Why did the Roman Empire fall?

[robin3]

DS1 got Roman Playmobil people from Santa and asked me last night what happened to the Romans. Did they just implode due to their own in-fighting? Did they all just pack up and go home after that or did Romans settle in the countries they had conquered? Simple explanation will do he's only 4.

Is there a childrens encyclopedia for these sorts of historical questions? After that he asked about the Vikings! We studied Russia and Scottish history mainly in school so I don't remember a lot of these basic facts.

Over extended themselves. Also tribes in far flung bits got more organised and chucked em out.
Plus debauchery/orgies etc instead of governing.

I think .

link

bit of everything?

So they sent little groups everywhere and built roads as they went but after all that the locals said thanks but now you'll be off.

The bbc website has bite-sized history lessons for children but it might be a bit advanced for 4. Have you tried the children's library?

FWIW, if you want to reword it for your dc, I think that the resources of the Roman Empire were stretched too thinly once they'd conquered most of Europe and they couldn't control it all (plus they were spending huge amounts of dosh maintaining their lifestyles in Rome itself which didn't help plus political infighting). I can't think of a suitable analogy for a child at the moment.

A lot of the Roman centurions probably died abroad on service anyway . Probably some stayed on and integrated more with the indigenous population once the troops were officially withdrawn.

Et tu Brutus?

lead poisoning !

All the posh people had piped water in lead pipes - and it send them all a bit daft so they didn't manage their empire properly.

No empire in history has lasted more than a few hundred years I think - they all implode after a while - probably because the leaders get complacent and the outsiders get restless.

I plumped for 'they started fighting amongst themselves' last night so not far off the truth.

Sorry....another one....did they invent the wheel then or were they just the first to start to use them in such a sophisticated way?

a meteor landed and killed them all off

oh no! that was the dinosaurs

Wow throckenholt they all went a bit mad!

the wheel

The Romans used to put lead paint on their faces as well. Bit detrimental to health...

Peachy that covers all the areas...thanks.

Peachy that covers all the areas...thanks.