The Manifestations, Causes and Influences of Economic Inequality in the Roman Empire from the 4th to the 5th Centuries

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.220110.144How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Economic inequality; Roman Empire; rule; Imperial decline

Abstract

For a long time, economic inequality has been a serious problem that plagued the ruling class, and the Roman Empire, which shaped the Mediterranean civilization, is no exception. However, most historical researches in the past are limited to the macroscopic study of the reasons for the decline of Rome, and in the study of specific reasons, economy is also a rare topic. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to analyze the performance of economic inequality in the Roman Empire and its negative impact on the empire. First of all, this paper gave a detailed discussion on the manifestations of economic inequality in the Roman Empire, and this paper compared the luxury and generosity of honores in the empire with the embarrassment and limitations of the humiliores’ life. In the next two main paragraphs, this paper respectively described how economic inequality formed and how it had a negative impact on the empire. Regarding the causes of economic inequality, this paper explained it through morality, law, and a corrupt bureaucracy. Finally, class conflict, ineffective bureaucracy, and excessive dependence on slavery are the core topics of the next paragraph. The article is broken down from the mainstream research directions of the Roman Empire, and innovatively uses economic issues to explain and analyze the decline of the Western Roman Empire in the fourth century.

Copyright

© 2022 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.

Open Access

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Bofei Fan
AU  - Birong Zhang
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/01/28
TI  - The Manifestations, Causes and Influences of Economic Inequality in the Roman Empire from the 4th to the 5th Centuries
BT  - Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Public Art and Human Development ( ICPAHD 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 758
EP  - 762
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.220110.144
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.220110.144
ID  - Fan2022
ER  -