The Roman Government Essay Example

Government. A staple of any civilization, yet with some, corruption grows like a cancer, feeding from the inside out. Before the fall, Rome was one of the largest empires in the world. It had a huge economy and very skilled builders, who built over 250,000 miles of roads; and the Romans had a huge influence on today. The Roman army was one of the most well trained and powerful armies in the world, they were the perfect army, as the Roman Empire conquered 1.9 Million miles of land, and they became unbeatable. 

Despite Rome being one of the most powerful empires in the world, it still fell due to political corruption, the decline of the army, and natural disasters.

The Roman government was extremely corrupt because Patricians would bribe people to kill the current emperor to become the new one. According to Document A, almost all of the emperors died to assasination. It is likely believed that others seeking power hired people to kill the current emperor in an attempt at the throne. Evidence suggests that these assassinations happened very frequently, as most emperors only ruled for a year or two. An explanation for these frequent assassinations are, maybe the two people are public rivals, so they hire an assassin to kill each other. Either that, or the person in power will get assassinated by someone who wanted to be in that specific position of power. Sometimes government officials such as praetors, who were like judges in modern day, would receive bribes from victims or perpetrators to take their side in a court case. According to document E “A [Wealthy lawbreaker] … is not punished for his injustice, while a poor man … undergoes the legal penalty … the climax of misery is to have to pay in order to obtain justice”. The reason for corruption is the government became greedy, and accepted bribes because the more money you had, the more power you held. “ The laws and constitution of the Romans were fair, but deplored that the governors, not possessing the spirit of former generations, were ruining the state. Therefore, the Roman government was very unfair, and did not follow the constitutions their predecessors had done before them.

During the Pax Romana, the government became soft, and less like the idealistic invincible Roman Empire. They became so lazy, they stopped caring about the army, and allowed the army to abandon parade ground drills and breastplates. Then, eventually they let them abandon helmets too. According to Concerning Military Matters “Before the year 400 CE foot soldiers wore breastplates and helmets. But when, because of negligence and laziness, parade ground drills were abandoned, the customary armor began to seem heavy since the soldiers rarely ever wore it. Therefore, they first asked the emperor to set aside the breastplates … and then the helmets.” This shows that the lazy government allowed the army to set aside their armor, leading to their defeat in battle. If the Roman army didn’t have armor, they would think about running more than fighting, because without armor it is easy to get killed. The weakness within the Roman Empire wasn’t just throwing aside armor, the Romans failed to enforce conscription, and the Roman army became small, and untrained. Michael Grant states, “There can be little doubt that the weakness of the late Roman army were largely due to the eventual failure … to enforce regular conscription … the exempted categories were … numerous. Hosts of senators, bureaucrats, and clergymen were entitled to avoid the draft; and among other groups who escaped were cooks, bakers, and slaves.” Because Rome did not strictly enforce conscription, the Roman Army’s number dwindled. The army became small, and not able to defend the borders properly, and eventually western Rome fell to barbarian attacks. Since the government and soldiers were lazy, they abandoned drills and armor and became weak, and nowhere near the idealistic Roman Army. All in all, the Roman army ultimately fell because of laziness, and Rome was left unprotected.

A major part of Rome’s fall was thanks to natural disasters. In 366 CE Rome was shaken by a massive earthquake, and soon after, a tsunami crashed onto the shores of Sicily, killing many people that day, reducing the population of Rome by more than 50,000 people. According to document F “the Roman world was shaken by a violent and destructive earthquake … The shores of the Mediterranean were left dry by the sudden retreat of the sea … but the tide soon returned with the weight of an immense [flood] which was severely felt on the coasts of Sicily … Greece, and Egypt”. The reason behind the massive earthquake that shook Rome that fateful day was caused by two tectonic plates shifting and grinding together, causing massive shaking; destroying many buildings. But, underneath the surface, the tectonic plates were causing a massive tsunami, a result of pressure and shockwaves pushing against the water; consuming the city in a flood. Even more devastating, a plague obliterated the Roman Empire, reducing the population by over 750,000 people. Only 250,000 people survived. According to document F “More important in initiating the process of decline was a series of plagues that swept over the empire … which brought diseases [from] Southern Asia to new areas like the Mediterranean. The resulting diseases decimated the population. The population of Rome decreased from a million people to 250,000.” The reason the plagues from Southern Asia could wipe out ¾ of the population is because the Romans had no resistance to illnesses, and the diseases spread like fire through the Roman Empire, decimating it. All in all, nature is powerful and is one of the reasons why Rome fell.

In conclusion, the Roman Empire fell to Political corruption, a weak military, and natural disasters. The Roman emperors never ruled for more than 2 years, which shows how corrupt the government was, to send so many assassins to kill so many emperors. The military became disorganized and lazy, and abandoned armor and drills, and that led to the destruction of the western Roman Empire. Finally, nature is an extreme force of destruction, and that side was shown to the Romans during the plagues that ravaged the empire, reducing the population to ¼.