The Roman Empire is variably described as one of the most powerful empire the world had ever seen and was characterized by a republican form of Government and existed across Europe and spread all over the Mediterranean. The Roman Empire in many ways describes the Roman states starting with Emperor Augustus after the weakening of the Roman Republic which had been weakened by various civil wars. The Roman Empire Emerged in the 8th Century B.C. and before that it was ruled by kings but by 509 B.C. the Roman Republic was declared after the monarchy was overthrown. The city of Rome from that time began its unprecedented expansion swallowing up all the neighbouring states including conquering all the hostile nations. What made it so successful was its disciplined and skilful fighting army which was renowned militarily across Western Europe.
Unfortunately the Empire started declining because of various reasons which include; strain economically, Civil wars, Religious divisions and failures in its military outfits. Some historians at the same time claimed that the rise of Islam contributed towards it decline. The fall of the Roman Empire was very gradual and the emperors of the period tried to adopt various transformations to save the emperor from its decline. The emperor known as Diocletian brought a lot of transformations in the political view and he brought a lot of military enforcement to support the Roman emperor. He enlarged the civil and the military services within the emperor. He managed to save the empire’s borders and posed a lot of threats to any invasions. He was greatly remembered for his ability to achieve lasting and favourable peace in Rome. However he failed in his attempts to reduce inflation through price control. His economic and political reforms remained in force in the following centuries. Constantine also brought a lot of reforms in Rome especially in the conversion to Christianity. He managed to re-unite the western and the eastern halves of the emperor.
The Romans were historically very practical about religion. Most of the activities they did were related or explained by the majesty of the all powerful God. The Romans actually had a religion of their own which was not based on the beliefs, taboos, rituals or traditions. To them religion was far more of a spiritual experience that gave rise to a relationship between mankind and the forces they believed were controlling mankind. Christianity in Rome had its roots with the birth of Jesus Christ. The evidence of the birth, life and death of Jesus Christ had a great effect on the beginning of Christianity in Rome. The new religion was greatly appreciated by many. The religion however was viewed as a great threat to the other religions since it preached the existence of only one God. This religion also guaranteed the Roman people of peace among the people within the empire. The religion received a lot of hostility especially with the slaughter of Christians who refused to worship Caesar. By the end of the first century, Christianity had taken its roots in Rome and this saw many Christians persecuted in the second century. They were killed because the government believed that this was a form of civil disobedience. After the persecution of Marcus Aurelius, Christianity spread in Rome and this also saw tolerance by the authorities. Christianity further was made predominant by the following era of Constantine the great. He is known to have effectively achieved supremacy over the emperor and established the Christian church in Rome.
The Barbarians
The name Barbarian was used in Rome to refer to any person who lived outside the boarders of the Roman Empire. Barbarians were composed of basically five tribes namely; the Huns, the Vandals, the Visigoths, Franks and the Saxons. Or to a broader extent, anybody who could not speak Latin was a Barbarian. While Rome opted to have peaceful boarder relations with their neighbours, the Barbarians took the exact opposite stand, invading Rome and their allies. The Romans allowed them a safe entry and stay in their land but they abused this freedom and wanted more and more, leading to conflicts of interest hence inversions (Abbott, p.35). All the five Barbarian tribes were involved in constant inversions of the Roman Empire all at the same time; this led to the tribes going against themselves in an attempt to prove superiority over the other.
The Valens thought ahead of the others and established a stronger force and manipulated the others to support its course. They promised to share the leadership benefits; but to the surprise of the other groups, it was just a political gimmick. The Valens failed to keep their promise, the other Barbarian tribes led by Visigoths were never impressed and so rebelled…leading to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the year 476 CE (Luttwak, p.76). This was a great successful raid on the Barbarians. The fall of the Roman Empire did not come as a surprise to many, as reported in most history books that the fall was gradual; it began by a loss of the Western Part of the Empire, then the Eastern part weaken terribly before the entire empire came down. The Barbarians are said to have caused a lot of changes to the Roman Empire as it was from this tribe (collection of individuals) that most of the Empires came from (Abbott, p.36). The numerous inversions engineered by the Barbarians led to taking control of the Roman land in a successive manner before the eventual fall of the Roman Empire when the groups started ganging against one another.
Traditionally the fall of the Roman Empire is believed to have been forth September 476 A.D. when Odoacer disposed the last Roman Empire Emperor Romulus Augustus. However, in my opinion it is true the Physical Roman Empire that ruled much of Europe during the medieval period does not exist today. However, its ideals like government and language are heavily borrowed from by major contemporary governments, for example the US government that is the leading superpower today.
Works Cited
Abbott, F. Frank. (1901). A History and Description of Roman Political Institutions. Elibron Classics. Pp.34-36,
Luttwak Edward. (2003). The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire, John Hopkins University Press. pp.76.