Year 9

Unit 4 - Roman Empire

Lesson 4 – The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire

​Hundreds of years of warfare and conquest resulted in the Roman Empire growing larger and larger. By the time of the death of the Emperor Trajan in AD 117, this huge Empire was at its largest. By then it stretched from the modern borders of England and Scotland in the north to the edge of the Sahara desert in the south. From west to east it lay between the Atlantic Ocean and modern Syria. The map below shows the fullest extent of the Roman Empire by A.D. 117.

How the Empire grew

As we have seen, the Roman army was very large and highly disciplined. For many centuries it was almost unbeatable in battle. Roman soldiers, when they were not at war, were employed to build a great network of high quality roads. These Roman roads held the Empire together. They encouraged trade and allowed Roman legions to move rapidly throughout the Empire. The Romans always strengthened the lands they conquered with forts, strongly defended towns and even long and high stone walls. ​(See right, Hadrian's Wall today in the north of England) The Romans were usually very effective rulers of the territories they conquered. The empire was divided into provinces, each of which was ruled by a Governor. The Romans, through often ruthless rulers, were usually wise enough not to try to force conquered peoples to abandon their own customs, religions and languages. Once people in the provinces had paid their taxes to Rome and obeyed the Emperor, the Romans would usually allow them to pursue their own ways of life. Conquered lands provided heavy taxes and soldiers for Rome and its rulers. As Rome conquered more land, its finances and armies grew larger. This allowed it to conquer even more territory and resulted in the empire growing larger and larger.

Activity 1 - Discussion

Historians like to group ideas together under big headings. The reasons for the growth in the Roman Empire can be divided into political, economic, social and military. Read again through the text above and find examples of reasons which fit under each of the four big headings. 

Why the Empire declined (and more big headings)

Political reasons - From AD 180, Rome was ruled by a line of emperors who were mostly weak rulers.  Because the emperors were weak, the Roman army began to interfere in the running of the state. Army leaders even began to murder emperors, to choose new ones and later to murder them. In one eighty-year span, more than forty emperors ruled. Some survived only for a few months and many were murdered. Such chaos in government was partly responsible for the decline and fall of ancient Rome.

Economic reasons - Taxes increased, especially to pay for the army which had begun to interfere more and more in the running of the empire. Ordinary Romans eventually found themselves paying about a third of their incomes in taxes and another third on rent. Some farmers abandoned their land because they could not afford to pay their taxes. Food production fell, so the price of even basic food rose rapidly.   When the barbarians finally invaded, people did little to defend the empire. Many preferred to be under barbarian rule.

Social reasons - The size of the population began to decline due to disease and food shortages (see above). The difference between the lives of the rich and those of the poor became more noticeable. The rich became richer and poor, poorer. Rome didn't seem as fair as it once had been and people became less proud of being Roman, they felt less patriotic. This was increasingly true of soldiers who were less and less likely to be Roman citizens and more interested in simply earning money. ​

Military - With no strong emperor to take charge, armies made up of foreign soldiers and rivalry for power, civil wars became common within the empire. As these wars weakened the empire, outside enemies dared to threaten its boundaries. The Romans called these people barbarians. The Franks attacked Gaul. The Persians raided Asia Minor. Tribesmen attacked the Roman cities of North Africa. Far to the east, in the continent of Asia, lived a warlike tribe called the Huns. About AD 360, this tribe had begun to move west, conquering all before them. 

Reaching the end.

​By the year AD 400, the empire was split into a western empire ruled from Rome and an eastern empire ruled from Constantinople. In AD 455 an army of Vandals sailed from North Africa, invaded Italy and destroyed Rome. Famine followed and the city's population - once more than a million - fell to less than 20,000 people. The end was not long coming. In AD 476, the last Emperor of the West was overthrown by a German leader. The German's name was Odoacer. The last emperor's name was Romulus Augustulus. The Western Empire was gone forever.

​While the western empire declined, the eastern empire became richer and survived for almost a thousand years. After the fall of the West, the eastern empire became known as the Byzantine Empire. Its capital city, Constantinople, became a great centre of trade, art and culture. As the centuries passed, the Byzantine Empire gradually lost its old links with Rome. For example, Greek replaced Latin as its most important language. It was not until the eighth century AD that the Byzantine Empire began slowly to lose ground to the followers of a new religion called Islam. Members of this religion, known as Muslims, followed the teachings of the prophet Mohammed. Very slowly the empire began to crumble under Muslim pressure. Finally in AD 1453, Constantinople was captured by a Muslim army.

Activity 2 - How could the decline of the Roman Empire have been prevented? 

Having studied how the Empire grew and why it declined you are now an expert! Imagine you could go back in time to AD 117, what four pieces of advice would you give the new Emperor Hadrian in order to avoid the decline of his empire?  It is important that you provide political, economic, social and military advice. 

​When you have finished you can watch John Green explain the decline of the Roman Empire. Crash Course is made for older students and you will find it difficult, how much can you understand of the first five minutes?