ABSTRACT
The restored Roman Empire of the fourth century had disintegrated during the fifth and sixth. Since the time of Montesquieu and Edward Gibbon, many modern thinkers have attempted to find a specific explanation for Rome’s fall. It is an impossible task. The process of disintegration took place over a huge area for a long time. It was extremely complex in detail. The factors involved are so numerous, their interactions so involved, and the evidence so limited in comparison that a definitive analysis is impossible. At the general level, however, it is clear that given its geographic, economic, social, political, and cultural characteristics, the Roman Empire was unable to sustain the frequent and simultaneous blows of “barbarian” migrations and invasions in the West and war with the Sassanid Persians in the East. Without those or similar external factors, the Roman Empire as a political entity might have continued indefinitely, despite what proved to be weaknesses in view of them.
