When the Roman Empire collapsed: date, causes and consequences. V

Traveling around Rome and admiring the preserved sights, every tourist thinks about why such strong civilization ceased to exist. The decline and fall of the Roman Empire cannot be reduced to a single cause.

One version dates the death of the Roman Empire to 410 AD, when Gothic tribes led by Alaric invaded the territory. The Gothic tribes were Christians, so they did not commit massacres and did not destroy buildings, but only robbed, took out jewelry, and removed valuable decorations from buildings.

According to the second version, Rome was destroyed to the ground later, in 476, by the leader of the barbarian Germanic tribe of the Heruli, Odoacer, who forced the last emperor of Rome, young Romulus Augustus, to abdicate.

However, according to many researchers, the fall of Rome began much earlier and was caused not only by such obvious reasons as raids by external aggressors. The beginning of the crisis in the Roman Empire dates back to the 3rd century, after the political, economic, religious and cultural life of the Romans had profoundly changed. Now historians name more than 210 reasons for the fall. Let's look at some of them.

Lack of a strong leader

The Roman Empire began to experience frequent changes of emperors, rulers of regions and provinces who did not have political power, authority and foresight.

Among government officials, non-Roman nationalities are increasingly appearing, which also reduces authority and absolutely destroys the patriotic idea.

Barbarization

A significant proportion of the population of Rome during the period of decline were representatives of barbarian tribes who did not have a developed culture and ideology. Due to the difference in development level public relations Assimilation of representatives of these tribes into Roman society occurs little. However, Rome is forced to maintain peaceful relations with the barbarians, since a significant part of the army was formed from their ranks.

Army crisis

External enemies, advancing from all sides in small and numerous detachments, did not meet with resistance from the Roman army, weakened by poor maintenance and extreme exploitation, without strong leaders and not inspired by a patriotic idea.
The military leaders appropriated most of the soldiers' salaries and allowances, so the lower ranks were extremely demoralized, and cases of looting against their compatriots became more frequent. The ranks of the armed forces were replenished slightly for a number of reasons:

• Declining birth rate;
• The reluctance of land owners to give their slaves and hired workers as soldiers and to lose cheap labor;
• Reluctance of city residents to join the army due to low wages.

Sometimes these phenomena are associated with a movement such as pacifism. However, the main reason for the crisis is the destruction of the professional army, the loss of military discipline, the increase in the number of soldiers from among poorly trained recruits - former peasants - and barbarians who settled on the territory of the Roman Empire.

Slave owners and slaves

Official version of school textbooks: Rome was destroyed. Exploitation gave rise to disturbances and slave uprisings, which broke out regularly. The uprisings were of various scales: the homes of landowners were burned, tools and domestic animals were destroyed, slaves refused to work.

To suppress the slave uprisings, the help of the military was required, but they barely had time to repel the attacks of external enemies.

Slavery led to the extreme decline of agriculture and the destruction of the country's economy.

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Economic crisis

The Roman Empire was experiencing a period of fragmentation into provinces, large holdings were divided into small ones, and partially leased to small landowners and slaves. Subsistence farming began to predominate, the share of processing industries decreased, and prices for the transportation of goods increased. Trade is experiencing an extreme decline, and relations between some provinces are completely terminated.

The state raised taxes, but the solvency of the population fell sharply, and there was nothing to pay taxes with. Inflation was followed by a reduction in the amount of money in the country.

Small agricultural farms began to unite into communes or ask for protection from large land owners - the process of separating large feudal lords and the final ruin of the small peasantry began.

Demographic crisis

The decline of the economy and successive years of poor harvests caused famine in the country, a wave infectious diseases. The mortality rate is increasing, the birth rate is sharply decreasing. The government issues several decrees on supporting families with children and on benefits for the children of barbarians, but in Rome the number of older and elderly people is steadily increasing, and society is aging.

Social reasons

The middle class is gradually going bankrupt, urban culture, production and trade are declining, and mass unrest is occurring. The second side is the so-called social apathy, the destruction of spirituality and patriotism.

Crisis of spirituality

The ideal is gradually destroyed and forgotten harmoniously developed person, a proud Roman who serves his city-state, building his life on the basis of social principles. There is a crisis in art: literature, architecture, sculpture.

The moral decay of the population is often associated with the rise of vices, debauchery, and homosexuality.

Further weakening of the empire in the 4th century

During the period of the Roman Republic and at the beginning of the empire, the interests of slaves and free poor people were completely different. The free poor man, no matter how hard his life was, did not sympathize with the foreign crabs. He feared and hated them. Many understood that an increase in the number of slaves would lead to the ruin of free peasants and artisans and their replacement with slaves. By the 4th century. The differences in the position of raev and small free farmers began to gradually disappear. Colons, like slaves, were attached to the land and could be sold along with the land. Both of them cultivated the plots that the master gave them. Colon, like a slave, could be subjected to corporal punishment. Finally, dependent farmers were very often themselves “barbarians” or descendants of “barbarians,” just like slaves.

Gradually there was a merger of slaves and colons into new class dependent and exploited farmers. The revolutionary actions of this vast class were much more dangerous for the slave state than previous slave uprisings.

At the same time it gets worse external position empires. The “barbarians” are intensifying their pressure on its borders. In the 4th century. In the steppes between the Don and Volga, a strong alliance of Hun tribes formed. These nomadic herders who came from Central Asia, collided in the Black Sea steppes with peoples who wore common name ready. Part of the Goths - the Visigoths - retreating under the blows of the Huns, crossed the Danube and turned to the Roman emperor with a request to settle on the territory of the empire.

Hoping to use the Visigoths to fight the even more terrible enemy of the Romans - the Huns, the emperor gave his consent, and the Goths settled on the Balkan Peninsula in the places indicated by him.
Dissatisfied with the attitude of Roman officials, the Visigoths soon rebelled. Thousands of slaves and columns fled to them. The uprising spread throughout the Balkan Peninsula. The rebels expelled or killed large landowners, divided their land among themselves, and set slaves free. They exempted the cities that surrendered to them from taxes. In Constantinople, the slaves and the urban poor were worried.
With selected legions, the emperor moved against the rebels. The battle took place in 378 near the city of Adrianople. The Romans were defeated. Forty thousand soldiers died. The emperor himself fell. Without encountering resistance, the rebels reached the outskirts of Constantinople in the east, and the borders of Italy in the west.

Division of the Empire into Western and Eastern

Forty thousand Goths were enrolledto the army of Theodosius. This allowed him to deal with the colons and slaves.
Theodosius fought mercilessly against the remnants of paganism. Under threat of death penalty, non-Christian rituals, sacrifices, and holidays were prohibited. With the support of the emperor, the Christian church organized a terrible destruction of pagan temples. Many wonderful monuments of ancient culture were lost. An irreparable loss was the burning of the temple in Alexandria with the remains of the famous Library of Alexandria.
In 395 Theodosius died. Before his death, he divided the Roman Empire between his two sons. From that time on, two heads appeared on the imperial coat of arms - the eagle. The year 395 is considered the year of the emergence of two independent states - the 3rd Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. The Western Roman Empire included: Italy, Gaul, Spain, Britain. The Eastern Roman Empire included: the Balkan Peninsula, Asia Minor, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, North Africa.
The Eastern Roman Empire was richer and more cultured than the Western. The two states never united again.

Capture of Rome by the Visigoths

The leaders of the “barbarians” were well aware of the weakness of the Western Roman Empire. At the beginning of the 5th century. The Visigoths, led by their leader (king) Alaric, attacked Italy. They met no serious resistance. Slaves and columns ran towards them. Roman soldiers, among whom there were many “barbarians,” were unreliable. Alaric became the ruler of the Esii of Northern Italy.
In 410 the Visigoths approached Rome, which was largest city Italy and everything

Mediterranean, although it was no longer the capital. The emperors had long lived in the small city of Ravenna (on the Adriatic coast of Italy).
Rome was ill-prepared for a siege. A terrible famine began in the city, from which slaves and the free poor suffered the most. Hundreds of fugitives crossed over to Alaric every day. The Roman authorities wanted to bribe Alaric, but only prolonged the agony of the besieged city. And when they, wanting to intimidate the Visigoths, declared that there were tens of thousands of men in Rome who wielded a sword, Alaric replied: “The thicker the grass, the easier it is to mow.”

Into the dark summer night Hordes of Goths stormed Rome. The “barbarians”, the slaves who joined them, destroyed the palaces and rich houses of the Romans. Most of the slave-owning nobility were killed, taken captive, or fled to distant provinces.
The capture of Rome by the “barbarians” showed all nations the weakness of the slave-owning empire. Rome, which existed for more than a thousand years and defeated powerful opponents, Rome, considered the “eternal city,” was in the hands of a tribe that was recently unknown to anyone.

Death of the Western Roman Empire

At the beginning of the 5th century. other “barbarians” - the Vandals - invaded the empire. They walked west to Spain, and from there they penetrated into North Africa. In 455, the Vandals attacked Italy by sea and captured Rome. For two weeks they plundered the city, mercilessly destroying palaces and temples, burning libraries. The senseless destruction of cultural monuments later came to be called vandalism.

Wherever conquerors settled on the lands of the empire, “barbarian” states arose. The leaders of the “barbarians” took land from rich slave owners and gave it to their soldiers. Slaves and columns fled in droves to the territories occupied by the “barbarians,” since the oppression there was not as strong as in the areas that belonged to the empire. Slave-owning orders began to disappear.
Only Italy remained from the Western Roman Empire. And here the “barbarians” ruled. In 476, the leader of the Germans who served in the Roman army overthrew the last emperor of Western

Roman Empire and seized power. The new ruler did not accept the title of emperor. He sent signs of imperial dignity to Constantinople, declaring that there should be one emperor on earth, like one sun in the sky. Italy became one of the “barbarian” states. This is how the Western Roman Empire ended. The Eastern Empire, later known as the Byzantine Empire, lasted until 1453.

The fall of the slave system in Western Europe

The destruction of the slave state of the Western Roman Empire led to the fall of the slave system in Italy and the former Roman provinces.
Having destroyed the slave system, which became an obstacle to the development of the economy and culture, the masses opened the way further development peoples of Europe.

Division of the Roman Empire

The last emperor of a unified Roman Empire, Theodosius I, before his death in 395, divided the state between his sons, so the eastern part appeared with its capital in Constantinople (the future Byzantium) and western territories with its capital in Mediolana (modern Milan), and then in Ravenna (from 402). This division led to a serious weakening of the state, as the two parts became hostile to each other. The invasion of barbarian tribes was not long in coming: in 401 the Visigoths led by Alaric invaded the Western Roman Empire and captured Aquileia, and in 404 the Ostrogoths, Vandals and Burgundians led by Radagaisus. In 408, the Visigoths unsuccessfully besieged Rome, but during Alaric’s new campaign, on August 24, 410, for the first time in history, the city fell, and part of the city died in a fire.

Barbarian invasions

The next formidable force that threatened Rome were the Hunnic tribes led by Attila. After a series of devastating raids within the Eastern Roman Empire, they even began to pay tribute, after which their eyes turned to the western lands of the empire. In 452 they invaded Italy, and only the death of the leader and the collapse of the tribal union averted the threat from the empire. But already in June 455, the Vandal king Geiseric took advantage of the unrest in Rome, transported troops from Carthage, captured the city without a fight and subjected it to terrible destruction. Thousands of prisoners were taken from Rome and many valuables were stolen. Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica were annexed to the Vandal kingdom. Soon, of all the vast possessions of the Western Roman Empire, only Italy was left.

The fate of the Roman throne was often decided as a result of the intrigues and influence of certain barbarian military leaders. One of the last, relatively independent rulers was Flavius ​​Procopius Antemius, who tried to build allied relations with the Eastern Roman Empire. But after unsuccessful military campaigns against the Vandals and Visigoths, as a result of internal discord, he was killed. After him, emperors quickly succeeded each other on the throne.

Last Roman Emperor

The last Western Roman emperor was Romulus Augustus, who ascended the throne as a result of a military coup by his father, Master Flavius ​​Orestes, who overthrew Emperor Julius Nepos (who fled to Dalmatia) and became regent for his young son. The Eastern Roman Empire refused to recognize the new emperor. His reign was also exacerbated by discontent among the barbarian mercenaries who formed the backbone of the Roman army. Their demands were not satisfied, and soon the closest military commander of Flavius ​​Orestes, Odoacer, led a conspiracy, as a result of which in 476 Romulus Augustus abdicated the throne, and the highest signs of imperial power were sent to Constantinople to Emperor Zeno. The latter granted Odoacer the title of patrician, but demanded from him formal recognition of Julius Nepos, who was living in Salona at that time. After the latter's death in 480 at the hands of his own bodyguard, Zinon never appointed a new Western Roman emperor.

The next coup in 476 was not perceived by contemporaries as any significant event, and only in the modern period the overthrow of Romulus Augustus was proclaimed “the fall of the Western Roman Empire,” along with which the era of Antiquity passed into the past.

The end of the 5th century, when the Western Roman Empire ceased to exist, was the end of the era of antiquity. Gone with the Roman Empire an entire era with their own values, ideals and special worldview. The ancient foundations gave way to medieval, essentially Christian principles.

Roman society and state on the eve of the fall

The decay of Roman society began long before 476. The state went through the Crisis of the 3rd century extremely hard, when soldier emperors were constantly changing on the throne, unable to strengthen the empire. In the 3rd-4th centuries, on the Roman throne there were people who thought on a national scale and were capable of serious reforms. Thanks to the emperors Diocletian and Constantine, Roman greatness was revived for a time. However, the process of destruction could no longer be stopped. Researchers include the following as the main reasons for the impending catastrophe:

• Political and ethnic heterogeneity of the empire. Already in the 2nd century, there was a noticeable difference between the eastern aristocracy, whose representatives descended from noble ancient Greek families, and the western nobility. In the future, cultural, historical and political differences will lead to division single state to the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. There was no unity among the Roman citizens themselves and the ruling elite, as evidenced by a whole series of civil wars that took place during the 3rd-5th centuries.
• Decomposition of the Roman army. By the 4th century, the image of the courageous Roman legionnaire was completely a thing of the past. The Romans lost all interest in military service and went there only for the money. Even under Septimius Severus (193-211), due to a lack of volunteers, barbarians began to be accepted into the army, which later resulted in a decline in military discipline. In addition, the North, in order to raise the prestige of the military profession, allowed legionnaires to buy land and marry before completing their service. The reforms of the North certainly played a role in strengthening the combat capability of the state, but later it began to appear reverse side its transformations. Legion camps began to turn into villages where the usual peaceful life. Roman troops lost their mobility, and their warriors lost their dexterity. From now on, camp commanders had to combine military leadership with the solution of civilian problems, which is why the process of bureaucratization began at the headquarters, in which the entire state apparatus would later become mired.
• The crisis of the pagan worldview. Over time, the Romans also lost their former religious and ideological ideals that formed the basis of Roman statehood. Ideas about former heroes and gods educated people already seemed naive, the authorities’ attempt to introduce the cult of the “genius” of the emperors also failed. From the 1st century AD e. The Roman aristocracy leaned towards the teachings of the Stoics, and among the lower class and slaves the idea of ​​​​the appearance of a savior who would restore justice increasingly spread. The image of the savior was combined with the images of pagan dying and resurrecting gods (Osiris, Attis, Mithras), as well as with the idea that beyond death begins new life, where everyone will be rewarded according to their deeds. Gradually, Christianity began to develop on this basis, the foundations of which were radically different from the ideals ancient roman mythology. Emperor Constantine in 313 proclaimed religious tolerance, which actually meant victory christian church and the final collapse of the pagan worldview.
• Economic situation. In the 4th century, the decomposition of the slave system began in the empire, which entailed the decay of cities, a return to subsistence farming, the destruction of economic ties between different regions, and the coarsening of crafts. Since the role of centers of craft and trade passed from cities to large landowners, the latter began to pose a serious competition to the imperial power. The last Roman emperors could no longer compete with the appetites of their subjects. To support the state and its treasury, emperors raised taxes, which caused peasants and artisans to go bankrupt en masse.
• Barbarian raids. Many historians believe this is precisely the factor main reason destruction of the Western Roman Empire. The Romans first encountered barbarians in the 2nd century, but then they managed to repel the threat quite easily. However, small skirmishes on the borders of the empire have since become constant for Roman legionnaires. In the second half of the 3rd century, the Great Migration began, when entire hordes of Asian nomads moved from the open spaces Eastern Siberia, Mongolia, China, etc. to the west. At the forefront of this movement were the Huns - formidable and fearless conquerors. Due to the constant military threat, Emperor Constantine was forced to move the capital of his state to Constantinople, which served as an impetus for the development and growth of wealth in the eastern part of the empire, but at the same time became the reason for the decline of its western half. Many European tribes, fleeing the Huns, asked the Roman emperors for refuge. In 378, a battle took place between the Roman emperor Valens and the Visigoths, who settled on the outskirts of the empire. In this battle, the barbarians not only defeated the Roman army, but also killed the emperor. All further relations of the Roman emperors with the barbarians can be characterized as maneuvering. Rome either bribed the barbarian leaders, then tried to play them off against each other, or tried to repel them. In 395, the empire was officially divided into Western and Eastern parts. Powers Western Empire were too weak to cope with the barbaric threat on their own. Tribes of Suevi, Vandals and others began to seize vast areas and establish their own states there. Every year the Roman emperors were forced to make more and more concessions to the barbarians.

Last years of the empire

By the 5th century, the state finally ceased to cope with the functions assigned to it. The emperors could neither stop the chaos within their state nor put an end to the constant raids of the barbarians. Meanwhile, the barbarians were no longer limited to campaigns on the outskirts of the state; a threat loomed over the Eternal City itself. In 410, Rome was taken and sacked by the Visigoth king Alaric while Emperor Honorius was hiding from the barbarians in Ravenna. For contemporaries, this event was a real collapse of the old world. However, the empire still continued to exist. In 451, in the Catalaunian fields, the Romans, temporarily allied with their enemies - the Visigoths, Saxons and other tribal alliances, even managed to stop the formidable leader of the Huns - Atilla.

However, this victory did not have any impact special significance on future fate Rome. Four years later the city was sacked by vandals. After the pogrom that was perpetrated in the city, the name of this tribe began to mean any acts of senseless destruction.

The last one for real significant person in ancient Roman history there was the emperor Julius Majorian (457-461). He initiated a series of reforms aimed at reviving the former greatness of the empire. However, Majorin's undertakings upset the plans of the barbarian kings and the provincial nobility, accustomed to independence. Therefore, the emperor was soon killed. After his death, several completely insignificant figures replaced the Roman throne. In 476, the commander Odoacer (German by birth) overthrew the last Roman emperor, who, ironically, was named Romulus - just like the legendary founder of Rome, and founded his own state. Thus ended the existence of the Western Roman Empire.

5 215

In ancient times, a mysterious highly developed civilization flourished on Earth, which then disappeared for unknown reasons. But at the same time, we forget that we have known about at least one such civilization since childhood. This is the Roman Empire.

The Greatness of the Romans

The Roman eagle spread its wings over vast territories - from foggy Britain to the hot deserts of Africa. Thousands of years before the European Union, it already existed, not on the map, but in reality - everything was subordinated to Rome. The unified financial system, introduced with difficulty into the EU, is based on a perfectly working ancient Roman prototype. For international communication there was Latin, which served as the basis for almost all European languages. To this day, this dead language of a civilization that has sunk into oblivion is used in scientific fugues to create a unified semantic field.

Local government and office work, as well as the maintenance of legal and trade documentation, were standardized and therefore more efficient. All modern civil jurisprudence is based on Roman law!

The Roman army, which became a decisive factor in the development of the power of its state, predetermined the tactical formation of troops for thousands of years to come - right up to the appearance missile forces all the armies of the world were built according to the manipulative principle of the Romans (with the main tactical unit in the form of a battalion). The Romans also knew how to build. One of the most impressive monuments of the lost empire is the bridge over the Gar River, built by ancient Roman engineers twenty centuries ago. A three-tier structure the height of a 16-story building connected the two banks of the river, but not in a straight line, but with some bending. This was done so that seasonal floods would not destroy the structure.

Amazingly, until recently, car traffic remained on the bridge, built by the slaves of Rome!

However, this will not be so surprising if we remember that some Roman roads in many parts of Europe were used for their intended purpose until the beginning of the 20th century. It's impossible to even imagine that modern road It will be possible to use it without repair for not two thousand, but at least 20 years.

Roads, roads...

The empire could not exist without roads, therefore, figuratively speaking, the Romans, by building roads, built an empire. A special department headed by the procurator - Quattuorviri viarum curandarum - was responsible for the construction. The total length of roads in the Roman Empire ranged from 250,000 to 300,000 kilometers. IN Russian Empire In 1913, there were a total of 50,000 kilometers of roads (overwhelmingly pound roads), while the Romans had only 90,000 kilometers of paved roads. Moreover, in Italy itself the length of highways was only 14,000; the rest of the mileage was in the provinces.

Roman road builders were practically no different from their modern counterparts, except that they did not have bulldozers, dump trucks and excavators; so everything had to be done manually. The road construction technology now practically copies the ancient Roman one: in the beginning, as now, a trench about a meter deep was dug. If the pound was not tight, wooden piles were driven into the bottom of the ditch, and the walls were reinforced with stone slabs. Then they put

what today is called a road cushion is a layer of large stone, then smaller stone, sand, again stone, lime, tile powder and, finally, stone slabs. By the way, they were located with a slight slope towards the roadsides, so that rainwater flowed into the side drainage ditches.

The ancient Roman builders tried not to repeat the terrain - why roads? great empire wobble like a Markitan boat? If there was a depression in front, a bridge was thrown over it; if there was a rock, a tunnel was cut through it. The character of the Romans can be judged by looking at the tunnel near Naples - it reaches a length of 1300 meters.

Cities

Almost all major modern cities in Europe were founded by the Romans: Paris, London, Budapest, Vienna, Belgrade, Orleans, Sofia, Milan, Turin, Bern... There were about 1800 cities in the Roman Empire, while in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century, with much more larger territory, - about 700.

The urban planning achievements of the ancient Romans are no less stunning. The population of Rome at the peak of the empire's power was one million people. In European cities, humanity reached this level of urbanization only at the beginning of the 20th century.

To ensure the livelihoods of so many townspeople, water was needed. Imperial aqueducts were a technological marvel even by modern standards - for example, a 90-kilometer-long canal system was built to provide water to Rome. Europe will not see such a water supply system for thousands of years.

Sewerage (the famous cesspool of Maxim), without which no one can imagine modern city, was also first built in Rome in the 7th-6th centuries BC.

Roman cities also implemented a rainwater drainage system, and it is so effective that it is currently being tested in the Netherlands for implementation in modern cities.

Fall of a Titan

But why did such a powerful empire fall at the hands of illiterate barbarians? There have already been plenty of hypotheses on this topic, so we will focus only on the most popular ones.

One of the funniest ones is “lead”. They say that the lead pipes through which water was distributed in Rome, as well as the lead dishes from which the Romans ate, gradually poisoned the townspeople. Here we only need to mention that the calcium contained in mountain water, gradually coated the pipe walls with a build-up that would prevent hypothetical lead poisoning.

A similar version from the “greens” is “asbestos”. They say that the asbestos tablecloths that the townspeople used gradually poisoned them. True, it is unclear how asbestos could poison the poor who had not even seen these tablecloths.

And finally, one of the most plausible versions: after the end of the wars of conquest, the flow of slaves to the metropolis dried up, which caused a decline in agriculture and, as a consequence, the decline of the entire state. But, however, let each of you choose the version that seems most correct.