Decline and Fall

4. The Romans were unwilling to give up their reverence for Rome's long tradition of republican government even when such a form of government could no longer effectively manage Roman affairs.

Augustus Caesar converted the Republic into an empire in about 14 BC by concentrating the major offices of the Republic in his own person and maintaining the fiction that he was preserving and maintaining the Republic. Under such a policy, he was unable to establish a stable system of imperial succession, and struggles for power eventually began to drain the empire of its strength.

Read Augustus's own account of his accomplishments in The Deeds of the Divine Augustus

69 AD A civil war broke out as several of the frontier legions each separately attempted to raise an emperor to replace Nero, which led to, 69 - 192, an era of military emperors that was ended only in, 193 - 197 the bloody civil war of Septimius Severus. From 198 to 282, the stability established by Severus slowly decayed, and Rome finally fell into a period, 258 - 283, of virtually constant civil wars known as the Era of the Thirty Tyrants. In 283, the imperial system of frontier defense broke down and German bands raided throughout the western portions of the empire. In 283, Diocletian became emperor and began sweeping reforms in the imperial system.

5. To all intents and purposes, the Roman empire established by Augustus Caesar, what people generally think of when they talk of "the glory that was Rome" had come to an end by the 280's. After the reforms introduced by Diocletian and his successor, Constantine the Great, the Roman empire would be a far different place than it had once been. As we shall see, it was, in fact, well upon its way to assuming many of the characteristics of Medieval Europe.

So one possible answer to the question of when the Roman empire fell is "sometime around AD 284." Why did it fall? The imperial system had proven unable to maintain internal peace and order, and Rome could no longer maintain those institutions and policies upon which the unity, security, and prosperity of the Mediterranean lands depended.

What followed the fall of the Roman empire? Another Roman empire.