Download or read book The Plight of Rome in the Fifth Century AD written by Mark Merrony and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-07-06 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Plight of Rome in the Fifth Century AD argues that the fall of the western Roman Empire was rooted in a significant drop in war booty, agricultural productivity, and mineral resources. Drawing on literary and archaeological data, this volume establishes a correspondence between booty (in the form of slaves and precious metals) from foreign campaigns and public building programmes, and how this equilibrium was upset after the Empire reached its full expansion and began to contract in the third century. Merrony explores how Rome was weakened and divided, unable to pay its army, feed its people, or support the imperial bureaucracy - and how this contributed to its administrative collapse.