Rome faced many problems in the third century. Some of these problems were due to external factors and others were due to internal decay. These factors contribute to some of the explanations for the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
There are many causes for the decline of the Roman Empire. To start off Rome had some social and Economic problems. As wealth poured into Rome through conquest and trade routes, a new social class of wealthy people was created. Shown in document #3, large latifundias or estates, grew widely. Also, because of these huge estates small farms failed and unemployed farmers went to the cities for work. The latifundias brought about slave labor that was used on the farms. This new social class caused riots that formed because of the gap between the rich and the poor, and contributed to government and social corruption. When all of these social and economic problems came about, Roman Emperors tried to hide them through Bread and Circuses. These Bread and Circuses were "free" food and entertainment to the people. This became very dangerous because the people thought that everything was free but really the government was using tax money to pay for the games. It was also dangerous because they could never really hide from their problems, the problems would always be there.
Another contributor to the decline of the Roman Empire was some of their leaders. Some of them were bad and some were very important. Nero and Caligula were examples of the bad leaders of the empire. However, Diocletian was a very important Emperor. He divided the Roman Empire into two parts to make it easier to govern. He controlled the richer part of the empire which was known as the Eastern Roman Empire. Another important Emperor was Constantine. Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to Constantinople. He also reintroduced Christianity which according to document #2 had some influence on the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.
