210 Reasons for the decline of the Roman Empire

• Abolition of gods
• Abolition of rights
• Absence of character
• Absolutism
• Agrarian question
• Agrarian slavery
• Anarchy
• Anti-Germanism
• Apathy
• Aristocracy
• Asceticism
• Attack of the Germans
• Attack of the Huns
• Attack of riding nomads
• Backwardness in science
• Bankruptcy
• Barbarization
• Bastardization
• Blockage of land by large landholders
• Blood poisoning
• Bolshevization
• Bread and circuses
• Bureaucracy
• Byzantinism
• Capillarite sociale
• Capitalism
• Capitals, change of
• Caste system
• Celibacy
• Centralization
• Childlessness
• Christianity
• Citizenship, granting of
• Civil war
• Climatic deterioration
• Communism
• Complacency
• Concatenation of misfortunes
• Conservatism
• Corruption
• Cosmopolitanism
• Crisis of legitimacy
• Culinary excess
• Cultural neurosis
• Decentralization
• Decline of Nordic character
• Decline of the cities
• Decline of the Italian population
• Deforestation
• Degeneration
• Degeneration of the intellect
• Demoralization
• Depletion of mineral resources
• Despotism
• Destruction of environment
• Destruction of peasantry
• Destruction of political process
• Destruction of Roman influence
• Devastation
• Differences in wealth
• Disarmament
• Disillusion with stated
• Division of empire
• Division of labor
• Earthquakes
• Egoism
• Egoism of the state
• Emancipation of slaves
• Enervation
• Epidemics
• Equal rights, granting of
• Eradication of the best
• Escapism
• Ethnic dissolution
• Excessive aging of population
• Excessive civilization
• Excessive culture
• Excessive foreign infiltration
• Excessive freedom
• Excessive urbanization
• Expansion
• Exploitation
• Fear of life
• Female emancipation
• Feudalization
• Fiscalism
• Gladiatorial system
• Gluttony
• Gout
• Hedonism
• Hellenization
• Heresy
• Homosexuality
• Hothouse culture
• Hubris
• Hypothermia
• Immoderate greatness
• Imperialism
• Impotence
• Impoverishment
• Imprudent policy toward buffer states
• Inadequate educational system
• Indifference
• Individualism
• Indoctrination
• Inertia
• Inflation
• Intellectualism
• Integration, weakness of
• Irrationality
• Jewish influence
• Lack of leadership
• Lack of male dignity
• Lack of military recruits
• Lack of orderly imperial succession
• Lack of qualified workers
• Lack of rainfall
• Lack of religiousness
• Lack of seriousness
• Large landed properties
• Lead poisoning
• Lethargy
• Leveling, cultural
• Leveling, social
• Loss of army discipline
• Loss of authority
• Loss of energy
• Loss of instincts
• Loss of population
• Luxury
• Malaria
• Marriages if convenience
• Mercenary system
• Mercury damage
• Militarism
• Monetary economy
• Monetary greed
• Money, shortage of
• Moral decline
• Moral idealism
• Moral materialism
• Mystery religions
• Nationalism of Rome's subjects
• Negative selection
• Orientalization
• Outflow of gold
• Over refinement
• Pacifism
• Paralysis of will
• Paralyzation
• Parasitism
• Particularism
• Pauperism
• Plagues
• Pleasure seeking
• Plutocracy
• Polytheism
• Population pressure
• Precociousness
• Professional army
• Proletarization
• Prosperity
• Prostitution
• Psychoses
• Public baths
• Racial degeneration
• Racial discrimination
• Racial suicide
• Rationalism
• Refusal of military service
• Religious struggles and schisms
• Rentier mentality
• Resignation
• Restriction to profession
• Restriction to the land
• Rhetoric
• Rise of uneducated masses
• Romantic attitudes to peace
• Ruin of middle class
• Rule of the world
• Semieducation
• Sensuality
• Servility
• Sexuality
• Shamelessness
• Shifting of trade routes
• Slavery
• Slavic attacks
• Socialism (of the state)
• Soil erosion
• Soil exhaustion
• Spiritual barbarism
• Stagnation
• Stoicism
• Stress
• Structural weakness
• Superstition
• Taxation, pressure of
• Terrorism
• Tiredness of life
• Totalitarianism
• Treason
• Tristesse
• Two-front war
• Underdevelopment
• Useless eaters
• Usurpation of all powers by the state
• Vain gloriousness
• Villa economy
• Vulgarization

Source: A. Demandt, Der Fall Roms (1984) 695 See also: Karl Galinsky in Classical and Modern Interactions (1992) 53-73