The majority of people discuss the collapse of the Roman Empire without understanding what caused it to happen, while others only hear tales about the ancient Roman Kingdom without understanding what made it one of the historical topics covered in schools. Rome served as the capital of the Empire during the ancient era, which was the biggest in the globe. (Omissi et al., 300). The kingdom itself had its origins in the Mediterranean region and was ruled by Octavian (the emperor) from 27 BC until 476 AD. Roman kings were the first people to rule in Rome followed by the roman republic and finally the emperor. Development of law and government was attained by having the strongest army globally that ruled by force and hence helping the leaders to control the massive empire. In the discussion below, we shall see how civil war led to the fall of such a vast empire making it end entirely, and how it became a history that can only be read in the history books.
Many aspects led to the decline of the Roman Empire, but the primary cause was civil war because it involved conflict between people that were living in the same empire and it could not be avoided. Other causes of the fall included: political instability, religious differences, and slavery among many others that have could been controlled. Civil war was uncontrollable and thus played a prominent role in the falling of the empire. The wrangles among Romans is known to have started in the United States in 1861 till 1865 due to the rigid differences between the free and slave states over the power of the government to give an order that could prohibit slavery in some of the territories that had not become states (Sked & Alan, 1816). In the past, in case there was war, the army could fight for its citizens, and because the empire was known to have an active military, they used to be victorious all the time. When the civil war started, many men died in the war, properties were destroyed, and many people lost their lives thus slowing down the economic growth which in return facilitated to the downfall of the entire Empire (Sindre et al., 110).
Different factors facilitated to the civil war in the Empire, but the leading cause was the acquiring of wealth from the new provinces which caused imbalances between the poor and the rich people. Six remarkable civil wars led to the fall of the Roman Empire (Burrell, 940). The first battle was the Marian Sullan civil war which was brought by the ruthless power struggle between the politicians (Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius) there was bloodshed in the Roman Empire. The second fight was named the Caesars civil war which is the most popularly known to have collapsed the Empire the conflict was between Julius Caesar and Pompey the great. The third fight is between Antony and Octavian which was named the battle of Actium where Octavian and Anthony wanted to control Rome. The fourth one was called the civil wars of the tetrarchy, then the year of the four emperors and finally the crisis of the third century. These were the six main civil wars that led to the fall of the famous Roman Empire.
There were several causes of the fall of the Roma Empire in the USA even with the significant commonalities and the vital things the USA copied from the Roman Empire. Civil war is one of the significant factors that sapped the strength of the Empire thus the fall. This happened through two main ways. One is through the invasion and the rise of Christianity (Cantoni, Davide, 570). When Christians increased most the ancient way of doing things was challenged and had to be re-evaluated. When there was nothing to compare with the US government would adopt any form of lawmaking but when there it was tested, and the government had to be all inclusive the Christianity way, and sources seemed to be more legit and reliable and thus its adoption. The deluge of barbarians. They were a great invasion of the uncultured group that was not ready to see the success of the Roman Empire (Mather, Yassamine, 480). This uncultured team fought against this and also mistreated women and children just to make sure the Roman Empire is brought down.
Most of the available strength was used to calm made the civil wars and to develop better strategies that would otherwise in the future has adverse effects. All the resources necessary and other foreign aid was used towards the public instead of development to the country (Cumings, Bruce, 20). The effects that are accompanied by the war are much in that the population of that country will be affected in doing their day to day activities meaning the economy will be affected. When the financial condition was changed, they had to rely on the Romans not only for the development but also for personal effects. When all the energy was focused on the wrong direction, the right course of duty came by the strength was already gone. America as a constitutional state which majorly originated from the Roman people had everything figured out regarding the constitution, but the small agendas that were not in the constitution did not have a strong solution already in place (Barton, Gregory, 100). The constitution had not foreseen the civil war and how in future they would otherwise solve it. So when the challenge came more time was used in the formulation of better strategies that would give a solution to this. A lot of time was wasted in this formulation and implementation which would otherwise be used in better ways. As this happens the outside nations and Rome on its own could not continue, and all the power was already gone.
There were very many different facets of civil war that could not have allowed the peace of the country to continue. This peace had been brought or borrowed from the Roman system which was always there for peace and to promote proper governance. Before the civil war took roots, the Roman Empire had appropriate strategies and methodologies that promoted unity. But when everything went haywire there was not much that could be done, and most of the Roman generals had been rendered weak, so there was not much that was left to promote the empire. Also when any war strikes in a country, the governance is always affected, and unless a very stable system is in existence, the nation is domed to fall. Therefore, all these factors altogether sapped the Roman strength rendering the fall of the Empire.
Work cited
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Cantoni, Davide. "The economic effects of the Protestant Reformation: testing the Weber hypothesis in the German lands." Journal of the European Economic Association 13.4 (2015): 561-598.
Cumings, Bruce. "The Obama "Pivot" to Asia in a Historical Context of American Hegemony." Asia Pacific Countries and the US Rebalancing Strategy. Palgrave Macmillan US, 2016. 11-30.
Mather, Yassamine. "The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and Current Conflict in the Middle East." Critique 42.3 (2014): 471-485.
Sked, Alan. The decline and fall of the Habsburg Empire, 1815-1918. Routledge, 2015.
Sindre, Gyda Marås, and Johanna Söderström. "Understanding armed groups and party politics." Civil wars18.2 (2016): 109-117.
Burrell, B. "Colored columns and cult of the emperors in Rome." Interdisciplinary studies on ancient stone (2015): 947-953.
Omissi, Adrastos. "Caput imperii, caput imperatoris: the display and mutilation of the bodies of emperors, in Rome and beyond; 296-416." (2014).
