Jasia+and+Connor

=Ancient Rome's Fall=

Ancient Rome was a very strong empire. It started off as groups of villages, and more came together eventually. Soon, it was an empire. People were conquering lands all over the place, thanks to Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar soon became ancient Rome’s dictator, and its government of a republic was then gone. Although, Rome was a wonderful place. In the beginning, it was actually good to be conquered by Rome. They had public bathes, temples, and even arenas for gladiator fights. The most popular was the Colloseum, where people, often slaves or prisoners of war would fight each other, but often, winning gladiators were treated as celebrities. Still in this wonderful empire, there were problems, many of which could of lead to Rome’s decline in power.

Ancient Rome’s decline is still a mystery, even today. We are not exactly sure what happened, although we do have ideas on what lead to Rome’s falling, or its decline in power. Many researchers have been studying why this may have happened. Some say that it was the fight for power. During the years 180-284 the Senate had twenty-seven men that were senators. Still, many other men tried to also be called senators. This was finally stopped by Diocletian, who took away the last of its republican liberties. He divided the empire into two separate parts, the east and west. Diocletian ruled the eastern side of what was left of the empire, and had an associate rule the western half. Many say that because of the separation of the empire, this may have been a reason for Rome’s decline. (Information found [|here])

Map of Rome divided by east and west (Picture found [|here)]

Another possible reason for ancient Rome's decline was Christianity. When Rome was just starting, there was no such thing as Christianity. Soon many people had started following Jesus after he was crucified. During the early fourth century, Costantine was involved in making policies for Christianity because he supported it. After a while, the religion took over. The Church leaders changed the empire by taking away power from the emperor. Religious beliefs of Christians changed the way the empire was. (Information found [|here]) Today Rome is still the center of Christianity in Italy, where the Pope lives and where many people go to visit and tour.

Vatican in Rome today (Picture found [|here)]

Lead pipes may have also been a reason for Rome's falling. In ancient Rome, lead pipes were used for their water system. Along with the lead pipes, lead was also used in cosmetics for women, food preperation and dining wear, and also glazes covering items. Lead was very dangerous and known as a very deadly poison. It could kill many of people, and probably killed many of people in ancient Rome. With many people dying, also from over crowding of their empire and the empire being dirty, this could also have been a major reason for Rome collapsing. (Information found [|here]) Lead pipe (Picture found [|here)] There are many theories on why Rome fell some of the things that might have caused the fall of Rome might have contributed to people like the Goths and the Vandals who were north of Rome. Even though Rome had conquered some of the north the Goths and Vandals still fought against Rome. Rome was attacked by tribes like the Goths because they wanted to move in south where there were fertile land and a better climate for farming. Some of the people who attacked the eastern part of the empire after it split were the Ostrogoths, the Huns, the Franks, the Visigoths, and the Burgundians. After this the Vandals and the Visigoths were given the right to live in the Roman empire as long as they protected them from the Huns. In 410 A.D. Alaric, leader of the Visigoths realized that he could take Rome with almost no resistance form the roman army so he took the oppurtunity. you can find more on this here[|Fall of Rome - History for Kids!]

There are many reason that ancient Rome could have fallen. Some say it totally collapsed and that it was destroyed. Although, other people say that it may have just been a big decline in power, becoming less powerful of when it was earlier. There are still many theories on why Rome is no longer as strong as it was back then in its earlier years. All of this is still a mystery though. If we do learn about what exactly caused Rome to fall, maybe we can learn from their mistakes and we could prevent the same thing happening.

(Mr. Wood, on the second day of this project Connor was not here.)