My question is: What does mythology, specifically mythological creatures, say about human nature? Do we base our monsters of legend on human aspects? How has mythology evolved throughout history?

One of the most well known fallen empires is the roman empire. It stands to reason because it was the most spread out empire of it’s time, covering a vast area of Europe, northern Africa and Italy during it’s greatest time.

The fall of this great empire was caused by a variety of things, but the main reason was the assassination of Julius Caesar, which caused a domino effect of events leading to the downfall of Rome. The most noticeable effect was the one on the common people. Julius Caesar came to power as a dictator, even though the roman government was a senate who advised two consuls who had to agree on everything to act. The senate could also vote for a dictator to come to power for a certain term. Julius Caesar was voted into dictatorship and during his term he did many good things for the empire, like construct many new buildings, hire many people for the construction of these buildings and he also achieved many victories in battle. Julius Caesar was a good emperor, but that’s where the problem started.

When Julius Caesar was assassinated, the commoners were enraged. The best ruler they have ever known, and the corrupt nobles kill him! This led to an ongoing dispute between higher class people and lower class people in Rome.

The nobles grew angry with Julius when he led his army into Rome. It was against roman law for any general to march his army into Rome, and when the Senatorial army met Julius at the bridge leading into Rome and ordered him to halt his army and turn back or to disband it. Julius Caesar refused and won the ensuing battle. One day Julius walked into the senate and almost all the torches were unlit. He was stabbed several times by senators and his adviser Brutus. The affect of Julius Caesar’s death was that he declared his nephew emperor in his will, and as a result started a long line of emperors. These emperors were often irresponsible and made bad decisions concerning warfare and abused their power. The roman armies were too spread out and could not handle all of the land they controlled. The empire’s capitol was moved from Rome to Constantinople but in the end the city was overrun by barbarians. The roman empire essentially fell because it’s people put faith in emperor’s based on one good ruler.

I believe the Roman empire’s downfall could have been prevented or at least delayed if the senate had never voted Julius into power, or if they had taken power away from the first bad emperor, so the lower class would have been happy. In the end it’s hard to say if the assassination could have been stopped because we don’t know all the small details that could have drastically affected the outcome of the situation, but I think that the roman empire would have been better off in the long run if Julius Caesar had never been voted into dictatorship. This would have stopped emperors coming into power, which was the major reason for the downfall of Rome.

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