The fall of Rome and how it relates to the US today

Dane Mann
UWRT 1103 -009
11/29/15

The fall of Rome and how it relates to the US today

Since its foundation in 1776 the United States has shared a lot in common with Rome.
From Americas government to its military the effects of Rome can be seen. It is this very
reason why American politicians and military leaders should take an interest in Romes history.
Although Rome had a lifespan of 1229 years its collapse had happened quickly and caused the
western world to creep into the dark ages. With this in mind a comparison needs to be done
between the events that led to the fall of Rome and the challenges that face the United States
today because as George Santana once said Those who dont learn from history are doomed
to repeat it. So with that said, to truly understand Rome, we will have to start from the
beginning.
History of Rome
In 753 BC the city of Rome was founded. The founding of Rome is centered on a legend.
The legend was of two men who were raised by a Sheppard and a prostitute. They would grow
up not knowing they were sons of a king. This king was kicked out of power by his younger
brother. The two men, Romulus and Remus, took up arms and formed an army to march
against the new king in order to restore their fathers power. After this conflict they decided to
create a new city. Romulus chose the site of the new city and its boundaries and later killed
Remus for mocking him. This is mostly myth so it can be taken with a grain of salt but many
Romans were inspired by this story.1
The city of Rome was then ruled by kings until 510 BC when a revolt happened and two
elected consuls were chosen to lead Rome in the days to follow the rebellion. These years were

filled with wars. With Rome under siege from every direction the senate of Rome decided to
elect the first ever dictator to have total control over Rome in order to defeat its enemies. This
is when Rome takes the shape of how we see it today. Following these wars is time when
Romans expanded its territory through conquest.
The history of Rome past this point is not really related to the topic at hand until we
reach the Punic wars. These wars were to see who would become the dominant figure in the
ancient world. The victor is obviously seen today as being Rome. Being that Rome destroyed
any remnant of Carthage, supplanting itself as the only world power at the time. However, this
was not at a cost. They only won the war by a stroke of luck and their resilience to give up. This
is reminiscent of the War of 1812, the Revolutionary War, and the Civil War. History once again
continued for Rome with conflicts within and out of itself. This history has been pretty much
what has defined Rome. We can now look at the further end of Romes timeline for the events
that led to the fall of Rome.
The most notable event right before the fall of Rome was the splitting of Rome. This
happened when Emperor Constantine broke Rome into two halves east and west. This made
Rome easier to govern but it also weakened Rome. The two halves were allies but there was a
bit of rivalry between the two. They would help each other out when it was needed and they
would trade between each other. The western half of Rome would fall long before the eastern
half because of many different issues that were shared between the west and the east. The
east was just in a better position over all. The easts capital was more protected from invading
forces than Rome after a western Emperor let a barbaric tribe across one of the rivers that

western Rome used to defend itself. This barbaric tribe would be the force to put the last nail in
Romes coffin as Rome had no way to protect themselves from this force after it was across the
river.
American History
The history of modern America began in 1776 when its founding fathers signed the
declaration of independence signifying its independence from Britains tyranny. This led to a
long and brutal war which was won by America. This fight for independence would not be the
last for America as it would have to prove its strength again in the war of 1812. Since the
signing of the declaration of independence there has always been two political parties vying for
power. These political parties change as time goes on today we have democrats and republican
in the past there were the federalists and the democratic-republicans. Although most
arguments between parties are just arguments, there has been a time in American history
where the two parties went to war with each other. This was the civil war. The reason this war
took place tends to be difficult to narrow down much like the fall of Rome. The reasons this war
happened was because the south wanted states to have more control, the southern people
were being taxed unfairly, and the south wanted to keep their slaves. The American civil war
was the bloodiest war America has ever fought and the most heart breaking. However, the war
led America to the ideals we have today. Now Americans think of themselves as Americans
rather than North Carolinians or Texans. 2
After the civil war America entered a time of expansion. The Midwest was now up for
grabs and the only obstacles in Americas way were the Native Americans living there. America

has never had a good relation with the Native Americans. This time was a breaking point for the
relations of Americans and Native Americans. As Americans moved further west to where most
Native Americans were living more and more conflicts arose. This led to an inevitable war. It
was the battle of Wounded Knee that marked the end of the last prosperous Native American
tribe and soon America would have to look elsewhere to expand.
After taming the Wild West America set its sights on the pacific and Caribbean islands.
Particularly Hawaii proved to be an area of interest. It had been home to a legitimate monarchy
with a queen currently in charge. However, the sugar planters in the island wanted to have
America annex Hawaii as a recent tariff had caused the cost of importing sugar to increase
dramatically. Due to this marines were sent in and removed the queen in charge from her
throne. After this America expanded its influence by removing one of the major European
players from its colonies which caused a war. This war is known as the Spanish American war.
Its results are seen today. Cuba is no longer controlled by Spain, American is in control of
Puerto Rico, and the Philippines are an independent government. 3
After all this expansion America decided to become less involved with world affairs. It
did very little in WWI because none of it was affecting America. Until Pearl Harbor was attacked
American was very reclusive. Much like a sleeping dragon it awoke with fury. It quickly became
a major player in world war two. Not being on the defense gave it the ability to produce
supplies for other nations as well as itself. America would help bring down Germany and start a
war that had never been seen before. The Cold War. This war much like the war between Rome
and Carthage would determine the major player in the world. As history has shown we have

won this war. Now we are facing new enemies. Much like the barbarian enemies of the Romans
they are unskilled in battle, not as well equipped, and are brutal in their ways. I am of course
talking about terrorists.
Comparison of Powers
Now that the history of Rome and the history of the US have been discussed we will
move onto the similarities and differences between Rome and the US. The US had a humble
beginning much like that of Rome. America is also regarded as one of the most major world
powers of its time like Rome. Rome and America share close ties in government too. Rome had
judges, senators, and consuls which acted as their law makers. Today in America a resemblance
is seen with the US having a house of representatives that makes laws, a supreme court which
determines how those laws will be interpreted, and an executive branch where laws are carried
out. Rome also expanded a lot and incorporated the citizens of the land it conquered into its
people. The US is not immune to this claim either as it has expanded quite vigorously. For
example, when the American-Mexican war, the Louisiana Purchase, and the annexation of
Hawaii took place the US was able to obtain a great sum of land. Today the US is about the
same size as Rome at its peak. Americas Army is also structured like Romes. Before the fall of
Rome, Romes military was broken up into two groups. The first of these groups would be more
active and used as shock and awe whereas the second group would be used to defend territory
around the areas where Rome bordered barbarians. These troops had lower standards
compared to that of the first group because they were stationary. Today America has broken up
its army into two groups active military and reserves. The reserves of Romes army would

typically be protecting a fort connected to a wall that surrounds the areas Rome declared the
frontier. These fortifications were meant to keep barbarians.
In the US many issues have come up recently about migration and this is not a problem that is
new. Although American has had a history of people migrating to it this has become an issue as
of late due to many economic downturns in the US. Many of the citizens of the United States
are blaming the loss of jobs on immigrants from Central American countries primarily Mexico.
Although there was no loss of jobs in the time of Rome because of migration it still caused quite
a few problems.
Rome has had a history of annexing lands with people that are not civilized. An example
of this is the invasion into the area where Germany is today. This has caused Rome to be
surrounding by barbarians. The only civilized people around Rome were arguably the Persians.
However, the Sassanids and the Romans werent allies or friends of sort. They were actually
quite bad enemies who would war against each other. However, this was mostly a problem for
the eastern empire to deal with as they were the neighbors of the Sassanids. This sort of lack of
friendly neighbors meant Rome had to be constantly protected by invading barbarians. To do
this the Romans had a simple and ineffective strategy raise a larger army. This was ineffective
because many Romans at the time of the decline of Rome were more likely to be Christians
than believe in Roman mythology and hadnt wanted to join the military. In order to bring in
more troops Rome had two solutions. The first was to start conscripting men to fight in the
military the second was to hire mercenaries. The first solution caused the Roman people to
dislike the government more because the pay was not as good as it had been in the past and

the treatment towards soldier was the same. This caused many men to cut off their thumbs in
order to be immune from conscription. The problem with the second solution was that many of
the mercenaries came from the barbarian tribes. Not only this they werent loyal to Rome but
their commander. If a general had the means to he could bribe some senators and march an
army into Rome and proclaim himself the emperor which happened a lot. 4
This need for a massive military meant that Rome would need to pay fighting men for
their service. This meant that the Roman people were getting taxed more. Add an economic
down turn to this and you have some angry people which are exactly what happened. With all
this happening the Roman Empire was getting hit hard. It wasnt enough that they were being
attacked from all sides but they also were being hit economically and had rapid inflation. The
eastern empire and western empire had been separated since the death of the last great
Roman Emperor Constantine. Being the only ally Rome had, the Byzantium Empire was the only
way Rome could get luxury resources. Rome had nothing it could trade back. Unlike America
which has a multitude of Allies that it can trade with.
The advent of Christianity also brought a lot of problems to Rome. Many people were
abandoning Roman traditions that gave power to the Emperor. For much of Romes history its
people believed that the Emperor had close ties to the gods of Roman mythology. When
Christianity came it taught that there was only one God and that everybody on earth were just
men. This made everyone fell on an even playing field as to say. Slave rebellions became more
of a problem and people aimed to pursue careers in Christianity like become priests and
pastors. Many Roman senators left Rome and studied the teachings of Jesus and his disciples.

This was not only limited to senators but men of trades as well, Soldiers no longer wanted fight
after being converted seeing as they could live a peaceful life studying scripture. In the US
today there have been no cultural movements like Christianity during Romes time.
Since the reasons Rome fell we can have been covered the issues the US is facing can be
covered. Since terrorism and migration has been discussed the focus will be the political
bickering and our economy. Although the economy was addressed in the page 7 it is important
to note that the US has been recently hit by a huge recession. The significance of this is that the
US is no longer the major economic power it used to be in world war two. The US no longer
exports products at the caliber that it used to. Much like the Romans, the US is importing our
products and exporting our work. The other issue of political bickering was prevalent in Rome.
Since the foundation of the US we have relied on a two party system to make decisions this
worked somewhat until the present day we are in. Decisions and laws are not being made on
the basis of is it good for the US but is it for the party. This will lead to more government
shutdowns and create stalemates that will destroy the United States.

Closing
As a closing note the history of Rome should be looked at thoroughly. When we look
back at its history parallels are drawn between it and the US. If the US continues to follow in

Romes path it will fall as well. Steps must be taken in order to preserve this country. In
comparison to Rome the US is in a better position being near neighbors who are allies and
having lots of allies in general. Fixing the US is not impossible and will be easier to do in this
enlightened era.

Citations
1: Cavazzi,

Franco The illustrated History of the Roman Empire. http://www.roman-

empire.net/. 10/20/2015. http://www.roman-empire.net/index.html.

2:

Taylor, Quintard, United States History: Timelines, University of Washington, 11/8/2015,

http://staff.washington.edu/qtaylor/a_us_history/us_timeline_index_page.htm
3: ushistory.org, Independence Hall Association, 11/8/2015, http://www.ushistory.org/us/44b.asp

4:

Goldsworthy, Adrian. How Rome Fell. United States: Yale University Press. 2009