西方文明史 (2)

英文学院研究生学期课程论文

课程名称西方文明史

任课教师王晓红

论文标题The Fall and Decline of Roman Empire

姓名郝旭姣

班级英语语言文学2班

学号2010493

日期2011.3.28

INTRODUCTION

The Roman Empire was one of the most powerful empires in the history of mankind. In fact, it may even be considered the most powerful empire to have ever existed. However, the mighty empire of Rome has fallen. The Roman Empire emerged from the Roman Republic when Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar transformed it from a republic into a monarchy. Rome reached its zenith in the 2nd century, and then fortunes slowly declined with many revivals and restorations along the way. This was a period in which the state structure, undermined by the barbarian invasions which provoked famine and destruction, was in deep economic and political crisis, and the population in Rome and in the countryside lived in precarious conditions.

The decline of the Roman Empire is one of the events traditionally marking the end of Classical Antiquity and the beginning of the European Middle Ages. Throughout the 5th century, the Empire‟s territories in Western Europe and northwestern Africa, including Italy, fell to various invading or indigenous peoples in what is sometimes called the Migration period. Although the eastern half still survived with borders essentially intact for several centuries until the Arab expansion, the Empire as a whole had initiated major cultural and political transformations since the Crisis of the Third Century, with the shift towards a more openly autocratic and ritualized form of government, the adoption of Christianity as the state religion, and a general rejection of the traditions and values of Classical Antiquity. “The decline of the Roman Empire was not a single event but a gradual process that lasted several centuries.”(奥托.基弗,174) This process was characterized by increasing economic inequality, incompetent political and military leadership, foreign invasions and political instability resulting in repeated usurpations and all-out civil war. On the other hand, under some strong emperors, the Empire enjoyed stretches of respite from its woes.

There are many elements that lead to the final blow.For years, the well-disciplined Roman army held the barbarians of Germany back. Then in the third century A. D. the Roman soldiers were pulled back from the Rhine-Danube frontier to fight civil war in Italy. This left the Roman border open to attack. Gradually Germanic hunters and herders from the north began to overtake Roman lands in Greece and Gaul. Then in 476 A. D. the Germanic general Odacer or Odovacar overthrew the last of the Roman Emperors, Augustulus Romulus. From then on the western part of the Empire was ruled by Germanic chieftain. Roads and bridges were left in disrepair and fields left untilled. Pirates and bandits made travel unsafe. Cities could not be maintained without goods from the farms, trade and business began to disappear. The Roman Empire had become too big to control easily. Soldiers or families in distant parts of the Empire adopted local customs and the Empire was made up not only of natives from the Italian peninsula, but barbarians from the conquered lands. Corruption became rampant. Slavery and a large discontented mass of people appeared. The reasons for the decline of the Empire are still debated today and likely multiple. Above there are generally three causes for the fall and decline of Roman Empire: social causes, economical causes, and political causes.

PART ONE

SOCIAL CAUSES

The social cause is manifested in many aspects. Slavery and a large discontented mass of people; a decline in the traditional Roman citizenry; moral decay; patriotism declined as people lost their allegiance to the state; Christianity challenged the traditional Roman character traits. These are all the elements that lead to the collapse of the Roman Empire, and the following are some important aspects which have a close relationship with the decline.

1.1Decline in morals and values