The Fall of a Giant

 

 

            This is a tale of a great vast empire whose mere muttered name caused fear in the hearts of foreigners and pride in the hearts of natives. It reigned in the times before Christ to nearly 500 years after. It did so in grave conditions and bloody escapades of rivalry and power. The rich became wealthier in the expense of the poor. Illness spread, as did people divide from the land. So all faded in history after years of self-abuse as the reign expires for all Roman power has broken in shame.

            Let us take a brief stroll through Roman history in an effort to decipher its demise. We begin with a quiet comfortable city-state whose main wealth came in its agriculture. With an eventual gain in enterprise the young Rome becomes steadily stronger and more powerful. The power gains treasures from far off lands both East and West and conquers armies on the way. It became a prosperous place whose fortune became its own demise.

So how does such a giant fall? Although no one truly knows, great efforts have been made to discover the explanation of one of history’s great mysteries.  An anonymous writer at about AD 370 wrote De Rebus Bellicus as an insight of many of his believes. One such theme called for tax cuts, new technology, and political freedoms. He writes: “In the technical arts, progress is due not to those of the highest birth or immense wealth or public office or eloquence derived from literary studies but solely to men of intellectual power” (Kealy).  In particular, it was in the mind of this intellectual power that understand the crises as it occurred right before his very eyes.

            This young author harnessed the idea of economic depression. It was a ruthless cycle that incorporated selfish acts of misconduct and greed far beyond what most those days could barely conceive.  The latifundia, a large farm area, became increasingly popular amongst the rich. It seems that their levels of productivity overshadowed the smaller farming communities. Through the use of slaves these latifundias became a single farmers nightmare as they could not afford to pay for such labor nor produce the goods as cheaply as his competitor. “This not only undermined the citizen farmer who passed his values to his family, but also filled the cities with unemployed peoples” (Harker). In time, these people left or began to crowd the city streets.

The great powers that be-the Roman military also became a great strain in the empire that in itself, struggled to sustain it. For the empire reach such great distances, it was necessary for it to protect such territory with a large and very costly militia. In this effort to maintain the military, Roman taxes were raised again and again; Separating the line between the rich and poor to appalling distances. It has even been constructed that the value in gold diminished for the exhausted Eastern lands had given all they could to only end up in the thrones and backrooms of emperors and wealthy statesmen. With a decrease in coin value, prices were forced to rise and in certain instances, some people got paid with fruit and clothes instead of money.

            One could only now begin to imagine the domino effect that is to come… with no jobs, no territory, no fuel for life came a decrease in human morale, respect for the state, and a lofty increase in crimes. “The poor were driven by their afflictions into various criminal enterprises, and losing sight of all respect for the law, all feeling of loyalty, they entrusted their revenge to crime” (Kealy).  The streets became dangerous and unsettling.

Things seemed worse in the Western providences for they were first to rid themselves of wealth and eventually people. “The economic exhaustion of the Western Empire was accompanied by population decline, runaway inflation, and deepening poverty”  (Hollister 237). This conducive negativity in behavior/morale was ever present  in Roman society already. The flounderous acts of Emperors, like Nero and Caligula, became a bad example for the Roman Citizens whose eventual decline became hidden in drunken tears. The notorious games of the Colosseum became bloodbaths whose vicious sprawl would bathe the viewers. At times filling the lungs of those crying for mercy, killing themselves softly with hate and mourning.

Where does a person go when all they’ve ever known was struggle and injustice?

Perhaps they may choose the path of God. Christianity is believed to have possibly influenced in the defragmentation of the Roman dynasty. The shift in mental awareness came with early Christian thought. This mentality paved way for many Romans into the realms of the pacifists. With the already low morale amongst the soldiers, the Christian way of thought persuaded their distance from the state. Eventually, the Empire had to hire untrained peasants from its own streets and foreigners from afar. With such an aloof legion with the state, the military itself was beginning to shrivel. “Some argue that Christianity may have provided some morals and values for a declining civilization and therefore may have actually prolonged the imperial era” (Harker).

            Crumbled streets, kids begging or stealing for food dressed in rags, the silent widow in the corner of the shop holding a knife, and the Emperor awaiting his death as he awaits the entrance of the Practorian Guard.  Technology and its efficiency was nowhere to be found for it had been repressed and undeveloped. “The empire collapsed, not for lack of Hellenistic science, but because it abandoned capitalism” (Kealy).

            It was only after the declining of people in the West, the inefficient army, and the low morale, that the Germanic invaders began their conquest of the land. Often they were even welcomed by the people as a means to save them from their struggles. These groups of bandits had not much in manpower but outweighed the empire in morale and pride. Eventually they took control for Rome had stumbled one too many times. “For Rome did not literally fall. Instead, it underwent an immense strategic withdrawal from the less productive West to the wealthier, long civilized provinces of the eastern Mediterranean” (Hollister). We may never know the truth behind the upset of the Roman empire. Yet there is so much that can be learned.

            The anonymous writer stands from his dark corner. Observing the streets he walks in. One thought however keeps knocking at his mind… He whispers: nothing lasts forever… not even the spell of the sleeping giant.