Fall Of Rome Dbq Essay

The Roman Empire lasted for 1200 years, conquering the Mediterranean with an iron fist. They were nearly unstoppable: a successor to Ancient Greek culture, a prosperous and innovative economy and government, geography which provided great protection, and a military that deserved its brutal reputation. Yet, they still fell. After the Pax Romana, a 200 year long peacetime, Rome lost the people’s support to fear. A series of natural disasters, mass-migration and disease, and political corruption weakened Rome, forging Rome into easy prey for the Goths to sack, and finally, ending its reign. Near the end of Rome’s death, there was a massive earthquake, which also caused a flood. The damage of these two combined was immense, resulting in 50,000 deaths in the city of Alexandria alone. Edward Gibbon, author of Document F’s first source, wrote about how the two natural disasters shocked the Roman citizens. They began to doubt the empire, believing it was the beginning to the end. The people began losing faith in Rome, and the loss of support would contribute to the demise of Rome.

People like the Huns were coming to Rome, and with them came diseases. The diseases were devastating, killing around 75% of Rome’s population (Doc F second source). The Huns were also feared by the Romans. Many thought of them as barbaric savages, who would slaughter them all, or pillage their homes (Doc D). These two factors combined led to the people losing even more support of the government, who were not protecting them. The amount of people dying from plague or invaders, caused the surviving citizens to be afraid, which would impact Rome’s