The factors leading to the fall of the Roman Empire and about Gibbon

There are many theories on why Rome fell. However, one of the main reasons of Rome’s fall was the split of the empire. Diocletian became emperor in 284 over a huge empire with people that had no respect for him. He could not control it all, so he split the empire in half. “The line goes down right along the west coast of Greece.” (Titchener)

He solved three problems by doing this: the problem of a huge empire, the problem of no volunteers for the military (more people would probably volunteer if they knew that they could fight closer to home,) and the problem of succession. Before, all a murderer had to do was to kill the emperor to come to power, and maybe his successor if he had one. However, now there were two emperors (over the west and east kingdoms) and their successors. It would be very unlikely for someone to be ambitious enough to try to kill four men just to become emperor. Besides, as we’ve said earlier, the people didn’t really respect the emperor anyway. The split should have been a good idea, but it ended up failing miserably. (Titchner, source)

Edward Gibbon is just one of many writers who has his own personal opinion about the fall of Rome. However, Gibbon’s work is significant because he blames the Christians for the fall. “Edward Gibbon was an English historian who thought history should record ‘the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind.’ When he visited Rome in 1764, he decided to write The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire…The first volume was published in 1776, the sixth in 1788.” (Roberts 59)

“Gibbon himself laid the blame on Christianity, which he claimed had undermined the ancient warrior traditions of the Romans and…turned them away from earthly things.” (Freeman 609) Therefore, they could not fight, etc. Still, this “does not explain why the east, more fully Christianized than the west, survived.” (source)

Gibbon also gives another reason why Rome fell: because they got way too used to a good life and they weren’t willing to work. The military became less loyal and ready to serve. They had to hire mercenaries for the army, and they were often barbarians, making the army unsteady. Taxes were multiplied, and the rich evaded them, leaving it to the poor. The poor then ran off and became robbers in the woods. People became less creative and just went into retirement mode. (source, source, source)

Personally, I think Gibbon was mostly right on the second point, but I don’t think he was right to blame the Christians for the fall of Rome. After all, the east was more Christianized than the west, but the east survived.

Works Cited

Freeman, Charles. Egypt, Greece, and Rome: Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean: Second Edition. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.

Titchener, Francis. “To Rule Mankind and Make the World Obey” lecture, disc 7. Barnes & Noble Publishing. 2004.

Roberts, Dr. Paul C. Ancient Rome. San Francisco, CA: Fog City Press. 1997.