When legal Christianity Was created in 313, and it later became the state religion in 380. These decrees ended centuries of persecution, but they may have also eroded the traditional Roman values system. Christianity displaced the polytheistic Roman religion, which viewed the emperor as having a divine status, and also shifted focus away from the glory of the state and onto a sole deity.

The Roman Empire stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Euphrates River in the Middle East, that's a huge area! Because the area was so enormous, the empire faced a problem of governing and controlling that much land. Even with their good road systems, the Romans could not communicate quickly or effectively enough to keep up with problems. Rome struggled to gather up enough troops and resources to defend its self from rebellions and attacks from other empires.

The enormous size of Rome made it difficult to govern. Bad leaders made the problem worse. Civil wars started the decline, and more than 20 men took the throne in the span of about 80 years. The political decline also affected the Roman Senate, which caused corruption throughout.