The Decline Of The Roman Empire - 2298 Words

There are many theories on the decline of the Roman Empire and whether or not it completely fell. There are many different theories why the Roman Empire collapsed and what caused it to happened such as military failure, invasions of Barbarians, political problems, economic problems, and the spread of Christianity. Prior to the invasion and fall of the Roman Empire, the economy was crumbling and Rome was headed into a decline. The Empire split into two empires, the Byzantine (Eastern) and the Roman (Western), in 395. This was due to the immense size of the Roman Empire. The Western Empire had the capital of Rome and the Eastern Empire was Constantinople. This split of the empire is said to have played a major role in the failure of†¦show more content†¦One of the events that led up to the decline of the Roman Empire was the influence of Christianity and religion in the Western Empire. There was a lot of focus within the government on church issues when there should have been a bigger focus on political issues that were going on at the time. According to Edward Gibbon: â€Å"Faith, zeal, curiosity, and the more earthly passions of malice and ambition kindled the flame of theological discord; the church, and even the state, were distracted by religious factions, whose conflicts were sometimes bloody, and always implacable; the attention of the emperors was diverted from camps to synods; the Roman world was oppressed by a new species of tyranny; and the persecuted sects became the secret enemies of their country† (Gibbon Ch. 38). These religious factions were distracting the rulers of the Empire, and it would take their focus away from what political issues were occurring. Gibbon believes that clergy destroyed the empire, where the popes and bishops were getting largely involved in political affairs. If the Roman Empire paid more attention to the politics rather than the religious elements, then they would have been able to see the decline of the Empire occurring and possibly take action to prevent it. Those who invaded the Roman Empire were able to see this weakness, and they took full advantage of it. The Roman Empire had many Emperors during its time. Many of the rulers were not fit to be