Who was really to blame?

Who was really to blame?

The Romans

No singular entity carries the fault but if you really want to condense the answer is technically correct

Romans becoming cucks.

Everyone, to be honest.

eternal anglo

The Communist.

the big reasons to blame:

1. subcontracting the army to mercenaries: the obvious one is that these men are not as well trained or as disciplined as the Legions, the second is that they are loyal to gold first and not the State. Once the gold stopped flowing, the army changed their allegiance real quick.

2. the division between Eastern and Western Empires.

this is a blessing for the east and the deathblow to the west, as the Eastern Empire took the most populous and profitable provinces of the empire with it; including Greece, Egypt, the Levant, and Anatolia.

The Western Empire in contrast really only received North Africa and Italy as the real money makers, with those those to support the comparatively rural and undeveloped Iberian Peninsula, Gaul, and Britannia.

the division of the empire and the riches of the provinces allowed the East to survive another 1000 years off the sheer wealth the region could generate without the burden of rural provinces. While the West was kneecapped having to support such an immense frontier with their finances heavily slashed.

3. Rampant corruption prevented any real action from being taken. In Rome's final years, most of the imperial inner circle devolved into tax revenues just disappearing into the elite's hands, who were trying to secure their fortunes as the state collapsed around them. There was no more money to fund armies or infrastructure as all sources of revenue were just being skimmed off by the elites at that point.

4. the Huns causing the great migrations of German tribes. The Romans were initially okay with the movement of German peoples into the empire, more people more labor more citizens, but the German tribes didn't conform to the idea of roman citizenry, and paired up with a german mercenary army, turned against the Roman state and seized land for themselves.

Short answer: The Romans

Long Answer: It was a culmination of centuries of problems leading to a cascading systems failure.

From the very get go Rome had a flimsy succession policy and a precedence of legions being loyal to their generals rather than the state.

This lead to emperors being propped up across the empire and civil wars became the new pastime. These civil wars absolutely fucked the economy and the Romans had no concept of inflation.

This created a manpower shortage in the legions because enlistment was basically playing Russian roulette. Nobody wanted to risk it anymore so Rome increasingly needed to rely on Germanic mercenaries to bolster it's army.

At the same time they treated them like shit and the Goths eventually realized Rome needed them far more than they needed Rome. Coming to a head with Honorius' ridiculous refusals to diffuse the situation.

The split of the empire robbed the west of its greatest sources of wealth while having to deal with the greater problem of the huns pushing all of the germanic tribes west.

Corruption and politicing led to Rome's most capable generals being hamstrung or killed because their popularity made them a threat to the throne.

And while all of this is going on, those in power didn't really understand just how fragile the empire was. They couldn't conceive of Rome actually falling. So while the empire was being picked apart they were too busy np laying politics and posturing to actually address the threat.

All of this added up to a Rome that was simply too weak to do anything once the barbarians came knocking at the gates

Romans fighting each other and wiping out their own army during the 410s and 420s with barely any help from the invading barbarians who were virtually left to their own devices.