8 REASONS WHY

ROME FELL
• Invasions by Barbarian tribes
• Economic troubles and overreliance on slave labor
• The rise of the Eastern Empire
• Overexpansion and military overspending
• Government corruption and political instability
• The arrival of the Huns and the migration of the Barbarian
tribes
• Christianity and the loss of traditional values
• Weakening of the Roman legions
Invasions by Barbarian tribes
• string of military losses
sustained against
outside forces
Economic troubles and overreliance on
slave labor
• oppressive taxation
and inflation had
widened the gap
between rich and poor
• Rome’s economy
depended on slaves to
till its fields and work
as craftsmen
The rise of the Eastern Empire
• Emperor Diocletian divided
the Empire into two
halves—the Western
Empire seated in the city
of Milan, and the Eastern
Empire in Byzantium, later
known as Constantinople.
• East and West failed to
adequately work together
to combat outside threats,
and the two often
squabbled over resources
and military aid.
Overexpansion and military overspending
• Rome struggled to marshal
enough troops and resources
to defend its frontiers from
local rebellions and outside
attacks
• Emperor Hadrian was forced
to build his famous wall in
Britain
• As more and more funds
were funneled into the
military upkeep of the empire,
technological advancement
slowed and Rome’s civil
infrastructure fell into
disrepair.
Government corruption and political
instability
• Civil war thrust the
empire into chaos
• The political rot also
extended to the
Roman Senate
• Civic pride waned and
many Roman citizens
lost trust in their
leadership.
The arrival of the Huns and the migration
of the Barbarian tribes
• Eurasian warriors
rampaged through
northern Europe, they
drove many Germanic
tribes to the borders of
the Roman Empire.
• Treated with extreme
cruelty
• The Goths rose up in
revolt
Christianity and the loss of traditional
values
• displaced the
polytheistic Roman
religion
• shifted focus away
from the glory of the
state and onto a sole
deity
• popes and other
church eladers took an
increased role in
political affairs
Weakening of the Roman legions
• began hiring foreign
mercenaries to prop up
their armies
• power-hungry officers
often turned against
their Roman
employers
ROMAN RELIGION
EARLY BELIEFS & INFLUENCES
• Early forms of
the Roman religion were
animistic in nature,
believing that spirits
inhabited everything
around them, people
included.
• The first citizens of Rome
also believed they were
watched over by the spirits
of their ancestors.
• One important Roman idea
about their gods was "do
ut des", which is Latin for "I
give so that you will give."
• Roman religion is a lot
like Greek religion, but
in other ways it is very
different.
• the Romans adopted
many Greek gods as
their own and began to
worship them as well
• As the Roman
Empire expanded,
people also began to
worship the gods of
other conquered areas
• The Roman leaders
didn't have any
problem with people
worshiping as many
gods as they liked.
CULT RELIGION
• Bacchus, Cybele, Isis,
Sarapis, Sibyl
• emperors were gods, or
something very close to
gods
o eastern part of the Roman
Empire, in Egypt and West
Asia, people worshipped
the emperors as gods
o western part, in Europe,
people worshipped only
the emperor's guardian
angel , not the emperor
himself.
CHRISTIANITY
• Romans conquered the Jews about
100 BC, the Jews continued to
worship their own god .
• The Roman government didn't like it
when the
Jews and Christians refused to
worship traditional Roman gods, but
most of the time the Roman
government put up with it (not
always).
• Christianity slowly got more and
more normal until in 313 AD the
Roman
Emperor Constantine himself
became a Christian
• By 395 AD, the Roman
Emperor Theodosius made it illegal
not to be a Christian