Katye,+Raphael

**//The Fall of the Roman Empire...//**
According to some people Rome started out with 2 brothers, Romulus and Remus. According to others it started out with a warrior. Most people don't agree on how the fall of Rome happened. Here are some reasons why Rome fell. We got this information from [|here]. //**Public Health**// Death rate was very high for wealthy because thier water was brought to them in lead pipes. Acquaducts cleaned the water but most people thought lead pipes were better.Also, the constant amount of poeple at the Colloseum probably spread disease because of the amount of blood.Those who lived on the street in constant contact allowed many diseases to spread quickly. //**Christianity**// Some say that it was Christianity's fault that the Roman empire collapsed. A group of people said it made citizens into pacifists, making it harder to defend against barbarian attackers and money used for churches could have been used for maintaining Rome. //**Political Corruption**// For Rome, it was difficult to pick new emperors.It wasn't smooth but at least it was consistant.Unlike the Greeks, Romans never created a sufficiant system for selecting new emperors.The selection was always open to discusion of the old Emperor, the Senate, Praetorian gaurd (the emperors private army), and the army.Later,The Preatorian Guard gained the full ability to choose new emperor.Then, in 186 A.D. the army killed the current emporer and sold the throne to the highest bidder.Over the next 100 years, Rome had 37 emperors- 25 of them died by assaination.This helped the fall of the Roman empire. //**Unemployment**// Since Rome conquered many lands, they had many slaves. By putting slaves to work, there weren't jobs to be taken by poor farmers. //**Inflamation**// Romes economy decreased because raising prices that started after Marcus Aurelius. When the Romans stopped invading lands, the money stopped coming to the Roman economy. Still alot of money was spent on items that Romans did not need. This meant that there wasn't much gold to put in coins. As less and less gold was used in coins, the coins became worthless. Soon, payment had to be made for food and clothing, taxes were paid in fruits and vegetables. Some people think it was splitting the empire in two was why Rome fell. The Emporer Diocletian he decided that the empire was to big for one man to rule so he split it up into the western and eastern Roman empire. The Eastern part turned into The Byzantine Empire,Consantinople as its capital. The Western part stayed centered in Rome. Diocletian ruled the Byzantine Empire, and sent three assisstants to rule the western part of the empire. We got this info from the World Adventures in Time and Place SS text book.

Other think that the fall of Rome was because of its Geographic condition.