The Romans believed in Pax Deorum (“Peace of the Gods”) in which it was necessary to worship the gods for the survival of the Roman state, otherwise the gods would punish them. Looking back, they were right to believe this.Rome prospered under emperors who targeted Christians like Hadrian, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, etc. But under emperors who were tolerant of if not Christians themselves like Theodosius, Philip the Arab, Commodus, etc, Rome stagnated and declined.The crisis of the third century was punishment from the gods for allowing the rise of Christianity. The vast majority of emperors during this time were tolerant of Christian and the few moments of prosperity and stability happened under the few emperors who targeted Christians (like Diocletian).The Antoine plague was punishment for tolerating Christians, the emperor who ruled during the plague was tolerant of Christians.The fall of Rome was punishment from the gods for fully abandoning the traditional religion and making Christianity the state religion. The gods as punishment allowed Rome to fall to foreign invaders.
checks timestampsyep OP definitely posted this thread a few minutes after posting >>18479822sage
The Roman Empire fell because Italics largely stopped doing their own fighting, they outsourced it to Balkanoids, Germoids, Hunnoids, etc. It was one of the benefits of ruling an Empire, getting exempted from tributes and army recruitment, but obviously in the end it came back to bite them in the ass
