The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire - Research Paper Example

The rise and fall of the Roman Empire The Roman Empire is the biggest empire that ever existed. It existed even long before the coming of the Christ. It is also the oldest empire that ever existed. Many estimate that the empire existed for almost 500 years. The empire was a republic at first but it changed into an empire after the succession of Augustus. This is because he started amassing wealth a strong military power. He then used this opportunity to conquer other provinces and brought them under the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire owes its expansion to able rulers who ruled with autocracy. The Roman Empire was able to stand for that long because of the religious believes of the Romans. This is because they believed in their supreme deity Jupiter. They believed Jupiter granted them limitless empire. Thus they believed that the whole world should be under their rule perhaps this explain their endless effort to extend their empire. Latin language was the universal language and this provided cohesion. The Roman Empire was so big that it is can be equated with 40 countries of nowadays. It extended from north England, Asia, Africa and Mediterranean. It is also important to note that it has not been smooth ceiling for the Romans in the transition from a republic to an empire. This is because this transition was characterized civil wars as people were against the extension. The Roman Empire had diverse cultures since it existed and controlled many people. The rulers had to adjust to give everyone freedom of worship. Their style of ruling has had a large contribution to the modern politics. Their religion too has affected the way people worship. An example is the Roman Catholic Church. This religion came into existence because of the Christian rulers who ascended to power. The advancement of Roman Empire in such a quick way was because they had military prowess. There was no nation at that time that matched the military prowess of the Romans. They conquered almost the whole of Europe, Asia, Mediterranean, Persia and Egypt. Despite their military prowess, they were unable to conquer Germany. This is because the Germans resisted their advancement. The Germans were decentralized as opposed to other communities that were centralized hence it was difficult to subdue the Germans. This later led to the collapse of the Roman Empire. There were several reasons that made Roman Empire to rise and dominate the largest empire in the world for so long. The first reason is the naval dominance. The Romans dominated the coastline for long. This ensured that they had military or naval advantage since they could locate approaching enemies from far, thus giving them time to prepare. They were also able to deploy their army with ease along the coastline hence giving them military advantage. The naval dominance also was lucrative. This is because they were able to control trade as they controlled the coastline. This enabled them to amass wealth from proceeds of trade. Their success in naval dominance came after the defeat of Carthage by Romans in the Punic war, which gave the Romans the chance to control fully the Mediterranean. The Romans further used appeasement to advance. This is because they ensured that the local were satisfied to reduce military work. They gave the locals freedom of worship and allowed them to observe their culture. This ensured that military concentrated on further advancement of the empire rather than using them for controlling the local thus, they were able to reduce drain on military. The other reason is that the Romans provided political stability and promoted commerce. The people under the Roman Empire received protection from enemies by strong military. They ensured there was free trade and they provided unitary currency to ease transactions. With this, they ensured that the locals were happy to reduce internal conflict. In fact, few people in the Roman Empire were below poverty line. The other reason is that the Romans provided for standardization. They ensured standardization in currency, trade, unit of measurement to provide for equality and reducing conflict and easing governance. The Romans ensured that there was constant food for its citizens. They used a centralized way of food allocation to enable them supply food to regions that were facing food shortages. They cultivated the North Africa this is where grains came from. This region was fertile at first but the Romans overexploited it and that explains why it is a desert nowadays. Military prowess was also a strong pillar in the advancement of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was the first to establish a professional army. The army received proper training and discipline. It was also big in number. All these qualities enabled the Romans to subdue other provinces with ease. The army also had the advantage of naval dominance by the Romans. This eased their work as deployment became easy. The infrastructural advancement like roads was also another advantage to the army. This is because it eased their movement and made their work easy. Despite the army’s contribution to the advancement of Roman Empire, it was responsible for its fall in later years. This is because the army became big then they became loyal to their commander rather than the empire itself. The other reason was their ability to control the Mediterranean. This enabled them to control its territory with ease. This is because Mediterranean was a central point providing naval service to reach all the territories. This was after they were able to defeat the Carthagians in the Punic war. This gave them a sole dominance over the Mediterranean, which was a great advantage to them. The Punic war was because of conflict between the Romans and the Carthagians who controlled the coastline of Mediterranean Sea. The Romans wanted to take over the coastline but the Carthagians refused and this led to war called Punic wars. In this war, the Germans became victorious thanks to their military prowess. Thus, all the above strategies Romans used them to allow them dominate the largest empire that ever existed (Poul 213). Despite the fall of Roman Empire, it left many effects that still exist in the modern world. This is because the Romans applied democracy, which modern governments apply. The Romans allowed freedom of choice and allowed free and fair elections. The other effect is that the Roman Empire was responsible for the large population of Jews in Europe. This happened when Romans took the Jews to Europe to reduce their solidarity hence making them to be able to dominate Israel with ease. The current pervasiveness of Christianity is because of the Germans. This came when Emperor Constantine ascended to power. He was a believer and he declared Christianity as a religion of the Romans. From that time, henceforth Christianity has continued to pervade in all places. The Romans had the most organized army. The Roman army was categorized into two, the legions and Auxiliaries. The legion consisted of 4800 men but the auxiliaries were mainly equestrians. The legion eventually became big and they were able to absorb the auxiliaries. Legion consisted of four parts, Centuria, Contubernium, Cohort and Legioen. The smallest unit was contubernium, and then followed by centuria then cohort then finally the big unit was legioen. Contubernium consisted of eight men, then ten contubernium formed centuria then six centuria formed cohort and finally ten centuria formed legioen. All this was in bid to allow for smooth operation of the army and allow smooth coordination. This organization of army is what gave the Roman Empire an upper hand over the army of the resisting nation or province. All this happened when Emperor Augustus rose to power (Colin 125). Despite the long existence of the Roman Empire, the empire finally ended. There are many reason that are blamed to have brought the downfall but the turning point of roman empire started when they began auctioning power to the highest bidder. This contributed to poor governance characterized by dictation. This made people to protest thus creating internal conflicts. Political instability made people not to have confidence in the empire. As they were having internal conflict, the foreigners or their enemies took the chance to conquer them. The Germans invaded Rome and took a large portion of the Roman Empire. The Persians too invaded the empire and finally the empire become smaller, smaller, and finally it ended (Peter and Richard 156). The other reason came from the military. The ruler who ascended to power had to use a lot of many to buy the army loyalty. This is because the army were no longer loyal the ruler but their commander. The large amount of money that the army received eventually put a tall order on the government. The government then taxed its citizens heavily to get money to give the army. This led to protest from civilians, as there was increased inflation. Corruption was also to blame. The tax collectors started stealing from the citizens by removing their portion before handing the rest to the government. The other reason was the splitting of Roman Empire into two that is the west and east. This decentralization reduced cohesiveness and made it difficult to rule. Emperor Diocletian is also to blame for the fall of the Roman Empire. This is because he initiated some political reforms that spur resistance from civilians. The other reason is the forcing of citizens to be Christians. When Christianity became compulsory to everyone, many citizens who were not Christians did not like the rule. This created division in the empire. Another reason is the defeat of roman army by a German ruler called Visigoths. In the process of running from Huns Visigoths settled around the Roman Empire and after witnessing the internal wrangles in the Roman Empire, he took the opportunity to invade Rome and finally he succeeded and he brought west Rome under his rule (Edward 215). In conclusion, the history of Roman Empire is the greatest of all its history this is because it is unlikely that we will witness a replica of the same. It is evident that the rise of the Roman Empire what by great extend influenced by good governance and military prowess. It is ironical that the same reason that led to rise of Roman Empire is the reasons that that led to its fall. This is because at the end there was poor governance and poor military coordination. David Gress. A Daring Tale Of Arms and Men The Romans created an image of themselves that outlived their empire and flourished in the attempts, by others, to re-create it. August 27, 2012. The Wall Street J Bruce Bartlett how excessive government killed ancient Rome. The Cato Journal Volume 14 Number 2, Fall 1994 n.d Web. Nov 2 2012. Markoff Constantin Fasolt. Guide to the Study of Early Modern European History n.d web Nov 2 2011. John. Contention and Democracy in Europe, 1650-2000: The Journal of Social History Volume 39, Number 2, Winter 2005 pp. 539-540 | 10.1353/jsh.2005.0150 Read More