76. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN THE THIRD AND FOURTH CENTURIES
THE "FALL" OF ROME
Rome, it has been said, was not built in a day; the rule of Rome was not destroyed in a day. When we speak of the "fall" of Rome, we have in mind, not a violent catastrophe which suddenly plunged the civilized world into ruin, but rather the slow and gradual decay of ancient society throughout the basin of the Mediterranean. This decay set in long before the Germans and the Persians became a serious danger to the empire. It would have continued, doubtless, had there been no Germans and Persians to break through the frontiers and destroy. The truth seems to be that, during the third and fourth centuries of our era, classical civilization, like an overtrained athlete, had grown "stale."
DEPOPULATION DUE TO THE SLAVE SYSTEM
It is not possible to set forth all the forces which century after century had been sapping the strength of the state. The most obvious element of weakness was the want of men to fill the armies and to cultivate the fields. The slave system seems to have been partly responsible for this depopulation. The peasant on his little homestead could not compete with the wealthy noble whose vast estates were worked by gangs of slaves. The artisan could not support himself and his family on the pittance that kept his slave competitor alive. Peasants and artisans gradually drifted into the cities, where the public distributions of grain, wine, and oil assured them of a living with little expense and almost without exertion. In both Italy and the provinces there was a serious decline in the number of free farmers and free workingmen.
"RACE SUICIDE"
But slavery was not the only cause of depopulation. There was a great deal of what has been called "race suicide" in the old Roman world. Well-to-do people, who could easily support large families, often refused to be burdened with them. Childlessness, however, was not confined to the wealthy, since the poorer classes, crowded in the huge lodging houses of the cities, had no real family life. Roman emperors, who saw how difficult it was to get a sufficient number of recruits for the army, and how whole districts were going to waste for lack of people to cultivate them, tried to repopulate the empire by force of law. They imposed penalties for the childlessness and celibacy of the rich, and founded institutions for the rearing of children, that the poor might not fear to raise large families. Such measures were scarcely successful. "Race suicide" continued during pagan times and even during the Christian age.
LOSS OF REVENUES
The next most obvious element of weakness was the shrinkage of the revenues. The empire suffered from want of money, as well as from want of men. To meet the heavy cost of the luxurious court, to pay the salaries of the swarms of public officials, to support the idle populace in the great cities required a vast annual income. But just when public expenditures were rising by leaps and bounds, it became harder and harder to secure sufficient revenue. Smaller numbers meant fewer taxpayers. Fewer taxpayers meant a heavier burden on those who survived to pay.
ECONOMIC RUIN
These two forces—the decline in population and the decline in wealth— worked together to produce economic ruin. It is no wonder, therefore, that in province after province large tracts of land went out of cultivation, that the towns decayed, and that commerce and manufactures suffered an appalling decline. "Hard times" settled on the Roman world.
INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY
Doubtless still other forces were at work to weaken the state and make it incapable of further resistance to the barbarians. Among such forces we must reckon Christianity itself. By the close of the fourth century Christianity had become the religion of the empire. The new faith, as we shall soon see, helped, not to support, but rather to undermine, pagan society.