One example of such an emperor was Caracalla. He was a cruel, capricious, and murderous young man. He claimed to have the same visions as Alexander the Great and looked up to that leader as a role model. He was, however, only interested in gaining more power and to please his army. He was ready to do anything to gain what he wanted, even kill his brother, Geta. His assiduous efforts to be popular with his army brought a terrible inflation to the empire. The value of money decreased, and life became very expensive. In the end his soldiers assassinated him, as many such emperors had been and would be in the future.
After Caracalla’s assassination, the Romans waited for order to return, but it didn’t, instead the empire continued its decline. They prayed for the gods to send them emperors such as Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, or Julius Caesar, but instead they got the likes of Elagabalus, a fourteen-year-old transvestite from Syria who ruled for four years from 218 A.D. to 222 A.D., worshipped the sun, and married a charioteer. Curious and queer rituals entered the court; prostitution and immorality were approved throughout the city. Elagabalus was assassinated by his palace guards, and his body was thrown in the Tiber.
The wealthy aristocrats in power were allowing no space for the common people. They forgot them and also forgot about “Senatus PopulusQue Romanus.” The common men, who nearly all used to work as farmers, went to war for the empire and when they came back they noted that they had been dislodged from their farms by slave owning aristocrats. They and their families were forced to move to the city, and there they lived in utter poverty. They lived mainly doing menial jobs and entertaining themselves in the Circus Maximus. They were called proletariats because they were such a poor and low class and owned no property of there own. “The proletariat are idle, lazy, and devote their whole life to drink, gambling, brothels, shows, and chariot races. Their temple, their dwelling, their meeting place, in fact, the center of their desires is the Circus Maximus. They talk of nothing else.” (Ammianus Marcellinus)
All these things were bringing the city down, the Praetorian Guards ruled the empire, killing the emperors they did not like and raising their own, and Rome was ravaged by a fifty year long civil war and Rome needed an emperor who could rule with an iron hand. So when Diocletian, the son of a Dalmatian slave, came to power, it was a great relief for everyone. He instituted a few changes and reforms, and ended the 50-year civil war. He separated the empire into two, and shared the power with Maximian, his general; he later shared the power with two other men. This was called Tetrarchy, and was meant to increase the efficiency of the governing of the empire. He took away most the Senate’s powers, and dethroned the Guards. He improved the empire’s financial condition by ending the inflation. In 305 A.D. after twenty-one years of rule, Diocletian did something no other emperor before him had ever done; he retired.
In 308, Theodosius I proclaimed Christianity as the sole religion and later forbid any pagan belief. In 395, he divided the empire into the Western and Eastern Empires, with Milano and Constantinople as their capitals. The Vandals and Barbarians moved closer and closer in. They invaded France, sacked Roma, settled in Africa and in Savoy, and slowly but surely took over the Roman provinces. Finally, in 476 A.D., Odoacer deposed the western emperor, Romulus Augustus, and terminated the Western Roman Empire.
Rome was a vast empire. It united countries throughout the known world in the Pax Romana, with more peace than the western world had and would ever know. However, no man-established government can, and Rome fell. The fall of the city of Rome, in the west of the Empire, was an event that took place gradually throughout the many chaotic and corrupted years of the Empire. The empire got many crazy emperors, and who did not know how to govern. It was also subject to political infighting between the different claimants to the throne. The poor, common people were forgotten and abandoned. Their lands were taken from them. Forced to live in the city, they lived in a precarious environment and survived by doing menial and various jobs. They also spent their time in the Circus Maximus. A few emperors, for example Diocletian and Constantine, came and tried to improve things, but the empire was already destroyed. Diocletian brought his reforms. He tried to separate power to make it more efficient. He, however, also made mistakes which served more into the undermining of the empire. Constantine united the empire under one religion. This kept the empire for a little while, but after some time the same things happened over and over again, and wars broke out between the men in power. Slowly, but surely the Barbarians, Vandals, and Visigoths took away the empire’s provinces and settled the land. Until, finally, they took complete possession of the Western Empire. Today the Roman Empire is regarded as one of the greatest empire that ever existed. In the 19th and 20th century many leaders tried to follow the example of the great Roman emperors such as Caesar Augustus, Marcus Aurelius, and Hadrian. The Constitution of United States of America was written with examples from that great period. Although many mistakes were made and although it did not last, the Roman Empire and its achievements was and still is an example that men follow today.