The Fall of the Roman Empire, Article Review Example

Historically, the barbarian Visigoth chieftain Alaric made three attempts to conquer the ancient city of Rome. His first attempt in 408 A.D. resulted in an agreement with Stilicho, the Roman general in charge of the Western Empire, who paid Alaric 4000 pounds in gold to keep the peace. His second attempt in 409 A.D. ended when the Roman Senate paid him 2000 pounds in gold to retreat. His third attempt occurred on August 24, 410 A.D. when Alaric and his Visigoth invaders successfully entered the city of Rome and sacked it. This was the first time in the nine hundred year-long history of Rome that an enemy army had entered the city (“Alaric the Visigoth”).

After reading the reminiscences of Ammianus Marcellinus (330 to 395 C.E.) who had paid a short visit to the city of Rome sometime around 400 C.E. or about ten years before Alaric and his Visigoth invaders sacked the great city, it became obvious why Alaric faced little if any opposition from the citizens of Rome. As an excellent historical document, “The Luxury of the Rich In Rome” provides an inside look at the conditions in Rome, a city “full of emptiness, shallowness, and lacking all real culture” (Marcellinus, “The Luxury of the Rich in Rome”) that were directly responsible for the city’s downfall.

According to Marcellinus, although in 400 C.E. the city of Rome was still viewed as the “queen of the earth” and its citizens as “respected and venerated,” it had become “defaced by the inconsiderate levity of a few” who had fallen into “error and licentiousness,” an indication that the citizens of Rome had by 400 C.E. become indifferent to what was occurring around them and decided to devote their lives to the pursuit of pleasure; they also had become so self-centered and selfish that they erected statues to themselves as if immortal gods on earth (Marcellinus, “The Luxury of the Rich in Rome”).

In addition, Marcellinus notes that the rich and wealthy citizens of Rome or those who possessed “patrimonial estates in a boundless degree,” being huge landed estates handed down through the generations from their Roman forefathers, had become boastful and arrogant and deemed themselves as special above all others in Rome, due to having inherited the designation of a patrician as opposed to being a plebian or a common, lower class citizen of Rome (Marcellinus, “The Luxury of the Rich in Rome”). Obviously, because of the deteriorating state of the Roman government circa 400 C.E., the inability of the Roman senators to wield political power as in the old days, and the ineptitude of its emperor Constantine III, the citizens of Rome, especially the wealthy patrician classes, spent their time throwing elaborate banquets for their friends, gambling, drinking, bribing Roman officials for special favors, and often consorting with “eunuchs” or men and boys who have had their sexual organs removed in order to prevent them from having sexual relations with the female slaves of the master’s household (Marcellinus, “The Luxury of the Rich in Rome”).

Marcellinus also relates that schools that once taught the classics and the humanities have deteriorated into places of “ridiculous amusements of torpid indolence” or places where the wealthy could wile away the hours being entertained by dancing girls and much alcohol. Meanwhile, outside on the streets, the common people must contend with diseases via the “frequency of epidemics.” Apparently, there is no work to perform, so they “spend the whole night in the wine shops” or sit in the shadows of the theatres, begging for food and money, as the wealthy enjoy themselves amid what seems to be utter chaos, if not anarchy, due to the total collapse of Roman society. Thus, for historians, this primary source provides a fascinating glimpse into the latter days of the city of Rome when indifference and self-indulgence was paving the way for the total collapse of a nine hundred year-old civilization that at one time ruled the known world.

Bibliography

“Alaric the Visigoth.” Heritage History. 2012. Web. Accessed March 27, 2014.

Marcellinus, Ammianus. “The Luxury of the Rich in Rome.” Ancient History Sourcebook. Fordham University. 2012. Web. Accessed March 27, 2014.