Was the Fall of Rome a Good Thing?
Hist 120 (Introduction to World Civilizations) Brief Essay Number 3
...ET QVAE AB EXIGVIS PROFECTA INITIIS [ROMA] EO CREVERIT VT IAM MAGNITVDINE LABORET SVA. (..And after starting from humble beginnings, [Rome] has grown so much that it is now overwhelmed by its own greatness.) - TITVS LIVIVS (Livy)
"To the glory that was Greece, and the grandeur that was Rome," as Edgar Allan Poe once said. Just like how ancient Greece laid the foundation of Western thought, Rome established the pillars of Western power. Despite of greatness, however, everything must come to an end, and Rome was no exception. But it did not come just overnight. Sure, Barbarian invasions may have sealed the empire’s fate, but the signs of decline already manifested for centuries. The Roman empire had gone too big during the reign of Emperor Trajan to the point that governing it became difficult. Then add the Antonine Plague on the equation. Basically, after the Years of the Five Good Emperors, Rome basically fell into a rabbit hole that it cannot escape. After Marcus Aurelius, most of what became the Roman emperors were generals that simply assumed power, and most of them sucked (with the exception of Constantine the Great, Aurelian, and Diocletian). Corruption also skyrocketed and the Roman people across the empire felt powerless and isolated. So yeah, we already saw it coming.
But when exactly did the Roman empire fell? Whenever we talk about the decline of Rome, we are inevitably talking about its Western half, which fell into the hands of Odoacer and deposed the last emperor Romulus Augustus in 476 CE. But Byzantine fans would argue that the empire actually fell on 1453 (viewing the Eastern half as the legitimate continuation of the Roman empire), when Ottoman sultan Mehmet II sacked Constantinople, killing the last emperor Konstantinos XI Palaiologos in the process.
Perhaps the better question is that if the empire’s fall was whether a good thing or not, and most historians will tell you that it’s a bad thing. English historian Edward Gibbon once said that it's “the greatest, perhaps, and most awful scene in the history of mankind,” blaming it in “the triumph of barbarism and religion.” That is easy to say because since the dissolution of the Roman empire, Europe had become more divided than ever, and not much wisdom and culture had been created, calling the Medieval Period as the so-called “Dark Ages.” Of course, the Middle Ages can only be called “dark” if we ignore all of the developments in the Abbasid Caliphate and the Tang Dynasty, and only focus on Europe. So, at best, the claim could only be said as half-true.
But what if I tell you that the collapse of the Roman empire isn’t really that terrible either? Not that I mean that it is a very good thing, but just to say that perhaps there is a silver lining on this historical tragedy. Come think of it: after Rome, no nation had been successful uniting most of the Europe and lasted for a long time. Napoleon, and Hitler may have almost accomplished it, but their respective empires were rather short-lived. Meanwhile, we cannot really confidently call the Holy Roman Empire as ancient Rome’s legitimate successor. So, why Europe was not able to have a vast empire like Rome? Simple, because its fall opened the door of opportunity for European nations to experiment on their politics, religion, and economics, free from the clutches of a massive imperial power. The Medieval Period was merely the transitionary era between the antiquity and the modernity, that’s why it’s called the Middle Ages for a reason. Europe’s division led to competitions over power and resources, which lead to those countries becoming rich, which means the rise of the middle class, and consequently, innovation. Things like universities, private businesses, personal rights, and freedom of speech will never be a thing if Rome didn’t fell. Pluralism and diversity when it comes to political, economic, and philosophical ideas defined modern Europe. The Roman empire did Europe a huge favor by not existing again.
And besides, in every collapse of a great civilization, an even greater civilization follows. There’s a rainbow always after the rain, as the song goes. Instead of thinking of this event as the greatest tragedy of the antiquity, how about we just think of it more like as a temporary break for human civilization as a whole? The modern life that we all now enjoy today will not be possible if not because of Rome’s death. Sure, ancient Rome may have left us long-lasting legacies like their alphabet, republican government, calendar, law, and architecture. But Europe will never arrive in this massive transformative process of innovation and experimentation if they were not left alone by a large imperial monopoly. The road to modernity is not perfect either, and stuff like racism, colonialism, and world wars are some of the modern world’s worst ideas. But considering all of the progress that we achieved so far, we can confidently say that the humanity has come a long way.
Sources
Gibbon, Edward, and David Womersly (ed.). 1996. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. London: Penguin Classics.
Scheidel, Walter. 2021. The road from Rome. April 15. Accessed May 30, 2022. https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-fall-of-the-roman-empire-paved-the-road-to-modernity.
Witte, Melissa de. 2019. The absence of the Roman Empire fueled Western civilization, Stanford scholar says. October 23. Accessed May 29, 2022. https://news.stanford.edu/2019/10/23/fall-rome-europes-lucky-break/.
Passed on May 31, 2022
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