Nerva

Well, I've brought this thread back from the dead it seems. I chose economic decline. While any of the factors taken individually, couldn't bring down the Empire, when all combined into a perfect storm, spelled doom for the Western Empire. I picked economic decline because over time, it left the Empire in a weakened state. A wealthy Empire should not have had to strip troops from the border regions on the Rhine to fight the Goths in Italy as Stilicho did (or tell Britannia to defend themselves as best they could). They simply couldn't field enough forces to defend themselves. And the economic decline itself is the result of several factors. The Roman economic machine was driven by plunder. The minute Rome stopped expanding, the booty stopped flowing into the economy. Moronic acts by Emperors like doubling the legions' pay didn't help matters, or staging lavish games, or building churches with state money. Disease is also a factor in the poor economy. Tax payers dying because of plague isn't going to help your economic base and we see a depopulation in the Empire in the 3rd century because of disease. Crippling taxes only stifles the economy and encourages tax evasion and barter. I think at some level, the Roman leadership understood basic economics, but there was too much pressure to simply raise taxes or mint more money. The quick answer was usually the one chosen because Emperors with the mob and hostile legions at their throats have to take quick action, so just mint more coins. Civil Wars existed all throughout Roman history, so that wasn't much of a change, but in the weakened state of their economy in the 5th century, they just couldn't afford the luxury of fighting each other. But why change? It was the Roman way. They had been conducting business like this for 1000 years. I don't think they realized that the Empire could really fall if they continued in the same manner.

Add another vote to the Africa front. Without the grain, the Empire starved and that's not good for raising troops or taxes if people are dead from a lack of food. You see intense efforts of both the dying Western Empire and even assisted by the Eastern Empire to recover Carthage in the middle of the 5th century. They were thwarted by the Barbarian Magister Militium and for good reason. A healthy Rome would make for a stronger Emperor politically and the Barbarian troops certainly didn't want that.

Yes, Apparently in the Thirteenth year of Justinian's reign I believe it wasn't actually abolished, but given exclusively to the emperor from 541 onward. Merely a formality of course, but I don't believe the office was abolished (by decree). Maladict looks to be correct. Justinian I held the consulship while Emperor probably when there was no one else who wanted to fork over the large sum of personal money this symbolic office required. The great Byzantine General Belisarius held the honor only 6 years before it lapsed into oblivion. Wikipedia lists the last consul (In Constantinople of course) as Anicius Faustus Albinus Basilius in the year 541.

Great article. I think the Praetorians and perhaps the Senate had visions of the success of Nerva when they named Pertinax, but things had changed so much in one hundred years. The military and the Praetorians had become the Emperor makers leaving the Senate in an extremely weakened state. Men of the military, especially the foot soldiers don't have the patience of a statesman. Pertinax's short rule is just another Roman tragedy of the Imperial era.

As Maladict mentioned, Nicomedia was a popular spot for Eastern Emperors before Constantinople was founded. Diocletian ruled from there much for the same reasons Constantine founded Nova Roma, namely it's strategic position in the center of the East and the ability to move to counter threats on both the Danube and the Persian fronts. Whether the fortress of Constantinople existed or not matters little with respect to the Barbarian invasions of the 4th and 5th centuries. They would have had the same impact even with Italy as the power center of the Empire. I think it might have been possible for the Empire to survive the loss of Britannia, Gaul, Hispania and some of the Danubian provinces if they were able to hold onto Carthage, Sicily and the grain supply to Italy. They could have existed in a more limited form and perhaps reemerged to fight again another day, but that's just pure speculation on my part and not really provable either way.

I picked architecture. Granted the Romans didn't invent the aqueduct, or the Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian column, but the way they used architecture as a personification of their national strength is something that resonates to this day. They didn't just build big in the capital, they did it in every city in the Roman world. They built with efficiency that has only be replicated over the past 100-200 years. Ok, I'm a little partial to architecture.

New to the forum here, but so far I think it's a great site. I think my favorite era would be the late Western Empire. Not so much because of its form of government, I actually find it kind of sad to watch the old shell of the Republic ripped away by succeeding Emperors, but studying this era, you keep asking yourself why the Western Empire fell and new ideas keep popping up from so many different sources. It's not as well known as the Republic and the early Imperial Period. I watch the Empire crumble again and again in my mind and I wonder what decisions could have been made to save it. I look at the selfishness of so many of the prominent characters of the era and wonder how things might have turned out differently if they put the state ahead of their own desires, just for a moment. It's a concept of "What could have been" in my mind when I look at the period. So I picked the Dominate.

For me I think it's the fact that they were so ahead of their time technologically and as a society in general. You appreciate all that classical Rome brought to the table when you look at where society in Europe went in the Dark Ages. I also love ruins and they built so much that there is just a plethora of Roman ruins across the Mediterranean world.