Document Based Essay Question - Mrs. Hansen
Name __________________________________________________ Class Period _____________ Date _______
AP World History Fall of Rome
Document Based Essay Question
This question is designed to test your ability to work with historical documents. As you analyze the documents, take into account the author's point of view and how it may affect the information within it. Write an essay on the following topic that integrates your analysis of the documents. Do not simply summarize the documents individually. You may refer to relevant historical facts and developments not mentioned in the documents. You also should identify types of documents not included which would help answer the question (missing voices).
Historical Context: Beginning in the late 4th century C.E. large numbers of Germans moved into the Roman Empire in the West. Internal decay had weakened the empire, and in 476 CE, the city of Rome itself fell to invaders.
Task: Describe the reasons for the decline of Rome and evaluate the extent to which they directly led to the fall of the Roman Empire.
Document 1
|Outsiders eye us with drooling mouths…the Roman legions steal and drink and let their armor rust while Roman walls are picked apart. |
|And where are our leaders?...So what good is Roman law? Does it protect the weak, give food to the hungry, or reward to the good? Ha! |
|Rome burns. Our emperors laugh…will you laugh as the columns fall? Source: an anonymous Roman schoolmaster |
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Document 2
|The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness…The introduction of Christianity has some influence |
|on the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. The clergy successfully preached the doctrine of patience; the active virtues of society |
|were discouraged; and the last remains of military spirit were buried in the cloister; a large portion of public and private wealth was|
|consecrated to the demands of charity and devotion… Source: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, 1788 |
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Document 3
|Before we tolerate having the Scythians (Goths) roam about, armed in the country, we should call all the people to arms with sword and lance -- it|
|is shameful that this highly populated nation should entrust the honor warfare to foreigners, whose victories should shame us even while they are |
|useful to us -- the armed men who will no doubt wish to play the master with us when we are militarily untrained. We must awaken again the ancient|
|Roman spirit, fight our own battles, carry on nothing in common with the barbarians, drive them from every official position as well as from the |
|senate . . . . When they take the seat of honor right next to the consul, ahead of noble Romans, when, as soon as they leave the curia, they slip |
|back again into their skins, making fun of the toga among their comrades, they joke that in the toga one cannot draw a sword. These barbarians, |
|previous useful servants of our house, now intend to rule our nation! Woe to us if their armies and leaders rise up and are joined by a stream of |
|their numerous countrymen who are spread throughout the entire empire as slaves. Source: Synesius, early 4th |
|century Roman patriot |
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Document 4
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Document 5
|Rome, like all great empires, was not overthrown by external enemies, but undermined by internal decay…The military crisis was the |
|result of the proud old aristocracy’s shortage of children. Consequently foreigners poured into this void. The Roman army was |
|composed entirely of Germans. Source: Romans Without laurels, by Indro Montanelli |
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Document 6
|Most reverend and serene of all emperors, although in your most felicitous times all other persons enjoy an untroubled and calm |
|existence, since all wickedness and oppression have ceased, we, alone experiencing a fortune most alien to these most fortunate times, |
|present this supplication to you. We are unreasonably oppressed and we suffer extortion by those persons whose duty it is to maintain |
|the public welfare. For although we live remotely and are without military protection, we suffer afflictions alien to your most |
|felicitous times. Generals and soldiers and lordlings of prominent offices in the city and your Caesarians, coming to us, traversing |
|the Appian district, leaving the highway, taking us from our tasks, requisitioning our plowing oxen, make exactions that are by no |
|means their due. And it happens thus that we are wronged by extortions. Our possessions are spent on them, and our fields are stripped |
|and laid waste.... Source: Petition of the Araguenians and Rescript of the Emperor Philip [r. 243-249 CE] on Official & Military |
|Extortion, 246 CE |
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Document 7
|…Part of the money went into…the maintenance of the army and of the vast bureaucracy required by a centralized government…the |
|expense led to strangling taxation…The heart was taken out of enterprising men…tenants fled their farms and businessmen and workmen |
|from their occupations. Private enterprise was crushed and the state was forced to take over many kinds of businesses to keep the |
|machine running. People learned to expect something for nothing. The old Roman virtues of self-reliance and initiative were lost |
|in that part of the population on relief [welfare]….The central government undertook such far-reaching responsibility in affairs |
|that the fiber of the citizens weakened Source: The New Deal in Old Rome by Henry Haskell |
|. |
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Missing Document Voices:
Create 3 documents that would assist in your analysis of the task. Do not write the document itself, but describe the kind of source, the author, and why it would be helpful to your analysis.
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