The Debate on what caused Rome to fall the most Essay

The Debate on what caused Rome to fall the most - Essay Example Could it have been too big of an empire to handle? Were the people in charge just not fit to govern it properly? It transpires that there are many different reasons that can be attributed for the fall of the Roman Empire. One major contributory factor to the fall of Roman Empire is the decline of morals and values in the country. It has been documented that there was nearly 32,000 prostitutes in Rome, both men and women. During the reigns of rulers such as Pax Romana, Caligula and Nero the reigning royalty held infamous parties, wasting huge sums of money, where guests drank and ate to their fill and prostitutes were hired for orgies for the upper class à ©lite. Among the lower class, the most popular amusement was watching the gladiatorial combats in the Colosseum. This encouraged gambling, fighting, and acts of murder. On the other hand, many people claimed that such practices were a part of the Roman culture, but they made the common men lazy.   Ã‚      Although there were many aqueducts and other attempts at sanitation, the public health and environmental problems were severe. The wealthy elite had their water brought to their homes through lead pipes. The aqueducts had a system o purify the water near the source but at the end, the lead pipes were problematic. This caused the death of many wealthy citizens and on the flip side the lack of potable water brought the doom on the peasantry. The mass gathering of people at the Colosseum and the waste they caused, as well as the blood and corpses had entailed the generation of disease that spread across the nation. Those who lived on the streets remained exposed to the diseases, which speeded up the process of spreading. To make things worse, the use of alcohol increased, thus eroding the public health system in Rome.   Ã‚      During the latter years of the empire, most of the farming was done on large estates called latifundia that were owned by rich men who used slaves. The farmers who had to