What went wrong? The cause of Rome's fall

Throughout Rome’s history, there have been many close calls, but when it comes down to it the reason Rome fell was because of the invasions of Germanic tribes. Despite all of the other things such as lack of slaves and treasures, Rome still would’ve pulled through and still have been the greatest empire.

The Goths had been attacking Rome sporadically since 238 BC, weakening it every time they attacked, but Rome’s biggest problem came in the late 4th century. They were the Huns, and they had been attacking Germanic tribes, and pushing them to the Roman empire. The Thervic Goths needed somewhere to go, so they went to the Eastern Roman Empire and stayed there. After being heavily taxed, starved, and hated by the Romans the Goths had had enough. They rebelled against the Romans by looting and pillaging throughout the Eastern empire. A Roman army led by the emperor Valens was sent to take down the Goths, and in the battle of Adrianople the Goths won the battle, killing Valens and many of his troops. In 382 AD, peace between the Thervings (now known as Visigoths) and the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius was made. Making this treaty was not a good idea, and the Romans should have just sent the Goths away.

In 391 AD a Gothic Chieftain named Alaric was declared king by a group of Visigoths. He then went on to lead an invasion into Rome, but was promptly defeated by Theodosius’ army. In 395 AD, Alaric led his troops into the Western Rome territory to invade them. At the battle of Frigidus, around half of the Visigoths died, and Theodosius won the battle again. When Theodosius died in 395 AD, the Visigoths considered their treaty to have also ended. Alaric led his warriors back to their land in Moesia to gather Goths for battle, and they immediately rebelled against Rome by invading Thrace and approaching the capital. This shows that the Romans trusted the Goths too much, and should have just made them leave before they could attack. Rufinus, now one of the leaders of Rome, negotiated with Alaric to make him withdraw from Constantinople. Alaric accepted the negotiation because he was promised land, but that didn’t stop him from looting the diocese of Macedonia. He and his men were barbaric, and should have been stopped there before they could do further damage. After two sieges of Rome, the Visigoths almost had control of the empire. After being attacked by a Roman general, Alaric gave up on negotiation and sieged Rome for a third and final time. On August 24, 410 AD, Alaric and his men entered Rome and pillaged it for 3 days. The Goths brutally sacked Rome, killing Romans everywhere they went. When it was all over, Rome, once the greatest Empire, had fallen.

If the Romans had seen it coming, it would still be thriving, but our stubbornness led to our fall. All of the problems inside of Rome would have gone away, and the Goths are the reason Rome fell. If we had planned out how we were going to take them down more carefully, we still could be the greatest. empire.