The Fall of the Roman Empire The Roman Empire did not fall overnight. In fact, it is historically incorrect to say that the Roman Empire fell in 476 AD, when the eastern half of the empire would be alive and well for one thousand years after 476 AD. There were various factors that would lead to the end of the western half of the Roman Empire. There are so many that there is no one real force or factor that can be pinpointed as the cause of the fall of the empire. Scholars have presented an extraordinary amount of theories, and corollaries to them, to the educated community as to explain the demise of the largest empire to date. Theories are primarily based on f