Rome

Rome Multiple scholars have contended that the primary reason for Rome's decline and eventual fall was the receding of the great Empire's economic might, and the social repercussions that accompanied it On the surface, this may seem quite simple, but in actuality, this phenomenon affected nearly every aspect of Roman life, from the decline of the population to the lack of maintenance of infrastructure. One of the primary catalysts to the deterioration of the economy was the lack of circulating currency in the Western Empire. Two reasons for the lack of funds are wholesale hoarding of bullion by Roman citizens, and the widespread looting of the Roman treasury by the "barbarians". These two factors, coupled with the massive trade deficit with Eastern Regions of the Empire served to stifle the growth of wealth in the west. This would have far reaching ramifications that permiate the very fabric of Roman society, as we shall soon discuss. Ellsworth Huntington has proposed a unique hypothesis relating the changing rainfall patterns and climate in the Mediterranean with the economic problems encountered by the western empire. He basically writes that, as the climate became more unstable, it began to alternate annually between hot droughts and cold empire, roman, huntington, water, rome's, reasons, malaria, lack, environment, economic, decline, climate, buildings, been, barbarians, writes, widespread, western, two, temperature, stagnant, since, rome, regions, primary, population, physical, phenomenon, obvious, large, lacked, itself, infrastructure, economy, destroyed, currency