How the massive Roman Army caused the Fall of Rome!

1 year ago
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One of the most counter-intuitive reasons for the Fall of Rome was, that the army of the roman empire was just too damn large. What you say, that doesn't make any sense? Well, because the army was so large and expensive, some modern historians estimate that up to 70% of the total state revenue had to be spent to upkeep and pay the around half a million professional soldiers of the Roman Legions and auxiliaries. This worked well for a while, but as soon as major calamities befell the empire, such as plagues or barbarian invasions, the state revenue consequently fell, yet the army still had to receive pay, else the legions were very quick to rebel. So to counteract this, starting already in the second half of the 2nd century AD, the Roman Emperors started to debase the currency by using less and less silver or gold in the coins, thus creating huge inflation, which led to huge economic problems, which of course exacerbated the problems, a vicious cycle. Thus, counter-intuitively, because the roman army was just so massive, this would create huge economic problems that would ultimately contribute to the Fall of Rome. The irony of history.

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