How did the Roman Civilization and the Augustan settlement come to an end?
No one can give you an exact, solid answer on this one. The decline of the Roman civilization was caused by a number of things. The army was particularly weak. They stopped expanding near the third century CE, when it got so bad, most of the thirty-odd emperors during that time were assassinated. Diocletian tried restore Rome; Constantine’s Edict of Milan made Christianity legal but heresies were out there (Donatism and Arianism) that made it harder for Romans to get along. As the nobility didn’t want to deal with some of the problems, early church leaders took on the role of the Roman Government. Birth rates fell steady and eventually declined. And lastly, barbarian migrations were happening at the borders–Germans, Huns, Saxons, etc. They liked Rome (ie Theoderic), but nonetheless swept past Rome’s borders and eventually captured most of the Italian peninsula. The Battle of Adrianople is thought to be “the beginning of the end.” Hope that helps!
