Roman Empire Culture Essay Example for Free

Roman Empire Culture EssayWikipedias inlet on the Fall of the Roman Empire is a comprehensive and multifaceted survey of the scholarship which seeks to indicate a certain period or event or series of events which caused the fall of the Roman Empire. peerless of the main differences between the Wikipedia entry and a traditional encyclopedia entry is the extensive analysis with which the Wikipedia entry is able to devote to sub-sections and sub-theories under the general pennon of discussion. The question of assigning a specific date for the fall occupies a great deal of the Wikipedia article. The traditional date acknowledged is September 4, 476 when Romulus Augustus, Emperor of the occidental Empire, was deposed by Odoacer. But the Eastern Empire continued until the fall of Constantinople nearly a century later in 1453. Other dates in contention ar 395, the year of the death of Theodosius, the last time the Empire was united the crossing of the Rhine by Germanic tribes in 40 6 after the withdrawal of the legions to battle Alaric I or the disintegration of the western legions following the death of Stilicho in 408. Many scholars disdain the term fall, preferring to describe what was happening as a complex interlingual rendition. The Wikipedia entry while seeming to dwell inordinately on a specific time or date of the fall is in actuality providing the researcher with a varied primer on the myriad theories which attend the question of historical dates of the Roman Empires fall. Though the intonate of the Wikipedia entry is scholarly, the lengthy digressions and somewhat scattered patterns of randomness make the entry less streamlined than a typical encyclopedia entry. In addition, the numerous off-site links and cross-references can prove to be distractive. And although the Wikipedia entry itself closely resembles scholarly writing there can be no assurance regarding the veracity of off-site links. The most obvious bias that is apparent in the Wikipedi a entry is resounding insistence that there is a date of recrudesce for the Roman Empire. The entry cites Edward Gibbon who argues the Roman population lost its way by allowing the Germanic tribes and other ferine mercenaries a greater role in defending its interests. Gibbon claims Christianity was a contributing factor as well, turning the populations management to other-worldly as opposed to here-and-now events. Rather than examine contradictory theories in detail, the Wikipedia entry consumjes most of its energy revealing the survey of theories which argue for a date of let out for the Roma Empire. Wikipedia surveys the Pirenne Thesis, wherein Henri Pirenne argued the Empire continued until the Muslim conquests in the 7th century, which disrupted Mediterranean trade routes and depressed the European economy. Pirenne sees the crowning of the Frankish poove Charlemagne as the first Holy Roman Emperor in 800 as a continuation of the Empire. But it is J. B. Burys contention in h is freshlys report of the Later Roman Empirewhich receives critical attention in the Wikipedia article. His theory is that what amounted to a perfect storm of events combined to spell the downfall of the Empire *stinting decline *Germanic expansion in the population and military *De-population of Italy *The treason of Stilicho *The murder of Aetius and the lack of a leader to replace him Bury says the Empire could wipe out survived any of these events separately, but could not overcome the convergence of them. William Carroll Barks Origins of the Medieval World reasons that basic economics was the Empires undoing. As a pre-cursor to feudalism, the tenant farmers obligation was to pay a fixed assessment of taxes on his grain supply. The oppressive taxes kept the farmers impoverished and unlikely to bear into the more prosperous middle class. In fact, what middle class there was was forced to become collectors of the taxes for the inefficient central government. Government coffers suffered as a result. Also, the scarceness of gold late in the Empire made matters worse. Inflation of the currency in relation to its measure in gold resulted in more masses demanding payment in gold. The governments cash-flow problems required them to seek cheaper mercenaries as defenders. Radovan Richta says technology contributed to the Empires demise. The Germanic invention of the horseshoe and use of the new Chinese compass allowed mercenaries quicker entree to Roman defenses. Arnold Toynbee and James Burke also examine economic causes at the root of the Empires fall. The Romans had no budgetary system and wasted available resources as a result. The economy was basically based on plunder rather than production of new goods, and that declined on with territorial expansion. Landowners were exempt from taxation, making revenue production inefficient and unfair. The middle-class, the backbone of any free economy, was nearly non-existent. Exports were scarce. Military and bur eaucratic costs increased. In overthrowing Romulus Augustus, the barbarian conqueror Odoacer assumed neither the title nor the responsibility of governance. William H. McNeill in Plagues and Peoples notes a 20-year-long plague in the late second century killed half of Europes population. The reduced tax base was unable to support the government and military and the resultant economic and social decline also killed the Empire. Further theories of the cause of collapse proliferate through the Wikipedia article. So much so that one begins to feel that each sub-section of the article has been contributed by an enthusiast of that particularly pet-theory, sacrificing a general tone of scholarship for a tone of specificity and personal expertise. Examples of this include Wikipedias survey of Peter Heathers theory that the threat posed by the Sassanid Persian Empire has been overlooked as a cause for the Roman Empires fall. He used archaeological evidence to suggest the Romans were stretch ed militarily by their preoccupation with the Persians, allowing a succession of Huns, Goths, and Germanic barbarians access to their territory. A researcher who is searching for a very good primer regarding the abundance of theories which exist in scholarship to examine the historicism of the Roman Empires fall impart find excellent information in the Wikipedia article, as a general and unverified outline of the scholarship. However, a deep-researcher would probably find the entry inconsistent, erratic, and of little value for serious scholarship as a go-to source rather the Wikipedia seems to serve better as a thumbnail sketch of info and links to other sources of effectiveness value.REFERENCE The Fall of the Roman Empire. wikipedia.com. Retrieved from the Internet March 16, 2007.