. Some historians disagree with this and have other theories. One of the other theories is that the Roman Empire did not collapse as the Eastern Empire did not collapse until “Fall of Rome at Constantinople in 1453.” The base of this theory is that the Eastern Empire became the Byzantium Empire, however it was no longer the Roman Empire as there were no longer any Roman Emperors. Another theory by Peter Wells is “The Roman Empire “fell” only in the minds of people who had a particular and limited view of what the Roman Empire was and who understood events such as Alaric’s capture of Rome in A.D. 410 as marking its end.” Wells argues that the change was extremely gradual and continued well past 476 CE. While Wells theory is more valid, the empire still did not exist after 476 CE.…

    • 621 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The first main reason reason that Rome fell was because of its economy. The economy was a main issue because of the rising taxes. This led to economic hardship, driving people out of the empire. Another reason that this is an issue is because people had to pay for justice. Poor people were punished more for their crimes, while a rich man was not. All those problems drove people out of here empire, weakening it.…

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fall Of Rome Dbq

    • 641 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In 476 C.E. Rome’s leader was overthrown, causing the Roman Empire to fall. There are many speculations on what caused the most powerful and greatest Empire of its time to fall. Some suggest that the fall of Rome and the state of America now, are very similar in social, political, and economic aspects. The fall of Rome is similar to America because of political instability and inflation.…

    • 641 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Roman Empire Downfall

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Regardless of how powerful they were able to become, each mighty empire including Rome, would eventually have its downfall. There were many contributing factors to the ultimate demise of the Roman empire. One of the biggest reasons for the fall of Rome, was its rapid expansion. The Roman empire was expanding at a very high rate which led to troubles administrating law in the conquered areas, defending borders and the expansion caused the military to weaken as they were stretched too thin. The failing economy and high inflation crippled the Roman empire. Due to the cost of defending its empire, the Romans were constantly threatened by bankruptcy. The large amounts of gold spent by the wealthy in foreign countries led to a shortage in gold which effected the production of Roman currency. The gap between prosperity led to a division between the Roman people. The Roman army was made up of mercenaries and slaves who risked their lives for very little in return which led to a rift between the majority of the population and government. As the mistreated mercenaries and slaves began deserting the army the Romans provided the German group known as the Visigoths, land in return for fighting in the army. Sooner than later, that Romans would begin to realize how bad of a mistake this was. One of the biggest reasons for the fall of the Roman empire was the barbarian knowledge of Roman military tactics which would be used against them. The Barbarians acquired the Roman style of warfare and military tactics by serving in the Roman army were eventually used against the Roman Empire and led to the sack of Rome by the…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fall of Rome

    • 859 Words
    • 4 Pages

    There were many issues that brought about the fall of Rome, but they are primarily considered to be political, military and economic.…

    • 859 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics