The fall of the Roman Empire was a complex process which was influenced by multiple factors. The Events began during the third century, when the Empire was plagued with mass migration of non Roman, especially Germanic tribes, into the empire, and political Instability, with it culminating in 476 with the deposition of the last Emperor Romulus Augustulus.

Here are the reasons for its decline and eventual collapse:

Internal Factors:

• Political instability and corruption:

  Between the years 235 and 284, also known as the “Crisis of the Third Century” the empire had 27 emperors of which 5 had varying ascribed status, i.e. were not official emperors and some of them were children.

  Corruption was also played a role as bribery was widespread in political appointments and tax collectors embezzled funds, thus reducing the empires revenue.

• Economic Decline:

  Certain Emperors reduced the content of silver in the roman currency in order to fund military campaigns. This lead to severe inflation between third and fourth centuries. Since government spending was focused on the military, they resorted to overtaxation of farmers and the middle class, and as a result some were forced into serfdom since they were unable to pay their taxes.

• Military Decline:

  Emperor Caracalla issued an edict in 212-213 called “Constitutio Antoniniana” which granted citizenship to almost all inhabitants of the empire, so the incentive for military service decreased. In order to solve this issue, the army turned to Germanic mercenaries and started increasingly relying on them to fight their wars. Since these Germanic Tribes were not citizens of Rome, their loyalty was fragile and questionable. Diocletian tried to reform the military, however, his efforts also placed even more tension on the economy and the creation of mobile field armies weakened frontier defense.

External Factors:

• Wars and Invasions:

  Surrounding nomadic tribes like Huns and Germanic tribes always tried to infiltrate the empire seeking refuge within the borders of the empire. During the Battle of Adrianople in 378, Goths defeated and killed Emperor Valens, which marked a turning point. Following that there were a couple of more significant battles which the romans lost, and then they ended up giving up and losing crucial territories like when they had to give up Britain in 410.

  In addition to that, the third century saw the rise of the Sassanid Empire, and the constant warfare between the two empires in the east of the Roman empire depleted roman resources.

• Rise of Christianity and Loss of Traditional Values:

  The spread of Christianity challenged traditional roman religious practices. Initially, Christianity was widely believed to be pacifistic and believers were less likely to serve in the Roman Imperial Army. As Christianity spread, there was a massive cultural shift within the empire- The concept of “Roman-ness” was slowly dissapearing, especially after citizenship was granted to all inhabitants of the empire.

  During the spread of Christianity, Nero was the Emperor who was infamous for persecuting Chrstians in the Empire, blamed the Great fire of Rome on Christians, which destroyed parts of Rome.

Conventionally, The Roman Empire fell on the 4th of September 476, when Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus, a child emperor who was 11 years old at the time. In the Aftermath, the western Roman Senate, which was mostly powerless survived under the 7th century. The Eastern half of the empire however, The Byzantine Empire, succeeded it under the rule of Emperor Zeno, who convinced the Ostrogoth king Theodoric to take control of Italy from Odoacer, which brought peace to the empire until Anastasius Dicorus succeeded him in 491.