-----The fall of the Roman Empire marked the end of one of the largest and oldest empires in the world antique. The official date of the fall of the Roman Empire is often considered to be the date when the barbarian general Odoacer overthrew the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, Romulus Augustulus, in 476 CE (Nardo-2004 97) . The demise of this Empire was the result of multiple internal and external causes. The first plague that contributed to this decline and fall was the Antonine Plague, which began around 160 AD during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (Sabbatani). The Antonine Plague was followed by the Cyprian Plague, which lasted twice as long as the previous one, decimated the population, killing between twenty and thirty percent of the entire Empire (Smith). This ends the prosperity of the previous period and marks the beginning of the Empire's downward spiral. Therefore, the decline in the population of the Roman Empire due to a series of plagues that affected Rome from the second to fifth centuries was the main cause of the fall of the Roman Empire. Labor shortages began around the time of this first plague (Sabbatani). The decline in population led to a shortage of labor in the agricultural force, starving the Empire's population and worsening population decline. This also led to an ever-shrinking tax base, crippling the Empire by leaving it without funds. The decline in population further diminished the size of the Roman army, as well as the Empire's supply of willing recruits, at a time of increasing pressure on Rome's borders. ---- Invasion from without... While the decline in population over the last centuries of the Empire has been the main internal cause of its fall, barbarian forces from outside. ..... middle of paper...... borders of some. Ancient Rome was naturally not the only ancient civilization to descend into chaos. Modern historians have multiple theories regarding the multiple cases in which a seemingly stable civilization collapsed, as the Roman Empire did in 476 CE - some even speculate about what these changes in antiquity meant for the modern society. MI Rostovtzeff considers what he calls the “barbarization of the ancient world” as a kind of warning for the modern world itself (Rogers 258). He describes this as the process that precedes the downfall of a society devoted to a single class, and not to the needs of the “masses” (Rogers 258). He also warns that this model also includes violent and unsuccessful upheavals that attempted to level society toward the masses, but only succeeded in "accelerating the process of barbarization" (Rogers 258).