Vague Notes on the Rise and Decline of the Roman Empire 180-410 AD

“We improve ourselves by victory over our self. There must be contests, and you must win.” - Edward Gibbon.

'All human effort directed toward a goal in the material or physical plane must inevitably suffer self-combustion, it must crumble and decay. Some say it is better to allow the flesh to waste away, even consume it and nourish the spirit which is eternal. For thus it is said that the spirit is immortal, even the half-formed notion of an idea succeeds where the strength and suppleness of muscle, sinew and bone is forgotten amidst the dust and ashes of the earth. Man rises quickly and too soon is cut down either by the hand of God, through infection or corruption. The best form of revenge on this body of clay is to survive the ultimate conflict with the self or the ego. Remember that all the legions of the Empire cannot save you from mortal death.'

Moral decay... economic decline... civil war... foreign invasions... depopulation... malaria (disease)... poisoning... much of the argumentation is pseudoargument! Common culture was only a veneer... economic stagnation... disastrous depression... aggravated by labor difficulties... currency crisis... the distribution of wealth was radically inequitable... inept in organizing available sources of power for the effective production of material wealth... whole of society rested on the basis of slave labor... a defective political structure (succession)... real power rested with oligarchic clique of the most wealthy and powerful families... absence of any constitutional machinery... sinking into a state of endemic civil war and permanent bankruptcy... wars had the effect of undermining the financial structure of the state... ruinous inflation... absence of a stable central authority... increasingly difficult to provide disciplined valor to guard the frontiers... gradual destruction of the middle class... rigid stratification of society... the weight of taxation... economic initiative was stifled... trade decayed... city populations became idle mobs... corruption was rampant... the richest men were exempt from taxation... the rich had every opportunity to grow richer and a crushing burden was placed on the poor... barbarian invaders were welcomed as liberators... "the enemy is more lenient than the tax collectors" ... failure of virtue... moral corruption... sickeningly sadistic spectacles... depopulation... labor shortages... ruralization and decentralization... policies stifled creativity and spontaneity... the senate was losing all its real power in the government of the state... "Perhaps there is truth in the generalization so frequently made that in times of political and economic confusion, men's minds turn to things spiritual" ... mystery religions... religious enthusiasm bordering sometimes on actual hysteria... salvation by cleansing the soul of sin... invasions... no precise date for the 'fall' ... constantly pressed against the borders... defeat of frontier guards... raid a province... the process of slow infiltration... whole peoples began to migrate into the empire... immigrants... mistreatment by provincial officials... rebelled against imperial authority... sudden deterioration... weakened frontier... border defenses give way... surge... ravaging... attacked... captured... looted... unprecedented disaster... the empire ceased to exist as a political entity... the end.

All Rights Reserved / Copyright David John Drew 2013.