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=**The Fall of Ancient Rome: media type="custom" key="802269"**=

__**Introduction**__: Rome increases in power all through the ancient times expanding and taking over new countries until it takes over almost all of Europe and has the most powerful nation of its time. When i first heard this in kindergarten i was completely fascinated by it. I was also always fascinated about the past and what happened back then that affected how the future is and Rome seemed like something in the past that may affect how the future is. Eventually i got really into ancient Romes battle tech and wars and learning about them in my social studies classes. Since Romes power, economy, culture and technology always caught my attention i wanted to find out more about them and eventually i wondered why they were defeated and how they lost their power. So this is why i want to know how they lost their power in the ancient world.

__**Body**__: So what had caused this great and powerful civilization to fall? Was it the large size of this nation? Or was it the many barbarian tribes that had been threatening the borders of Rome? So what i did was i went onto the internet and began my journey to finding out the answers. The first website that i found had showed me that all of these are actually only a few of the causes that Rome had suffered. The size of Rome was so great that the armies weren't able to get from place to place fast enough to guard the entire area. And because of the unprotected areas and the spread out armies of rome the barbarians seized this chance to attack Rome and started to attack its armies who were unaware of the attacks.(The Fall of Rome). The next piece of information i got in class by first going through 2 of the sample information spots like ask for kids but that didn't seem to help me at all and then i decided to go to Google which helped me a lot because i found a piece of information that told me that the romans made a horrible mistake when redesigning their plumbing system. The romans started using lead pipes which is a deadly substance that causes poisoning and once it got in the fresh water it started to kill some of the people who drank it. This eventually took a toll on the soldiers that drank the water which started to diminish the number of soldiers leaving the army weaker to attack. The barbarian tribes played a huge role in defeating Rome. the greatest nations couldn't defeat rome but many tribes of unorganized barbarians were somehow able to. Also the romans weren't used to fighting barbarians such as the powerful Huns who came from Asia and who were a people of all out war and the romans weren't used to their fighting styles and strategies.

Another huge factor was that the roman empire couldn't get one good real good leader but almost all their leaders were killed because of other generals who wanted the position as leader. Eventually all of Rome thought that it would be best to split Rome into an eastern part and a western part. because of this there were 2 parts of Rome but still only one capitol which was in the western half of Rome. The ruler of one part of Rome named Constantine decided to move the capitol to the eastern half which left the western half completely vulnerable and it was taken by barbarian tribes. The armies of Rome couldn't hold off the tribes and eventually the eastern half was taken too. But something important is that even though the roman empire fell Rome itself didn't fall which i learned from the person i interviewed. So many scientists argue if Rome really did fall. but it is certain that the empire did but the architecture and culture never died out which is the most important aspect of Rome.

My next step is to go to my old school, P.S. 101, to learn more about the fall of ancient rome from my social studies teacher and one of my favorite teachers Mr. Moss.

__**Conclusion**:__ My conclusion after doing this I-search is that there is no one reason for the cause of something but several reasons. This is why Rome had fallen, because of several reasons. I also learned that Rome never really fell because it is still up today as the capitol of Italy. What really fell was the Roman Empire not the city of Rome. So even though the empire had fallen along with its power but the culture and its architecture was passed down through the centuries and many of their ideas are still used today.

Bibliography: "The Fall of Rome." __The Fall of Rome__. 1 Apr. 2008 <[|http://www.tamos.net/~rhay/romefall.html>.]

Trueman, Chris. "::the Fall of Ancient Rome::." __The Fall of Ancient Rome__. 9 Apr. 2008 <[|http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/fall_of_ancient_rome.htm>.]

Mr. Moss interview conducted through talking to each other face to face.