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What led to the fall of the Roman Empire?

2022-08-06 15:35:04Histori SHKRUAR NGA SUZANNE CORDS

 

What led to the fall of the Roman Empire?
What led to the fall of the Roman Empire

 

Two thousand years ago, the Roman Empire was at the height of its power. How could such a great empire fall? An exhibition in Trier, Germany seeks the answer in the turmoil of late antiquity.

"Roam salvete": Welcome to the Roman Empire. This ancient kingdom stretched from Britain to the Black Sea and from Spain to Egypt. Its military capabilities and technical and cultural achievements have been unparalleled. Its inhabitants benefited from sewage and fresh water transported through aqueducts and lived in houses with underfloor heating. Even in the most remote regions of the provinces there were adequate roads and trade flourished.

What led to the fall of the Roman Empire?

The public refreshed themselves in the thermal baths and enjoyed the delicious food, while enjoying themselves in the theater and circus arenas. Even today, there are many testimonies in the world of the many legacies of the once flourishing empire. Trier, founded in the 17th century BC and the earliest city in Germany, is one such example. Known in the fourth century as "Augusta Trevorum", it has been the seat of the Roman Empire for many decades. The Porta Nigra (Latin for black gate), which can still be seen today, was declared a UNESCO Cultural Heritage in 1986 and is evidence of the legacy of the Roman Empire north of the Alps.

Therefore, Triri is the right choice for the exhibition "The Fall of the Roman Empire." Three museums of this city deal with interesting issues of how this great kingdom fell into oblivion.

 

What led to the fall of the Roman Empire?
"Fall of the Roman Empire" exhibition

 

Leaving behind a political void

The Rheinisches Landesmuseum has exhibited in its stands many archaeological objects, including objects on loan from the Louvre in Paris, and the Uffizi in Florence and the national antique museum of Algeria, the Musee Public National des Antiques. The exhibition shows how the Church filled the political void left behind by the Romans, and Trier's Stadtmuseum Simeonstift tells about the legacy of the Roman Empire in the history of culture and art.

One thing is clear: the Empire was not destroyed by a bolt of lightning. "If it had been that easy, we wouldn't have organized this big exhibition, and the research wouldn't have spanned centuries," says art historian and project manager Anne Kurtze of the Landesmuseum in Trier, adding that the fall was "a series of events".

Did Rome fall because of size?

"It seems that the sheer size of the Roman Empire has always been a tremendous challenge," says Kurtze. Roman generals conquered more and more countries, which became provinces of the Empire. The order of the day was huge military expenditures, in order to secure the outer borders of the empire that stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Euphrates, with a length of 15 thousand kilometers (9,321 miles). To protect the empire from the Germanic tribes, Hadrian's Wall was erected in the north and the Limes, the limits (border walls), were erected in Central Europe. Their construction and maintenance required large sums, as did the payment of Roman legions.

The wild Germans, whether they were warring goblins or uncivilized vandals, i.e. barbarians, are often included in the depiction of that time as if they infiltrated the empire and caused its erosion through the displacement of the population. But the curators of the museum are not happy with this idea. The fact is that there were refugees fleeing the invading Huns, but in fact the Romans were no longer able to defend the borders themselves, due to the decline in population: the prosperity of the people in the empire caused the birth rate to drop and to increase the need to fill the positions in the army.

Thus, foreign soldiers were recruited from among the "barbarians" in order to strengthen the Roman army. But the newcomers did not really become "Romans". They remained in their hearts German and did not always follow the orders of the Roman legionaries. They even instigated civil wars, which were fought mainly because of their pay or status in the Roman Empire. Internal conflicts further weakened the empire.

What about high taxes and the decadence of the upper class?

Beginning with the second century, the Empire stopped expanding. This means that the state treasuries were no longer filled with war spoils and young slaves were not coming to be used as labor. From 429 to 439 BC the Vandals took over the most important province of the Roman Empire: North Africa, from which the Romans obtained their bread grains. Revenues from this rich province fell and the rulers had to meet their expenses elsewhere.

As a result, Rome continued to raise taxes, which caused many citizens to end up on the brink of starvation. At the same time, the decadent upper class lived in opulence and had little or no interest in politics. A well-known example of the eccentricity of the ruling class is the Emperor Caligula. According to historians Sueton and Cassius Dio, Caligula named his horse "consul" and presented it together with the palace and slaves. The Trier exhibition also shows the famous painting, "The Favorites of the Emperor Honorius," by John William Waterhouse (1849-1917). "It shows that the king had no interest in his duty as a statesman. But does such a painting show the reality or is it just a cliché created for the empire from the next world?" Kurtze asks.

Christianization and the division of the empire

For many centuries the Romans believed in different lords and certain values. Under Emperor Theodosius, Christianity was declared the sole state religion in 380 BC weakening Roman ideas.

"The new church institution took over many tasks that had previously been carried out by the administration of the Roman Empire," explains Anne Kurtze. "However, this was not the reason for the collapse, but rather a process of change in the Roman Empire, which was on the verge of collapse."

In 395 BC, after the death of Emperor Theodosius the Great, the empire was divided between his sons: Western Rome and Eastern Rome. In the east, Constantinople became the seat of the emperor, in the west the seat was sometimes in Milan, then in Ravenna and sometimes in Rome. It was still considered a Kingdom, but was ruled by two emperors. But Eastern Rome fell only in 1453 when Sultan Mehmed II took Constantinople, while the western part was taken in 476 from the emperor Romulus Augustulus by the leader of the Germanic tribes, Odoacer.

 

What led to the fall of the Roman Empire?
Aphrodite in the "Fall of the Roman Empire" exhibition, Trier

 

 

What is left?

According to Kurtzes, initially some of the crises were barely visible in the fourth-century Empire. Even in late antiquity, trade relations made Triri flourish.

But instead of the Roman Empire, small kingdoms were created, governed by Franks, Burgundians or Goths. The Roman Empire neither had any effective administration, nor did it create any mechanism for infrastructure maintenance. Slowly, the changes began to be seen, especially in the cities. The aqueducts fell into disrepair because no one knew how to maintain them. Germanic tribes planted vegetables in the place of decorative gardens, marble monuments were destroyed, because the material was needed for building houses. Roman culture began to disappear step by step.

The exhibition "The Fall of the Roman Empire" will remain open in Trir until November 27. The activity seeks to make connections with the present, because climate change accompanied by the destruction of crops and famine affected the fate of Rome and prompted population movements in late antiquity, says Anne Kurtze. And just as COVID fell in our time, there were many similar diseases that fell to the Romans./ DW

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