Great world historians such as Edward Gibbon, A.H.M Jones, Will Durant, Arnold Toynbee, James Burke and numerous others agree that the Roman Empire fell due to high taxes needed to increase armies, among other lesser reasons. As a result, agriculture suffered and went to pot.
Dear Ones,
The cause of raised taxation was due to barbarian conquest in revenge of Roman Empire military conquest. This all required imperial riches to pay the expenses of war, as well as the personal army of the emperor, the empire's army and foreign mercenaries who were unreliable and their cost very high.
Eventually the people turned on the empire and were relieved by barbarous neighbors looting them in the vast empire. The masses detested the high prices of taxes to finance imperial wars, making the barbarians lesser of the two evils.
In turn this burden of the conquering imperial budget for more soldiers increased the looting and plundering on both sides–a domino effect.
However, there were other things that worked into the equation of military oppression. One was the malaise and indifference of civil virtue. The rise of Christianity, according to Gibbon, also caused people to be less interested in the present and more enthused in the myth of heaven. (During the development of the coal industry in later centuries, its barons would also use religion among their laborers to depend upon pie-in-the sky when they die rather than in fair wages.)
Emperor Nero was also called into the game of war. He increased his armies by relying on a huge military budget–a war economy.The collapse of the Roman Empire didn't happen immediately. But when the empire relied more and more on troop power, it finally crumbled.
Historian Jones, too, wrote that taxation was spurred by high military expenses. It was a rotten system from its inception. He stressed that the entire era was one of steady decay of institutions during Republican times.
Durant said the government had lost its moral soul as it destroyed itself within. He believed that if the it hadn't built so many mega churches, there would have been more money to maintain the empire. This historian wrote, "Military spending left few resources for vital activities."
So frustrated, the people lost the desire to defend their empire. Soldiers were called upon to fight a civil war in Italy in the third century that weakened the domestic guards, too. There were excess funds fixated on civil wars and left too little for domestic maintenance.
Mame,
helenesmith1.blogspot.com historian and author of Where Eagles Fly (pen name C.S. Smith) a manuscript drama about war veterans and the homeless living in the largest US. city, according to acreage
