24 November 2013
Blog #3: What Caused the Fall of
Rome
Rome
had a reputation to uphold of being the strongest empire the world had ever
known. Although there were problems plaguing the Romans, the government thought
it essential to uplift the people and distract them with spectacle-heavy events
and games. After all, The Roman Empire came into existence by conquering weaker
nations and taking their land. To admit that their own nation was facing the
threat of being overthrown in a similar manner was unthinkable.
To
understand what toppled the greatest nation on the world had seen up to that
point, I turned to the book, “AD 410: The Year That Shook Rome” by Sam Moorhead
and David Stuttard. From their book, I learned that the Huns, a barbaric tribe
from the central Asian steppes, were sweeping Westward through Europe, causing
chaos and death wherever they went. The threat of encountering the Huns as they
swept through Europe caused more and more barbaric European tribes to push toward
the borders of the Roman Empire. “The pressure of these tribes became
unbearable, and by 376 reports began to reach the Roman court of throngs of barbarians
massing on the farther banks of the Danube” (pg. 56).
Most
of these people came from the Visigoths, the western branch of a greater Gothic
tribe in modern day North-East Germany. The Visigoths were once one of the most
feared tribes in Europe because they were known for plundering cities and
nations along the coastal strips of the Black Sea. “By the final years of
Constantine’s reign, during the 330s, the Goths and Romans became allies. The
Goths settled in the lands of Dacia, once conquered as a Roman province, but
now a useful buffer zone against the eastern barbarian tribes” (pg. 57).
When
the Visigoths were displaced by the Huns, the Romans had an excellent
opportunity to use their new allies to their advantage. They could have joined
forces with the Visigoths to build an invincible army, “but the Romans sneered
at these people whom they considered to be barbarians […] How the Romans dealt
with them was crucial. If the Goths had been settled along the Danube, given
lands and been integrated within the empire, the Romans could have benefited
from their manpower and labor. If the Romans had fed the hungry barbarians in
the days and weeks after their desperate crossing, they might have earned their
gratitude and loyalty. Instead, they treated the Goths with arrogance and
cruelty, exploiting their weakness. The Romans even bartered mean rations of
cheap food, stale mouldy bread and the carcasses of dogs for Gothic youths,
whom they immediately enslaved” (pg. 58-59). The Visigoths rebelled against the
Romans and these mighty warriors gave the Romans a number of devastating losses
on the battle field, from which they were never quite able to recover.
The
Romans, in their arrogance, threw away an opportunity to make powerful friends
and instead made devastating enemies.
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