Widely considered one of the most powerful ancient empires on Earth, the Roman Empire existed for over a thousand years. From its humble beginnings along the Tiber River, Rome grew through near-perpetual aggression to become the dominant force throughout the Mediterranean, Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East for nearly a millennium. As the empire aged, it was thought, so did its focus. Once wealthy and prosperous, the Western Roman Empire and the city of Rome itself eventually became useful only as a namesake, their wealth and prestige long gone, and with them, the power of the Empire of 'West. Meanwhile, Rome, as a whole, focused on the prosperous East, which had continued to prosper despite the Empire's continuing economic struggles. At this time, Constantine I created a new capital in Byzantium, renaming the city Constantinople. Once Constantinople was established as the center of the empire, the West was largely forgotten, both by the people and the emperor. The majority of Rome's citizens and wealth now came from the East, so the Western Empire was soon treated as an aside by the Eastern Empire and slowly fell into further decline. Many historians would cite a specific event or chain of events that spelled the end of the western half of the Roman Empire, but I would argue that the Western Roman Empire did not suddenly collapse because of a single event, but rather that it slowly collapsed. over the course of several decades following a multitude of failures. No single agency was entirely responsible for Rome's collapse, but the combination of a decaying political structure, infighting, a continually weakened economy, and constant assaults from Germanic tribes ultimately brought about the... ... middle of paper ...... hyperinflation after the unfortunate period between the Severus dynasty and the crisis of the 3rd century. On top of this, the West desperately needed a standing army at all times to defend against enemies on virtually all sides, enemies who would happily see the Empire collapse. To finance its already unstable standing army, Western Rome was forced to raise taxes on a population that was already heavily taxed and simply had no money for it. In unison with the perpetual siege of the Germanic tribes, the severe lack of stable and strong rulers in the Western Roman Empire caused not only losses against the Germanic tribes, but also civil wars that broke out regularly. Combining all of these factors, you can clearly see that Western Rome had entered a spiral, a spiral from which it could not escape, a spiral that slowly caused Western Rome to disappear...