The Circumstances Leading up to the Fall of Rome and Its Influence on the Conditions of the Early Middle Ages

The circumstances leading up to the Fall of Rome and its influence on the conditions of the Early Middle Ages

The Fall of Rome is an event that faces a lot of controversy dealing with theories of why it fell. It is safe to say that there was not one single event that caused the fall, but the degrees of the different viewpoints are up for discussion. The date of the fall is also uncertain and arguable. Many people accept Edward Gibbon's date of A.D. 476 for the Fall of Rome because it is when the last emperor who ruled Rome was overthrown. Some other viewpoints are that Rome fell when it was split into two, and the most widely agreed upon theory is that the fall lasted for over a century. Although we can not put an exact date on the Fall of Rome, we can determine the major factors that led up to it, as well as the results it had on the Early Middle Ages.

Edward Gibbon's wrote the History of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. It is the most important book dealing with the topic of the Fall of Rome. Some people may simply ask "Why did Rome fall?" but it is not a question that can be answered without fully understanding the decline that led to the fall. Rome fell because of a combination of factors such as military problems, economic problems, barbarians, Christianity, deficit, division of the Empire, and an unending list of other circumstances. Not a single one of these can be pinpointed as the major cause, but the gradual simultaneous influence of them all can be given the blame. It happened so gradually that even the Romans did not notice what was happening.

A decline in population is something that we can not accurately identify since we lack figures, but we can look at the decrease in man power and attribute that to the fall of Rome. We know that there was an "increasing frequency of abandoned farmland, in Italy, North Africa, and elsewhere" (Finley 160). Documents that we have from the time tell us that there were not enough men to keep up with the agriculture and without the technology in agriculture it made times even more difficult. Lands had to be brought up for cultivation, and then they were abandoned because it was not possible to maintain.

Romans would worship the emperor, but Christians would not, and that is why when Christianity was first introduced in Rome it was made illegal. John Matthews argues that "the introduction, or at least the abuse, of Christianity had some influence on the decline and fall of the Roman empire" (16). The Romans wondered if the Christians were loyal to Rome. Christian refusal of military service, politics and law because they included pagan traditions and belief caused uproars in Rome. The argument that Christianity is responsible for the Fall of Rome is because it questioned the traditions that kept Rome strong for so many years.

For centuries German tribes would migrate to