ut of the Roman treasury. Some emperors wanted to save money by down sizing the army. Doing so made the army too small to have control over such a large empire. The Roman cities never became commercial cities like the cities of the Greek Empire. After the Punic Wars, the plebian farmers flocked to the cities looking for food. Their farms had been demolished and there was no food left for them and their families to eat. Rome gave them the food they were looking for. The cities never became a place to find work; they were only places to find food. People were no longer expected to earn their food because Rome gave them handouts. This practice continued, and eventually the cities were became only places to find bread and circuses. The poor were given food and entertainment as a means to prevent them from rioting the Roman government. Large coliseums were constructed to hold the gladiatorial games. These games gave the people the bloody entertainment they wanted and eventually they became the bloodbath they are notorious for. Rome had become dependent on this form of entertainment; it kept the poor happy and content. Even at Romes beginning in the third century B.C., the cities were not producers. They were unable to overcome their downward spiral and become producers of the land and wealth (Grant, 102). By the end of the Roman Empire, the economy could not continue to develop and eventually collapsed. Rome was using all the grain to feed the people and could not afford to pay the barbarians to leave Rome and cease their attacks. Romes answer was to force higher taxes on the provinces. The farmers in the provinces could not handle the added taxes. The nobles took over the land of the farmers. The nobles used slaves to work their fields so the farmers had nowhere left to farm productively. They went to the cities looking for food. This meant less people to pay taxes in the provinces and taxes had to be raised again. This was a vicious cy...
