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The factors that made the Roman Empire hard to defend were mostly based on communication and transportation. The empire sprawled from the Atlantic Ocean to the Black sea with the city of Rome roughly in the middle. If a communication were to go out from Italy to say, Egypt or Syria, it could take as long as two weeks to get there, depending on the weather, of course. The same amount of time for a return letter. The time frame was slightly better in Europe as the messages went via the roads. However no matter how good the Roman roads were, the horses could only go so fast and so far in one day. The transporting of extra troops to a trouble area was also slow and cumbersome, depending on the number of troops moved and the distance they had to travel.

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βˆ™ 11y ago
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βˆ™ 9y ago

The Roman Empire was hard to defend because of their land was so widespread, there wasn't enough troops to cover the entire area, so they were stationed at the border. Invading Germanic tribes broke into their defenses and followed their roads to the heart of the city and took over. Not only that but there was internal rebellion from the troops because the wages of their troops weren't being paid enough and were minting lower value coins.

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βˆ™ 10y ago

The sheer size of the empire made it harder to defend. As Rome added more territory, it needed (obviously) more troops to defend the borders and they were forced to depend to a great extent upon auxiliaries. This worked for a while, as after serving his enlistment time, an axillary became a Roman citizen and the rewards of citizenship were, in many cases, enough to keep a man loyal to Rome. However when Roman citizenship was given to every free male in the empire it was no longer a factor in recruiting fresh troops and Rome had the problem of her troops being stretched too thin to properly defend the borders.

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βˆ™ 6y ago

It was an age before mechanical transport and telecommunication, so the vast distance from the Atlantic to Asia made it difficult to move armies and pass warnings and orders.

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Q: Why was roman empire hard to defend?
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Related questions

Why was the Roman Empire hard to defend?

It was actually not that easy to defend the empire as the barbarians (Barbarians is not a specific type of empire, it is just a Roman term for any-one not of Roman stature) would often attack the empire, but what would make it a little bit easy to defend is that the Roman empire had MASSIVE armies. Each army consited of a couple legions, each legion about a thousand soldiers.


How did the size of the roman empire lead to it's downfall?

the size of their empire was difficult to defend against barbarian invasions.


What kinds of factors made the Roman Empire harder to defend the larger it grew?

There was more land and it was harder for the emperor to defend


How did the Roman empire military effect the fall of the Roman empire?

the roman army was weak so it could not defend the empire from barbarians who attacked it in the twilight of Rome (Rome was captured in 476 AD by a barbarian named Odacer)


Why learning decline in did what was once the roman empire?

It probably got too big to defend its borders.


What was the effect of the roman army not being able to defend the empire?

When the Roman armies were defeated, the barbarians overran and sacked Rome.


How did the Roman Empire's size eventually become a problem?

The empire became too big and difficult to defend. There were attacks in various parts of the vast frontiers of the empire in Europe. In the east there were repeated wars with the Persians. The Roman army became overstretched.


Who was the last ptolemic ruler of Egypt who sought to defend Egypt from the expanding roman empire?

Cleopatra IIV


Why didn't the roman empire grow larger at its largest?

The Romans stopped expanding their empire because it had grown too big and had become difficult to defend.


How did the Roman empire remain at peace with weak emperors?

The Senate was in partnership with the Emperor and made necessary decisions for the empire to run smoothly and defend its borders.


Why was the Roman Empire divided in half during third century AD?

The Roman Empire was split in half because the massive empire was too large to defend with too many invaders, such as the Saxons, Huns, Goths, and Germanic tribes. So Diocletian, the emperor at the time, split it in half because he thought the empire would be easier to defend. The western empire fell to a Germanic general, Odoacer, while the eastern empire, the Byzantine Empire, continued to thrive.


Does evreyone enjoy the roman empire?

No, the slaves had a really hard time.