The causes for the fall of Rome can be divided into four categories: political, military, economic, and social. Using the information you have read, identify one cause in each category and explain how it contributed to the decline of the Roman Empire.

Political - With so much power concentrated in the hands of a few, corruption was a problem especially when it came to picking who the next emperor would be. There never was a smooth process of succession in place for who would become the next emperor leading to some spectacularly bloody results. Soon, the emperor's own Praetorian Guard were calling the shots on who would be emperor. Splitting the Roman Empire into the Eastern and Western halves later on had also weakened it even further. Military - In its early years, the empire's military was an incredible military machine. Over time, as corruption and wasteful spending took its toll on the empire's coffers, less money was paid out to support its vast armies. As a result, legions were called back leaving a number of its borders weakened and opening them up to attacks by "barbarian" tribes that were never pacified. They had also learned quite a few tricks over the years from the Romans themselves, turning their own tactics against them. Economic - taxes were not often uniform across the empire and contributed to the huge disparity between the rich and the poor. The empire also used thousands of slaves in everyday work because it was far cheaper than hiring someone to do the same thing, creating a huge problem when it came to employment. High taxes also caused a lot of dissent within the empire as more money was continuously needed to fund its vast military and public works projects. Social - Slavery had also created a society that lavished itself on luxuries and other forms of entertainment, such as the bloody gladiatorial games of the Colosseum and cheapened life in general. Excesses among the rich were commonplace and it wasn't unusual for the emperors to seek pleasure in some of the worst ways possible. Over time, this weakened the moral standing of its ruling elite and further divided the people, especially those that were heavily taxed to pay for those pleasures, against them.