Urban Decay

Urban Decay

          Urban Decay was one of the ten main reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire had to endure a series of elevated payments for the military, so many Romans became poor. The wealthy, owned houses which had designs on colored tiles, glass pane windows, and were completed with marble walls. This type of house was called a domus. The poor however, had to live in 6 floor apartments called "islands" which were very foul smelling. They were also usually unsafe and very torrid. The higher the floor was, the cheaper the price got. The more stairs your family had to climb everyday, the cheaper the price.Those Romans who could not afford to even live in an apartment, were bound to survive on the violent streets as a homeless. Houses that had not become inhabited by people for a long time, usually gave way to criminals. These criminals couldn't take care of the houses properly and they soon collapsed. Rome kept on receiving corrupt emperors who were greedy and only cared about gaining power. These emperors didn't keep Rome's apartments and streets healthy, which also crumbled buildings. Since there were many Romans that were homeless, they ganged up and made the streets dangerous. The criminal rate got higher and higher. Later, many cities started to decay, one of the reasons for the fall of Rome.                                                                                                                            ~Emily Tran