Question by stpaulsabres: How did the fall of Rome affect society today?
If you think about it, ancient Greek and Roman cultures had a lot of technological advancements that were way ahead of their times. Things like running water, heated and cooled water, and other stuff. But after its fall, society entered the “Dark ages” for about 1000 years (until about 1300).
Do you ever wonder what society would be like today if Rome would have continued to grow and prosper? Do you think we could possibly be 1000 years in the future, technology wise?
Best answer:
Answer by Stephen Frankosky
Obviously it seems that if Rome had not fallen, the Roman empire would have continued to expand as well as influence its surrounding cultures. Technologically, there is certainly a great possibility that we could be more advanced had Rome not fallen, however I believe there would’ve been a greater effect on the politics, religions, and customs of all the countries in the world. However to your question about whether or not we would be 1000 years wiser in technology, I do not. Maybe a little more than half a century advanced, there will always be slight haults in the movement towards technological perfection (which I believe does not exist), so therefore I think we would be more knowledgable, just not as much as you pictured.
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Tags: Affect, Fall, Rome, Society, Today
4 responses to How did the fall of Rome affect society today?
continued to grow and prosper ..as a pagan or christian state? Maybe. Advancements in medicine, particularly in the field of human anatomy could be much more advanced than it is today. The Roman Catholic church prevented such things until well after the Reformation.
How did the fall of Rome affect society today?
A lot of information was lost after Rome fell. Rome was run by poly-theists, I.E. people who worshiped many gods. After the fall of Rome, barbarians fought for control of Europe until Charlemagne assumed the throne of the Holy Roman Empire and converted it to Catholicism. This gave the church power for years. The fall allowed sects to develop that would have previously been quelled by the Roman Army. This let the Gauls and the Francs battle for what was then called Gaulia and is now called France. The Angles and Saxons settled England (alongside the Britons and the last remaining Celts). Meanwhile, the church was gaining power, and people were losing art and science (until the 1400s or so) because their pagan art wasn’t in step with the church’s thinking. The fall of Rome allowed for modern boundaries to spring up and for a multi-class society to fully develop.
How did the fall of Rome affect society today?
Perhaps not as drastically different as you may think.
1) There is some dispute as to how much knowledge was actually lost during the “dark ages”. Some of it made its way to the Arab world, where it was later on recuperated by Crusaders. Practical things tend not to disappear so quickly, so that advancement in agricultural techniques (For example) can be seen throughout the Middle Ages.
Also, there is some dispute as to how deep the darkness of the dark ages was. The term was coined during the Renaissance, which showed a taste for the arts and philosophy of antiquity. They tended to denigrate the philosophy that did exist in the Middle Ages. There are complex arguments as to the value of this philosophy, but space prevents me from getting into details here. Suffice it to say it is a gross exaggeration to say no coherent intellectual work was taking place in the Middle Ages, or even in the Dark Ages.
2) The Roman Empire had some characteristics which greatly impeded human development in its borders. For one things, it depended a lot on slave labor. People who own slaves tend not to innovate working techniques, and slaves themselves have no incentive to do so. Furthermore, when the empire fell, the Roman people had, by and large, become decadent and were content to live off the spoils of past conquest. One of the reasons for the fall was that they were no longer willing to take up military service themselves, preferring to leave the job to barbarian mercenaries, who eventually concluded they may as well look out for number one.
So in many ways, the Roman model was simply outdated and it was time for it to go.
How did the fall of Rome affect society today?
What is a well known fact, which archeology supports, is that the fall of the empire was a dramatic drop in the standards of living for people. The early dark ages are categorized by frequent migrations, and frequent, savage wars over the remnants of the empire. It wasn’t until Charlemange reunited Europe in 800 A.D that some semblance of peace returned.
However, it is more important to ask the question; in what form does Rome survive? As the relatively benign Republic? Or as the oppressive, authoritarian Empire of the later Dominate period?
The fall of Rome was not a spontaneous event. For all of the Republic, and the early imperial period (the Principate), Rome was a trade economy, much like today. People lived in technologically advanced cities, with sewers, plumbing, innovation, and entrepenuerialism, and the idea of being invaded seemed like a laughably distant idea. However, Rome’s collapse into the tyranny of the later Dominate destroyed that. Internecine warfare sapped Rome of wealth and security (it was during this period that cities began to need walls to repel raiders). Oppressive taxation and a heavily bureaucratized state destroyed Rome’s economy. What replaced the trade economy was a feudal economy. When Rome fell in 476, most people were already accustomed to their new life of servitude, wether it was to their Roman or new German masters.
In the Republic, people were wary about tyranny. In the Principate, people called the Emperor “First citizen” and regarded him as the first among equals. In the Dominate, they called him Lord, and were not allowed to make eye contact with him, nor address him without first kissing his robe.
It’s also important to remember that it was the cracks in the system that allowed the rise of the dominate in the first place. In the Republic, it was the lack of the separation of powers, which led to senators playing a zero-sum game with regards to power. In the Principate, it was the lack of a proper system of succession (few emperors were the first born children of the previous emperor) that lead to the crisis of the third century and the rise of the dominate.
But assuming the cracks were ironed out, I would say that if Rome survived as a Republic, then I would agree with you that progress would have continued unimpeded. On of those cracks needing to be the end of slavery, as slavery was a tool used by the affluent to give themselves an unfair advantage over the middle class. While it seems improbable, it is more important to remember that stoics regarded all men as a brotherhood, and while there was never a proper movement to end slavery, the potential was there. It is from the stoics that Christianity assimilated the idea that all men are equal in the eyes of God.
However, if we take Rome’s surviving form as the dominate, I would not agree. At best, Rome would have become similar to pre-industrial China. In fact, we probably would be less advanced, as the over-arching bureaucracy would have kept the population down.
How did the fall of Rome affect society today?