On the one hand, one may argue that the Roman Empire crumbled under its own weight because it had become too large to be properly managed by any one Emperor.

By the time, the Punic Wars came to an end in 146 B.C., Greece, Macedonia, and the Mediterranean shores of Spain and Africa had been brought under the rule of the Roman Empire. Within a century, Rome was on the verge of resuming its international expansion. The Roman commander Pompey took all Eastern Asia Minor, Syria, and Judea (modern-day Palestine) during his reign. In the next year, Pompey’s adversary, Julius Caesar, invaded Gaul, bringing the country west of Europe’s Rhine River into the Roman dominion. Octavian, Julius Caesar’s adopted son and successor, beat the armies of Marc Antony and Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, in the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C., and Egypt was annexed as a Roman province because of the victory.

Octavian, the first Roman emperor, was crowned in 27 B.C. and was given the title Augustus, which means, “Exalted.” The Roman Empire had become so huge, reaching throughout Europe, Africa, and portions of the Middle East, that only a strong, central authority could effectively control it. Octavian’s reign heralded the beginning of a lengthy period of peace and stability known as the Pax Romana. Roman emperors steadily rose in aut

hority throughout the course of the Pax Romana’s 200-year reign, to the point that the people of Rome worshiped them even after their deaths.

The rise of Christianity, as well as invasions by Germanic Goths and Persians, all posed serious dangers to this central control system, not the least of which was the spread of Christianity. In the course of history, Theodosius was the last emperor to govern over the whole Roman Empire. When he died in 395 CE, the empire was divided into two parts: the West Roman Empire and the East Roman Empire, laying the groundwork for the Romans’ eventual extinction.

The West Roman Empire was subjected to a series of raids by numerous Germanic tribes, notably the Vandals and the Visigoths, the western division of the Goths, who conquered Spain, Gaul, Western Europe, and northern Africa. The Vandals and the Visigoths were the most notable of these attacks. Eventually, these attacks resulted in the fall of the Western Roman Empire by the year 476 CE. The East Roman Empire survived intact, but it was renamed the Byzantine Empire, and it was dominated by a Greek-oriented civilization from 476 until it was conquered by the Turks in 1453, when it succumbed to them.