People talk about the fall of Rome as if the Romans were completely helpless when the evil barbarians struck. That the perfect society of Rome could do nothing under the grasp of this great evil. But no one ever talks about Rome’s part in it’s own falling, and there a quite a few things Rome did wrong that lead to it’s own downfall. Let’s go back to 5th century, CE. Rome was bombarded with armies from many different places. But was the really the downfall of Rome? Many people who lived during that time would say no. They would say the main reasons for the downfall was Rome’s own laziness, overconfidence, and slowly corrupting governmental system.
There are many varying opinions on why exactly why Rome fell, but a topic that shows up fairly frequently is how lazy the Romans grew. Rome was once a great society, but as it grew, it’s army grew lazier. They no longer enforced wearing armor. As if this wasn’t bad enough, they also stopped recruiting enough warriors for their army (Doc B). So, as their army grew lazier, neighboring countries began to notice this weakness. They assaulted Rome’s cities with all they,and due to …show more content…
Due to years of victory, they believed that all were below them, and that everyone would cower when they flicked their wrists. For example, a certain Roman historian named Ammianus Marcellinus believed that the huns were “like unthinking animals”(Doc D). While, in fact, a Roman ambassador named Priscus noted that a former Roman citizen greatly prefered his life under the huns to life living under Roman leadership (Doc E). Romans thought so great of themselves that any who didn’t physically go and live with the huns thought them uneducated fools. They must have thought similar of any other foe as well. When you underestimate your enemy, you only make it easier for them to surprise you with tactics. So, by ignoring others’ intelligence, Romans only made fools of