But when the provinces became more and more independent, they cut out the middleman all together. Primarily slaves ran these large estates, but when there became a shortage of slaves the owners then became the tenants of the land. When the owners had to do there own work on there own land I think that it was in their best interests to eliminate their allegiance to Rome if they could sell it themselves for a higher price. So in that action the provinces were taking one of Rome's largest sources of income. The third economic source for Rome was taxes. As the two other sources of income began to disappear, the Rome government raised the taxes for the people of Rome. The taxes skyrocketed and the plebeians, Rome's everyday average poor people who made up almost all of Rome, started to revolt. .
The next reason for the decline of Rome was that the people neighboring Rome like Germany and Persia grew increasingly hostile toward the Romans. They despised them for their earlier patriotism and for the fact that while Rome was growing, they kept taking their land. These neighbors became more sophisticated as they grew out of barbarianism. Soon Rome neighbors became extremely hostile towards the empire. These hostile neighbors knew that there were problems in Rome and would in time take back what was taking from them. "When the German invaders conquered the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, they destroyed the professional Roman army and substituted their own armies, made up of warriors who served their chieftains for honor and booty". (2) .
A disturbance in the social structure of Rome was another effecter for Rome's. First problem was the decay of the upper class or the patricians. Problems in the upper class included lead poising from the lead pipes, inbreeding, and the patricians only looking for there own pleasure and not the good of the empire. They were the leaders of the country and with them only caring about themselves and not looking toward making Rome a better place they played a large role in the failure of Rome.
