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How Did Western Rome Influence Our Society

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Rome was an empire of influence, culture, and prosperity. In its span of 500 years, Rome created works of art and literature that still continue to influence our society today. Rome was an incredibly powerful civilization and conquered many lands and other weaker civilizations. Through this, they managed to create an incredibly large and diverse empire. However, this prosperity wouldn’t last forever. In fact, after their reign of 500 years was over, the Western half of Rome fell. The Eastern half, on the other hand, managed to stay prosperous for roughly 1,000 years. Not only did the Byzantine Empire, survive past the decline of its Western half, it managed to thrive and produced many valuable works that are just as inspiring as those produced …show more content…
However, towards the end of its reign, Western Rome was in economic and agricultural decline. Economically, Rome was in severe decline. Due to overexpansion, and overspending by the military from their constant bombardment of wars, Western Rome was in an economic depression. To combat, this Rome increased their taxes and caused incredible inflation of goods. This further allowed to the division of Rome and their upper and lower classes. Agriculturally, Rome suffered poor crop yields. This was most likely due to the decreased supply of labor and slaves to work the fields and industries. Since expansion had stopped, there were few to no slaves that were captured. This led to a decrease in labor and workforce, and thus contributed to the fall of Rome. Not only were economic and agricultural problems a factor in the fall of Rome, so was the barbaric tribes that interfered with Rome's trade routes and the influx of …show more content…
Throughout Rome, many started to follow the Christian faith rather than their own Roman belief system. Many even suggest that the “decline of Rome dovetailed with the spread of Christianity” (“Why Rome Fell”). When Roman officials finally allowed Christianity to be practiced freely within their empire they also reduced important Roman values and cultural identity. Christianity not only replaced the polytheistic belief system that was previously important in Roman society, it also replaced the belief that the emperor had a divine and important status. This would further lead to the decreased feeling of nationality in Rome, and further contributed to the declined expansion of Rome. This would then lead to a more complicated government and the battle of power between religious officials and the emperor of Western Rome. Thus, this proves how the religious and cultural identity of Rome and its decline, also led to the decline of Rome

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