The Fall of Ancient Rome - Free Essay Example

The Roman empire was at one point the largest empire in the entire world, covering up to 1.7 million square miles of land. During the years 27 B.C. to 476 A.D. the roman empire ruled. During this time, Rome thrived in almost every way of life, they proved themselves to not be messed with, and were not afraid to take what was not theres. Rome was amazing, however all good things must come to an end, and so did Rome on 476 A.D due to several reasons. The Roman Empire was extremely wealthy, the high-class people had servants, chefs, resident philosophers, a wide variety of food and wine, home libraries, all sorts of jewelry, entertainers, and bathing pools. The Roman people payed for all sorts of different types of architecture. They payed extra for the reason that there dining rooms would have amazing views. The people had fountains and, marble sculptures and all sorts of art scattered across there extravagant homes. If you are wondering how these people got this wealth, they got it from taxes and trade. The Romans would trade all sorts of types of jewels, and wools, they would also trade silver and gold. At its peak the Roman Empire stretched all the way from Scotland to the Persian Gulf. The Romans had a total land mass of 1.7 million square miles. They achieved most of this land by conquering countries, these countries were, Wales, Spain, England, Greece, Middle East, France, and some parts of Africa. Where this all started was when Rome wanted to trade in a route which the Carthaginians held. So, the Romans and Carthaginians got in 100-year war and the Romans came out on top. Rome became the powerhouse of the Mediterranean after winning the war. This gave the Romans all the chance and confidence to expand their land. After taking control of all the land near them this was not enough to satisfy them. They soon realized that land further away held wealth which would only make them even more wealthy then they already were. This victory gave Rome the go-ahead force to go and extend further then they already were. Many of the nations they took over benefited from Rome. Rome would h ave public bath, stone roads, and housing. However, all this land they had would end up being one of the many reasons of their tragic downfall. Ancient Rome had all sorts and different kinds of resources. Whether it came from trade, what they harvested from there land, or what they took from other nations, Rome had a lot of resources. These resources heavily affected Romes economy. Rome had resources such as salt, gold, silver, wine, olive oil and various types of precious metals. With these resources the Romans would use them for trade purposes. These trades were extremely important to the Roman economy as they would bring in a lot of wealth and were the reason the way most of the Roman people achieved their wealth. Romes main trading partners were in Spain, France, the Middle East, different parts in North Africa, and all types of people all across the Mediterranean Sea. The Roman Army is one of the most powerful, and effective fighting forces in history. The Romans almost all the time were involved in war with many different nations. In almost all of these wars no matter who they fought or how long they fought, the Romans would usually come out on top. The Roman Empire itself had about 45 million to 120 million people. It is estimated that the Roman military had about 3.75 million people fighting for them. The soldiers in the Roman Army were just regular Roman citizens who have signed up for 20 years of military. The army was divided up into Legions of 5,400 soldiers and the soldiers in that legion were normally led by a senator or governor. The Legions were made up of ten groups of soldiers called cohorts. Cohorts were made up of 80 men called centuries. The Roman soldiers armor was usually made up of iron. Some weapons the Roman soldiers used were daggers, swords, spears, javelins, and bow and arrows. The Romans would use catapults to catapul t huge rocks and use very large crossbows to fire, fire arrows the size of spears at there enemy.