Roman downfall:


"Sic transit gloria mundi"
(So passes away the glory of the world)


Influences on history:
One of the most interesting aspects of history is the rise and fall of empires, many historical events and developements have been the result of powershifts and death and rebirth of dominant powers, when an empire collapses the power vacuum it leaves behind is soon filled up by another civilization which causes enormous changes in the flow of history; the new empire may be located in another area which will improve that area's economy, trade, and military power, sometimes it also causes changes in social developement, language, and culture.
To give an example; if the world's current dominant power (the U.S.A) would collapse it would leave a power vacuum that would be filled up by other dominant factions like Europe, China, Russia, or maybe even a new power, which will change the entire world; trade shall be orientated on other areas, wars will be fought in other areas, the new empire's culture will spread to a larger area while the influence of the old one will slowly diminish, etc.
Another possible reaction to a powershift can be the degeneration of the former dominant areas; the loss of controlled government in an area will often cause that area to become peripheral and the birth of a new civilization in another area will cause that area to develop to a higher level, especially its power, wealth, and infrastructure.

The Forum Romanum in Rome, Italy The Roman empire also caused this kind of powershifts, in the early Bronze Age Europe was dominated by the Celts and the dominant areas of Europe were southern Germany and Gaul while Rome was still a rather unimportant city, when Rome grew in power it soon dominated the Italian peninsula and after the Punic wars Rome began to expand its power around the Mediterranian and southern Europe, at the same time two other powerful factions began to expand their power; the Dacians in the east and the Germans in the north.
This three expanding powers slowly began to take over the power in Europe while that of the Celts slowly faded, after the Germanic conquest of the lands north of the Alps and the Roman conquest of Gaul the Celts had lost their most important power centers which practically ended their dominance over Europe.
The Romans also managed to defeat the Dacians which allowed them to take over some important lands in the Balkans, this Roman successes eventually caused them to become the most powerful faction in Europe while the Germans were pushed into a more submissive position, unlike the Dacians and the Celts the Romans never managed to defeat the Germans who would eventually play a big part in their downfall.

What if...
I always love to play what I call "what if" games, what if Europe would have remained under Celtic rule? what would the continent have looked like nowadays? what if the Germans would have managed to take Gaul before the Romans did? Gaul's rich and fertile lands may have allowed them to become the new dominant power in Europe, what if the Dacians would not have been defeated by the Romans? every culture, every religion, every invention, every person, and every idea, has the potency to change the world, what if any of those would actually aquire that dominant position in which it would be able to change the world?
Yes I know this doesn't make sense but think about it; if we had a timemachine and we would be able to change only one aspect of history, it would change the world in such a way that we wouldn't even recognize it anymore when we came back, many people think history is boring and irrelevant, but it made the world into what it is today.
The Roman empire was one of those dominant powers that changed the world with its idea's, culture, language, wars, religion, etc. do you know that the Christian religion acquired its dominant position in Europe because the Romans eventually made it their official religion? do you know that many countries would have been totally different nowadays if the Romans would not have occupied them? do you know that the law in most countries has been modelled to Roman example? the world would have looked different if Rome would not have risen as an empire or would have fallen earlier or later.

Some reasons for the fall of the Roman empire:
Ok enough talk, lets come to business; I shall now start with trying to explain some reasons for the fall of the Roman empire in which I shall pay some extra attention to the Germanic share in its downfall because they are the main subject of this site.

  • Economical reasons: an enormous empire like that of the Romans also required an enormous army to defend it, this was extremely expensive to maintain and if you combine this with the other financial requirements of an empire the size of Rome you will understand that this kind of costs could only barely be redeemed.
    In later periods the continuous attacks of Germanic tribes on the Roman borders severely pressed the economy and the maintenance of the border defences could not longer be afforded which weakened the defences, which on its turn caused more Germanic invasions, this domino effect would eventually collapse the Roman economy.
    Other reasons for the economical lowconjuncture were the loss of rich provinces in Spain and the Middle East; the Roman Empire was very dependant on her provinces and the loss of even one of them was a disaster to the Romans.

    Estimated yearly income (in modern currency) of the Roman empire during its zenith:

    Province: Euros: Dollars:
    Sicilia 7.300.000 6.400.000
    Sardinia and Corsica 2.700.000 2.400.000
    Macedonia 3.600.000 3.200.000
    Asia Minor and the Greek islands 27.000.000 24.000.000
    Spain 15.500.000 13.600.000
    Southern France 6.000.000 5.600.000
    Northern Africa 11.000.000 9.600.000
    Other taxes, interests, etc. 18.000.000 16.000.000
    Total income: 91.100.000 80.800.000


  • Bad leadership: the Roman empire was ruled by emperors who were succeeded by appointed successors, if the emperor died and there was no appointed successor the most obvious candidates each tried to gain power; this caused succession wars, civil wars, unrest, and financial loss.
    This resulted in an atmosphere in which the person with the biggest amount of money and the most powerful friends would gain leadership; this sometimes resulted in very inadequate leaders and a more regular change of power, something that frequently happened during the last days of Rome.

  • Internal differences: the Roman empire was an enormous land that covered southern Europe, western Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East, and northern Africa; this vastness resulted in a very long border that was difficult to defend as well as much internal differences between the inhabitants of the empire.
    The Roman empire consisted of Italians, Iberians, Celts, Germans, Pannonians, Dacians, Thracians, Illyrians, Greeks, Macedonians, Syrians, Jews, Arabs, Persians, Egyptians, Fenicians, Mauretanians, etc., this peoples all had a different culture, language and religion and did not feel related to eachother in any way; this lack of unity often resulted in disloyalty towards Roman authority and as soon as one of those peoples got the chance to regain their freedom they took it, which forced the Romans to fight many wars to keep those peoples subjected.

  • Invasions: The continuous attacks on the Roman borders caused unrest, financial shortages, and the loss of important provinces, eventually the attacks became so big that we can easily speak about invasions.
    When the Huns invaded Europe they used a military tactic to which the Romans had no answer, they used horsemen and cavalry archers to penetrate deeply into Roman territory while the European custom of using footsoldiers in battle proved ineffective against the Hunnic hordes, the only tactics that may have been successfull against them were the Greek phalanx, the Roman testudo, or the Germanic wall-of-shields.
    Eventually a new tactic was developed that proved effective against the Huns; both the Germans and Romans copied the use of stirrups from the Huns which allowed their horsemen to "stand" up on a horse to use their bows or spears more effectively, they also expanded the use of horses and even cooperated together to defeat the Huns.
    After the death of Attila and the retreat of the Huns the Germans who had been driven from their homelands in the east invaded the Roman empire and soon other Germanic tribes followed their example; the Romans were helpless against so many foes and had lost Britain, Gaul, the Alpine lands, and parts of the Balkans to the invaders; in some of those provinces the Germans were welcomed as liberators who releaved the population of their Roman oppressors and their high taxes.
    The loss of so many provinces collapsed the Roman economy, which made it almost impossible for the Romans to launch any counteroffensives.

  • Military disloyalty: the Roman empire was very dependant on its army, which was used to enforce Roman rule upon unruly provinces, the loss of a legion also meant loss of control in the region where it was stationed, this could cause rebellions and even the loss of a province.
    Only a small fraction of the Roman legions consisted of Italians, Celto-Iberians (Spaniards), Greeks, Macedonians, or other peoples who were generally loyal to the empire; most Roman legionaries were recruited in the area where they were stationed which sometimes caused local Roman troops to join their own people's rebellion, to counter this the Romans later repositioned this legions to other areas to which they had no connection.
    Especially warlike peoples with a high population supplied the Romans with soldiers, which resulted in a high amount of Germanic and Celtic legionaries in the Roman army, and it is no surprise what side those soldiers chose during the Germanic invasions.