What symptoms in the Roman Empire forecasted it's downfall? Where were the internal factors of the Empire that most contributed to the fall?
(also, is it true as they say, that the rampant homosexuality in Rome was one of the symptoms of it's downfalls, or nah?)
The old Roman gods had become substituted by the Christian god, and since the religion itself taught a better life in the next world, it made the present world not worth fighting for.
Christianity effectively broke the spirit of the Romans, who by the 5th century had become but a shadow of their former selves.
Luxuria atque avaritia
threads like these made rome fall
>Roman Empire
>>521364
Which is why the incredibly Christian ERE lasted for almost a thousand years more.
The empire was too large and made communication from the borders to the core of the empire difficult. External threats of invaders and weak leadership were the main causes for the fall.
>>521257
the extension of power beyond a small clique of Roman nobles.
Promotion on merit sounds like a great idea until you realise that the homo novus has no incentive to maintain the established order. People are a lot less likely to slaughter the rest of the government when it consists of their brother-in-laws, second cousins, nephews, etc, etc. In more general terms, they'll be less loyal simply because a lot of loyalty comes from a shared sense culture, which comes from a shared upbringing. Also, merit in one area does not necessarily imply merit in others - just because someone is a competent soldier, doesn't mean that they'll be a decent administrator.
Promoting one or two people on the basis that they're good at their jobs is one thing, but when your entire army is run by professionals - i.e. people who do the job just because they're getting paid to, not because they believe in the cause - you can't be surprised when they're perfectly willing to murder their supposed commander-in-chief for money. This is what happened during the crisis of the third century. The increasing professionalism of the Roman army was bound to backfire sooner or later.
Inflation was constantly rising thanks to the devaluation of Roman currency.
>>521364
Nice meme, it explains perfectly why Byzantium survived another 1000 years, and was even able to reconquer many parts of the WRE using Belisarius.
>>521387
get out Voltaire you weren't around for this
>>521257
>Where were the internal factors of the Empire that most contributed to the fall?
The lack of any sort of institutional loyalty or organization. A legion's first loyalty was almost always to its commander, and then, maybe to the commander's boss, who was hopefully (but not always) the Emperor.
The idea that a legion was loyal to the Empire as a whole, or to the Imperial institution as distinct form whichever emperor was sitting on the throne, just wasn't there.
So to secure a power base, the Emperors had to divide command of their military, play the various legion commanders off against each other, hoping that if any of them turned to the throne, they would be stopped by the others.
It didn't always work, leading to endemic civil war. And to attempt it, Rome had to weaken herself quite a bit.
>>521257
multiculturalism
"Let the barbarians in, they'll do the jobs entitled Roman citizens don't want to do."
>>521364
This is stupid
