... world and deciding to get into the barbarians. Slaves were also unwilling to fight as they saw that there was nothing to be gained for themselves. Most of the mercenaries were also corrupt making it a rather foolish thing to give them the soul responsibility to guard Rome against the encroaching tribesmen. In 284AD Diocletian divided the empire into two separate states, the eastern and the western. Although this seemed like a good idea at the time, it proved not to be so. When the barbarians attacked western Rome the east did not help protect it. The empire was split due to Diocletian feeling that it was too large to administrate. It also turned out that the empire was too big to defend properly. This in turn made trade become unsafe. This caused economic problems for the Romans. During the 450's Vandals devastated immense wheat fields that fed the Roman people, causing many of ...

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