The fall of Rome is complicated because people like to match it up with their pet theory as to why our current empire will collapse real soon now. But the Roma

The fall of Rome is complicated because people like to match it up with their pet theory as to why our current empire will collapse real soon now. But the Romans just ran out of things to steal. Taking foreign lands meant not just immediate booty but ongoing tribute and advantageous trade and promises of farmland for soldiers. That strategy could only go so far. Then when they lost their great early prize, Carthage, which supplied grain to Rome itself, the empire was finished. Local gangsters took over from the distant gangsters and so they had feudalism.