Essay Sample about Raising of The Roman Empire

Starting as a republic (a form of government that is ruled by representatives, which are elected by citizens) to a huge empire, Ancient Rome began as a small settlement on the banks of a river named Tiber which was located in Central Italy. Rome was established around 700 BCE, Rome eventually expanded taking over most of Europe, Britain, western Asia, northern Africa, and the Mediterranean Sea. As several years passed by Rome started to deteriorate, essentially they needed more money to control the Republic, there were lots of drawbacks when it came to the elected officials including the electoral process. Consequently, this caused power to not be distributed equally which then, resulted in military generals & politicians fighting over control for the Roman Republic. Afterward, came the Roman Empire that was ruled by Julius Caesar or in other terms, “The Dictator”. Rome fell for various reasons including military complications, economic troubles, & government corruption.

When concentrating on Rome’s military, it actually played a big role in the Roman Empire. Battling another army was the number one way to get what you desired. “Rome focused less on debate and compromise and more on force to get their way.” - Fall Of Rome Mini-Q. When Rome became an empire it constantly progressed and took up a tremendous amount of land and area. Which meant Rome would need more of everything… especially soldiers. “...Kings needed military service above all…” - Dr. Peter Heather. But, there wasn’t enough money to pay the soldiers or resources for them either, which then caused disloyalty in the military. “Thus it happens that troops in battle, exposed to wounds because they have no armor, thinking about running and not about fighting, “Concerning Military Matters (B). Not only that but, due to the size of the military becoming smaller over time, it made it easier for Rome to be invaded by Barbarian tribes. “...and allowed invaders to sneak through and settle in Roman territories. As time went on these settlers grew in strength while Roman forces got weaker.” All of this caused huge issues for the army of Rome. 

The economy was very important to the development of Rome, it affected a lot of things and there are outcomes, For example, money/payment, trade, agriculture, employment/jobs, and inflation (the pricing of goods/coins losing value). Taxes were one of the main parts of Rome’s economy, as well as their fall. “As central tax raising powers disappeared, so too did the need to keep the city and by 700 AD it was history.” - Dr. Peter Heather. Rome not only had extremely high taxes but, also had constant civil wars that resulted in overspending on the military, “The central Roman state collapsed because the migrants forcibly stripped it of the tax base which had been used to fund its armies…” - Dr. Peter Heather. Rome even paid their soldiers just to stay loyal to the military. (Include Evidence). Rome had several battles that lasted plenty of years, some of them are, The Punic Wars (264 BC - 146 BC), The Civil War (after Julius Caesar’s passing) (49 - 45 BC), even the Battle of Actium (31 BC) just to name a few. (Include evidence) To add to all these economic troubles, Rome relied on slaves way too much, “peasants were still laboring away… to feed themselves and fund everything else. “ - Dr. Peter Heather. The economy was completely gone.  

Rome's government ran smoothly for a few years until the Empire became so big it was so hard to govern with one ruler, “...the emperor Diocletian realized that the empire could no longer be governed effectively. So he split it in two…”- Rome #4 BrainPop. This ended up not making much of a difference Because one side ended up falling before another. Rome had a handful of leaders that ruled in a short period of time, most of those leaders were horrible at ruling, “...these rulers made terrible decisions that were hard to reverse.” Some of the decisions were, spending money on parties and festivals, minting cheaper coins, and many more. Rome had no real system when it came to electing leaders which caused so many problems for Rome.  It doesn't end here, Rome was very unjust when dealing with crimes, “ A [wealthy lawbreaker] is not punished for his injustice, while the poor man... undergoes the legal penalty.... The climax of misery is to have to pay in order to obtain Justice….” - Document E. From one of the best governments systems to an uncontrollable government system. 

The Roman Empire lasted over a thousand years so technically how did it fall because in reality it lasted so long and had many effects on the formation of the modern government we know of today. “Our modern-day government has the Romans to thank for its structure.” - BrainPop.  The Roman Republic and the US government both have Executive and Legislative Branches, a set of checks and balances, Rome has consuls, Which are executives in the USA, and even the US government has written down their laws for people to abide by following right in the footsteps of the Roman Republic. “The patricians also agreed to write the Republic's laws down on tablets…” - BrainPop. Not only this but when it came to electing patricians they were rich just like in the US, “ these were noblemen who owned big pieces of land and had a lot of money.” - BrainPop.  so, you see Rome never fell, after all, it actually formed one of the biggest successful governments in the world. 

In summary, the key incidents that caused Rome to fall were massive invasions, economic troubles, and government corruption. Rome's economy made Rome fall to the ground as soon as trade and agriculture went away so did jobs/Employment, with no jobs people barely made money, prices were raised out of the roof, then leading back to there being no money Rome started minting money or in other words inflation. Rome's government caused Rome to be all over the place, emperors after emperor assassination after assassination, over two dozen rulers and all of them had no boundaries nor rules to running Rome. Rome was out of place and whenever blamed for crimes rich got away with murder while the poor had no humanity left. Rome needed to make better decisions all around, it was a cause and effect chain, if Rome would have stayed small it would have had a better chance at survival.