What lead to the Roman army becoming less effective?

Answer 1

It was the western part of the Roman Empire which fell. It crumbled under the weight of the Germanic invasions. The Vandals, Alans (an Iranian-speaking people) Sueves and Burgundians invaded Gaul in 406. The Alemanni from southern Germany took advantage of this to seize Lorraine (in notheastern France) and Switzerland. Eventually, the Germanic peoples took over all the territories of the western part of the Roman Empire except for Italy. The Burgundians took over Burgundy and part of the Rhone valley (in eastern France) and established the Burgundian kingdom. The Vandals and Alans eventually took over the Roman territories in northwestern Africa and established the kingdom of the Vandals. The Visigoths (who had been allowed to settle in the eastern part of the Roman Empire) moved to southwestern France and then took over Spain and Portugal, establishing the Visigoth Kingdom there. The Franks (who had been allowed to settle in the area of Holland south of the river Rhine and Belgium of the western part of the Roman Empire) took over the last Roman territories in Gaul, which were in central France. The Angles, Saxons and Jutes from northern Germany and the Frisians from northern Holland migrated to England in waves and eventually took it over.

Under the weight of these invasions, the western part of the Roman Empire lost political cohesion. There was a lot of infighting and a sting of usurpers.

The eastern part of the Roman Empire was not affected by these invasions and continued to exist for another 1,000 years. It continued to be ruled by an emperor. Historians have coined the term Byzantine Empire to indicate the eastern part of the Roman Empire after the fall of the western part is Byzantine Empire. The Romans did not use this term, they called it Roman Empire and Romania (this referred to this empire and not the country which was later called Romania).

The term Byzantine is derived from Byzantium, the Greek city which was redeveloped, turned into the imperial capital of the eastern part of the Roman Empire and renamed Constantinople by the emperor Constantine the Great in 330. It is used to indicate the fact that not long after the fall of the western part, this empire became centred on Greece and Greek in character after it lost most of its non-Greek territories. Greek replaced Latin as the official language of this empire in 620, some 150 years after the fall of the west.

Answer 2

The Roman Emperors were weak and enaged in a number of civil wars. Rome's economic system favored an upward flow of wealth, to the extent the common citizenry realized they would be no better off under their Roman rulers than they would be under the "barbarians."

There was also the problem of religion. Eventually pagan worship was outlawed, causing citizens to turn against the government.

Rome welcomed German immigrants but treated them as second class citizens. The Germans resented this and eventually sacked Rome. The eastern Roman Empire survived another thousand years, until conquered by the Turks in the 15th century.

Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" covers many of the factors leading up to the empire's decline and fall. The historian Zosimus, writing from the 5th century, also had some ideas.

Answer 3

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