1. If Rome was so great, why did it fall?

2. THE FALL OF ROME: REASON #1 Decline in morals and values.
Crime, violence, prostitution on the rise
Wealthy people cared only about lavish parties
Violent forms of entertainment (gladiators, chariot races) didn’t take anyone’s feelings or safety into account
Excessive eating and drinking
Extremes in wealth (very rich people and very poor people)
Pollice Verso (Thumbs Down) by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1871

3. The Fall of Rome: Reason #2 Public Health Problems.
Water carried in lead pipes made people sick
Overcrowded cities led to homelessness and disease
Lack of public money led to decrease in health and safety of public buildings, so people lived in tumble-down apartment buildings and huts
Increase in alcoholism
Bloody forms of entertainment (like gladiator fights) also led to the spread disease

4. THE FALL OF ROME: REASON #3 Economic problems.
Unemployment
Inflation (increase in prices, decrease in value of money)
Too much government spending on military to try to keep Empire protected from invaders
Government kept raising taxes higher and higher (to pay for military and Emperors’ guards)

5. The Fall of Rome: Reason #4 Weak, corrupt, unstable leaders
No effective method for choosing new emperor, so Senate, private guards, and army all had a say in the decision. Lots of arguments and fights each time they chose a new leader.
Emperors spent lots of public money on fancy parties and pet projects.
In one 100 year period, Rome had 37 different emperors, 25 of whom were murdered by their enemies or their own guards!
[Like Elagabalus, the emperor who ordered the army to fill his garden with snow in the summer, made his servants spread gold and silver dust in his path whenever he left the palace, and made his subjects collect 10,000 pounds of spider webs!]
Bust is of Caligula, who was insane. Once he marched his army to the English Channel to invade Britain, but changed his mind. Had his soldiers declare war on Poseidon instead, and gather sea shells before going home.

6. The Fall of Rome: Reason #5 Size of the Empire
Empire got so large that it was hard to control and defend
Split into 2 halves , AD (CE) Eastern half had its capital at Constantinople (city in what is now Turkey). Western half’s capital still in Rome.
Eastern half developed into the Byzantine Empire, while the Western half fell to barbarians.

7. THE FALL OF ROME: REASON #6 Barbarian Attacks.
Goths, Vandals, Huns, and other tribes from the east and the north invaded the Roman Empire
AD (CE) 410 – Visigoths attacked the city of Rome
AD (CE) 476 – the final emperor of Rome, 14-year-old Romulus Augustulus, taken prisoner by Germanic tribes.