For many centuries, Rome was the civilization par excellence in most of the known world, however, as it is popularly said "higher towers fell" and this is precisely what happened to the Empire in Hispania and in the rest of its territories. . If we have to go back to past times, it can be said that many scholars have been studying the reason for this great fall. The truth is that Edward Gibbon, in Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (18th century), anticipated the premise that what was really strange about the Empire was not its fall, but the years it stood. In the case of carefully studying what happened to the Empire, it must be said that the Roman monetary system was one of the main culprits. In fact, the vast majority of scholars say that its inflation has been the main cause of the great fall, although not the only one. In this sense, it must be said that the fiscal and economic aspects were directly intertwined with others as important as politics or the army, an “explosive” mixture that ended up blowing everything up. Here are some details that influenced the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.
The historical sanbenito.
The one that blames the fall of the Western Roman Empire directly on the incursions or massive migrations of the Germanic peoples. And we stayed so wide, when the only thing the barbarians did was finish off the job. The institutions that in the past organized that vast territory were left empty of power, and the victorious legions were no more than a hodgepodge of mercenaries or hustlers without order or cohesion, and who also allowed themselves to appoint and depose emperors as they pleased. Emperors who, by the way, each more nefarious, since they only cared about ensuring the cleaning up of their personal accounts and doing whatever it took to continue occupying the throne one more day. Taking care of the town, that was already a matter of the past. That giant with feet of clay collapsed and the Goths collected the remains of him to try to emulate his splendor. So, it's normal to be defamed if those who wrote your history, because the barbarians weren't much writers, were the ones who lost their position of privilege.
Die of success
The conquests of new lands and the free labor of the slaves caused the price of wheat to fall to such an extent that the small and medium farmers of Rome could not compete. Faced with this desperate situation, they were forced to sell their small farms and everything was left in the hands of a few landowners (most of them members of the Senate). Even many slaves who arrived in Rome filled the positions of the craftsmen. The Republic, an eminently agricultural society, was losing the free citizens who worked their lands and who in times of war became the base of their legions, to turn them into homeless or, with luck, into wage earners of the landowners for a few currencies, degenerating into a decadent and corrupt society. In addition, that part-time army model was clearly insufficient to attend to the innumerable and prolonged campaigns of conquest that Rome embarked on and to establish garrisons in the subjugated territories. So, the legions had to be reorganized to become a regular army. The first consequence was economic:those almost professional soldiers had to have regular pay, the so-called stipendium (stipend). And where to get this new game? Well, it's better that others pay for it.
Need for new conquests
If the eagles of Rome came to your territory, the council of the tribe in question had to meet to make a decision:sign a treaty or face the powerful legions. The best option, and the most complicated because it required some service previously rendered, was to obtain the status of a liberae city. :you maintained your autonomous government and Rome did not require the payment of taxes. It wasn't bad either if you managed to become foederati (ally), retaining independence in internal politics but dependent on the city in foreign affairs - Rome's enemies became your enemies and you had the obligation to provide auxiliary troops in case of war. And if the opinion of the belligerents prevailed in the council... then war and, sooner or later, be conquered and become stipendiariae , remaining under the government of a governor appointed by Rome and having to pay taxes in the form of money, provisions or other services. The part corresponding to the tributes that was settled in currency, called stipendium , was used to pay the legionnaires who had conquered the territory. Logically, it was paid in denarios -etymological origin of “money ”-, the silver coin that was the basis of the monetary system of Rome.
Devaluation of the denarius and inflation.
The denarius, weighing 4.5 grams and made of almost pure silver, began to be minted in the 3rd century BC, and from the very beginning it became the great protagonist of Rome's economic policy. Every time extraordinary financing was needed, taxes were raised and/or the denarius was devalued. As the value of the coin was determined by the metal used in its manufacture and its weight, to devalue the denarius it was enough to reduce the silver used in its manufacture and, therefore, its weight. In 145 BC the denarius weighed 3.9 grams and in Nero's time 3.41 grams. In this way, with the same silver, more coins could be minted and more spent. If we add to this that denarii also ceased to be pure silver, since silver was misused by mixing it with less valuable metals -in Caracalla's time the silver of a denarius barely exceeded 50%-, we have the necessary ingredients for a brutal inflation .
Regardless of the devaluation decreed by the emperors, there was another devaluation typical of the picaresque of the countries bathed by the Mediterranean:that of the citizens themselves. As these coins were made of precious metals, the less favored people - those who did not get the circus and even less bread - scraped the edges of the coins and sold the metal filings after melting them. In fact, among the functions of the argentarii (the private bankers of the time) was to remove the deteriorated coins that, from so many hands through which they passed, had lost their weight and value. Today, some of our coins still bear the memory of the solution that was implemented to tackle this problem:putting ridges on the edges of the coins so that manipulation would be revealed to the naked eye.
Edict of Caracalla, more wood.
The Edict of Caracalla, promulgated in 212 by the emperor Caracalla, granted Roman citizenship to all the free of the empire, thus increasing the empire's tax revenue by increasing the number of people who would have to pay taxes, and could cover the large military campaigns on its borders.
The solid, a new coin.
Logically, the successive inflations were creating discomfort among the population, especially among workers who were paid in denarii. And at the head of these workers, due to their number and importance within the empire, were the public officials and, above all, the legionnaires who, in the fourth century, demanded payment in a more stable and reliable currency. To do this, the emperor Constantine I he was left with no choice but to mint a gold coin, the solidus , with which the stipend of the legions began to be paid. And in this way, the name of the new currency came to designate the periodic payment of the legionnaires and, later, of all those hired to do a job... our salary. Now, the need for gold (which later, when the legionnaires are no longer able to safeguard the borders, will serve to pay the foederati , the allied barbarian peoples), forced greater public spending that was financed through taxes, massive expropriations and applying interventionist policies that limited free trade. Come on, the town was enchanting.
Solidus
Alaric finishes the job.
After the great disaster of Adrianápolis in 378 (a bitter Roman defeat that cost the lives of many legionnaires and the emperor Valentus himself ), the Goths had obtained imperial permission to settle as foederati in the province of Moesia (approximately between Serbia and Bulgaria) The young Alaric he led Gothic troops between 387 and 395 that acted as auxiliaries for the Danubian legions against other barbarian peoples.
As an ambitious and intelligent individual, at the death of the emperor of Hispanic origin Theodosius I he saw the opportunity to set himself up as king for his own people in the face of the lack of control and knowledge of the emperor's mellifluous successors, his sons Honorius and Arcadio . Emperor Theodosius completed Diocletian's plan to split the state in two, dividing it between his two sons. The first remained as Augustus of the West, only eleven years old, while the second settled in Constantinople as Augustus of the Eastern Empire. Without knowing it, the reform of Theodosius and the subsequent intervention of Alaric brought about the collapse of the ancient world. Rome was going through one of the most complicated moments of the low empire. Theodosius was also the one who ordered the closure of the pagan temples, established Christianity as the only religion of the state and ensured that Rome was just a sad specter of the city that came to dominate the world.
Faced with so much manifest weakness, Alaric he decided to take action in 396. He invaded Macedonia, Thrace and Boeotia, laying waste to such important cities as Corinth and Sparta and even challenging the court of Constantinople itself. There was only one man capable of stopping him:Flavio Stilicho, known as Stilicho , a great general of Vandal origin who acted as magister militum (captain general) for the incompetent Honorius. For four years, the charisma and military decision of the Vandal made Alaric settle for the occupation of Illyria, either as a result of a truce agreed with his adversary or just out of prudence. In addition, Stilicho was too busy with other revolts in Britain coupled with pressure from Suebi, Alans and Vandals on the Rhine to conjure up the young Gothic king, less active than the rest of the dangers that lurked on the borders.
Alaric marched against the West in 400, but Stilicho defeated him first at Verona and finally at Pollentia (now Pollenzo) in April 402. This delicate balance was broken in 406. Stilicho's star fell out of favor at the court of Honorius, probably being suspected of organizing the assassination of Rufinus, the praetorian prefect of Constantinople who dominated the equally weak Arcadius. As can be seen, both empires were in the hands of rude and energetic men who dominated pathetic rulers, a situation similar to what we will see later in our 17th century Spain with hunting kings while their favorites controlled the thousand and one conflicts in which they were immersed the kingdom.
Honorius ordered his magister militum to be executed on August 22, 408, influenced by his boorish advisers; perhaps it was because of his Arian faith, or because of seeing in him a probable future usurper of barbarian blood or, surely, because of all of this together. Seeing Alaric the precarious situation in which the West was left when the only person capable of opposing him disappeared, the Gothic king decided to attack the cowardly Honorius, who took refuge behind the walls of the swampy city of Ravenna, giving way to the Gothic hordes. to the very gates of Rome. For almost three years Alaric besieged the city, negotiating with the Senate and demanding from Honorius the position of magister militum that the late Stilicho had left free, a position that was never granted to him. On the other hand, the senate did agree to pay a high tribute to guarantee the barbarian withdrawal, but the emperor, crouching from his impregnable residence in Ravenna, disavowed such payment. This is another clear proof that not all the barbarians wanted to conquer Rome, many wanted to be and participate in a decadent Rome to save it from itself. And what could infuriate them the most is that their rulers would not allow it!
On August 24, 410, Alaric's men entered Rome through the Porta Salaria , it seems that with the connivance of some slaves. It was not one more looting of so many that occurred in Antiquity. That first sack of classical Rome was not excessively violent, as we might stereotype, but it was a tremendous political and ideological shock in the ancient world. Since the Gallic Brennus, seven centuries ago, entered republican Rome, the city had remained inviolate to any barbarian aggression. It was the symbol of the immortal power of the Empire and the military superiority of Rome. For many historians this event marks the beginning of the end of the Roman era...
This phrase is attributed to the barbarian king:
Since I took Rome in my hands, no one has ever underestimated the power of the Goths. What drove the desire for conquest and the desire for adventure gave greatness to a people in need of a homeland.
Final note
In the eighties, the Canadian scientist Jerome O. Nriagu, after studying the habits and lifestyle of the emperors of the Julio-Claudian and Flavian dynasties, concluded that 70% suffered from gout and other symptoms of chronic intoxication by lead.
A teaspoon of sapa daily would have been more than enough to cause chronic lead poisoning.
But Nriagu went a little further, blaming lead poisoning or saturnism (so called because ancient alchemists called lead Saturn) from the fall of the Roman Empire .
Even if we added to the lead ingested in wine and food that some water pipes were coated with this element, and even that lead was also used in the production of some of the cosmetics used by courtesans in Rome, I think it would be very difficult defend Dr. Nriagu's theory.
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