The Fall of Rome Project

DID ROME FALL, OR WAS IT PUSHED?

The theories surrounding the fall of Rome are many. Since the empire crumbled, all other great empires or nations have been compared to Rome, with many coming up short. For many years, the United States has been compared to the Roman Empire. There are those who say that we are following the same path to destruction as the ancient Romans.

To be fair... This is a modification of a project I found online here: http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/activity/rome/

I've added the paper, changed the assignmnent slightly by requiring some different things, because I expect more from you guys.

Thanks to, David MacDonald
Fillmore Middle School, Fillmore USD
Region 8 & 11 Professional Development Consortium-SCORE Institute 1997

So, why did Rome fall?
Could their fate have been averted, and if so, would the world be different today? The answer lies in what you think after you have looked at all the facts. Let's examine what we know. We know the great empire known as Rome no longer exists. Now let's look at what we don't know:

1. Did plagues reduce the population to the point it could not sustain itself?
2. Did civil wars lessen the strength of the empire and weaken the population?
3. Did the army lose its discipline and thus endanger the empire and cause it to be overrun?
4. Did the citizens of Rome become too satisfied and lazy, allowing the empire to crumble due to neglect?
5. Did the empire bureaucracy become too top heavy, eventually causing the empire to collapse upon itself?
6. Did God turn His favor away from Rome due to its sinful nature?
7. Did it fall as the result of invasions from Germanic barbarians and/or the Huns?
8. Did the empire spend too much of its resources on the poor, thus drawing away precious funds from the empire? (the bread dole effect)
9. Was the Roman Empire just too big, making a collapse inevitable?
10. Was the weather or climate change responsible in any way?
11. Did the rise of the Christian or Muslim religions contribute?
12. Did the ever expanding gap between rich and poor have anything to do with it?

THE TASK

Your team is assigned the task of researching the reasons for the fall of Rome and coming to a conclusion as to why it did. As you investigate. Look at each question carefully and answer it with an eye for both truth and explanation.

THE PROCESS

Be sure to stay within this framework:

A. Divide the research questions amongst yourselves as you are working on this as a team. All within the group need to participate. The more opinions you have the better, as this will assist in reaching a reasonable conclusion.

B. Within your team, you should come up with a list of general reasons why you feel a large empire or country might fall.

C. When finished, each team member should advance a theory as to why Rome fell. You may have one theory, or it may be a combination of several theories.

D. Organize your recommendations into a presentation to be presented to a panel of world history experts. These experts will judge your conclusions based on appropriateness, thoroughness, and quality.

E. The panel of judges will be asking you questions about why you chose one theory over another, so be prepared to prove, disprove and defend your ideas.

F. Your paper should be 3-4 pages in length and should support FULLY your theories for the fall of Rome. Your paper should have a bibliography and use footnotes to support your claims.


RESOURCES

These websites have great information to help you figure out what caused the decline of the Roman Empire. I suggest scouring through all of these before moving on to other sites.

http://killeenroos.com/1/Romefall.htm

http://www.pbs.org/thinktank/show_501.html

http://www.roman-empire.net/diverse/faq.html

http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/romefallarticles/a/fallofrome.htm

http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/uc_dorrington1.htm

http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/romans/history/fall.htm

http://roman-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/romes_fall_from_power

http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/lecture14b.html

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/50025

http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cjv14n2-7.html

In your book:
Page 174 – chart – Multiple Causes: Fall of the Roman Empire
Page 177 – Primary/Secondary source documents
Page 173 – 176 – The Fall of the Roman Empire


LEARNING ADVICE
It is your job to research these questions fully and develop sound theories to describe the reasons for the fall of Rome. A possible scenario would be to eliminate those theories that can't be supported by fact and focus on the ones that can be fully supported with your research. It is also important to look for facts and not opinions. While no one yet knows for sure why Rome fell, there are many more opinions than facts. Your job is to separate the two.

EVALUATION
Your work will be assessed based on the thoroughness of your research, the accuracy of your conclusions, and the quality of your presentation.

I would expect that all team members contribute to the final presentation, and are prepared to answer questions about the team’s decisions.

Your presentation will be both oral and type written, explaining the reasons for the fall of Rome.

I would expect that your paper and presentation compliment each other and are not one in the same.


People, Places, Events and Terms To Know:

By the end of the project, you may be able to identify many of the following terms. These are important in helping you figure out the causes for Rome’s decline.

Barbarians
Mongolia
Huns
Goths
Ostrogoths
Visigoths
Punic Wars
Theodosius I (Arcadius and Honorius)
Alaric
Vandals
Angles and Saxons
Visigothic Sack of Rome
Arian Christianity (Arianism)
Vandalic Sack of Rome
Vandalism
Attila / "The Scourge of God"
Battle of Châlons
Pope Leo I
Romulus Augustulus
Edward Gibbon
Constantine
Christianity
Diaspora
Pax Romana
Triumvirate
Diocletian