Why did the roman empire fall and what caused it?
Robert’s answer is the most detailed so far but it’s basically the line laid out by Gibbon 200 years ago. Believe it or not, scholarship has moved on since then. 1) The Roman Empire had always recruited non-Romans into the military and they served as faithfully as any other troops. There isn’t much evidence that the late Roman army was any more (or less) likely to mutiny in the late empire than it had been earlier, nor that it was any less militarily effective. The Romans had never been almighty and undefeated, they simply won more than they lost, and this continued to be the case in the late empire. Even Attila the Hun was beaten in the end, and by a Roman force that was made up of 2/3 barbarian federate troops, serving faithfully. The Sack of Rome in 410 was the result of a mutiny by Roman troops of barbarian descent, not an invasion. Even the Vandals in Africa were there because a Roman general invited them there to support him in civil conflicts. 2) Adrianople was indeed a disaster
