476 AD: FALL OF ROME
 

Rome had quite a run. First a monarchy, then a republic, then an empire – all roads led to Rome for over 1200 years. In the Mediterranean, Rome was in charge. During the Imperial period, Rome had some wonderful emperors. Rome also suffered from a series of bad, corrupt and just plain crazy emperors. There were lots of reasons why Rome fell. 

Problems towards the end of the Empire included

1. The empire was too large to govern effectively.
2. The army was not what it used to be. There was corruption in the military - dishonest generals and non-Roman soldiers.  
3. Civil wars broke out between different political groups.
4. Emperors were often selected by violence, or by birth, so the head of government was not always a capable leader.
5. The increased use of slaves put many Romans out of work
6. The rich became lazy and showed little interest in trying to solve Rome problems.
7. The poor were overtaxed and overworked. They were very unhappy.
8. Prices increased, trade decreased.
9. The population was shrinking due to starvation and disease. That made it difficult to manage farms and government effectively.
10. The Empire starting shrinking. The Huns, Visigoths, Franks, Vandals, Saxons and other barbarian tribes overran the empire. 
     

The ancient Romans tried to solve some of their problems by splitting the Roman Empire in half, hoping that would make the empire easier to manage. Each side had an emperor, but the emperor in charge was the emperor of the western half, the half that included the city of Rome. 

The Western Roman Empire did not do well. Instead of getting stronger, they became weaker. By 400 AD, it was pretty much over. The Huns, Franks, Vandals, Saxons, Visigoths – any of these barbarian tribes might have been the group that finally brought Rome down. They were all attacking various pieces of the Western Roman Empire. In 476 AD, the Visigoths sacked Rome. Europe entered the Dark Ages. 

The eastern half of the Roman Empire received a new name – the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire did fine. It lasted for another 1000 years! 

The Barbarians