One could come to various conclusions as to why the Roman Empire faultered, however many would conclude that it boiled down to a few main reasons. These would include the decrease in the necessary requirements for recruitment into the army brought about by an easier accessibility to citizenship. In addition, a depopulation of the Roman Empire and the placement of non-roman citizens into high positions in the army would allow for a less effective army that would allow the invasion of other areas into the empire. However, a failure in education in combination with a large slave population would also aid in the destruction of the Roman Empire.
Even though Roman citizens were not likely to volunteer to join the army, an army of 300,000 was still obtainable through those who wished to gain their citizenship and from those who had wished to join to gain rank. In order to defend the empire, the use of short term conscripted soldiers could not be used, so a necessary amount of soldiers needed to volunteer in order to keep the empire safe from attack or invasion. However, the average Roman citizen was "deliberately discouraged from taking any interest or participating in public affairs." This brought about a general feeling of the average Roman, due to various other aspects as well such as poor education, that if they were simply a part of this vast empire, unable to run it, then they came to the conclusion that "he was not needed to defend it." However, a large enticement to join the army from all those who were outside the province of Italy was to gain their citizenship. This would provide the soldier with an "improved social standing" and would open many more doors for the soldier and for his family and since citizenship was only obtain through military service, it proved to support a lot of volunteers. However, in A.D. 212 Emperor Caracalla enfranchised all of the freeborn inhabitants of the Empire no matter their race, origin, creed, or mother tongue. Even though his actions were meant to be a positive thing, they turned out to have horrific consequences to the enlistment into the army. This all took a turn for the worse once the widespread citizenship brought about the same feelings and attitudes as the average Roman, thus creating a need to lower the standards to the lowest elements in society for a soldier. The lack of qualified soldiers and lack of volunteers in turn also brought about a need to search outside the empire for soldiers. However, without citizenship as a bribe to join, various other tactics were needed to supply volunteers such as "increased pay, free rations... and a right to fight legal wedlock." Due to the horrific soldiers, barbarians took their chance and quickly seized it, causing the collapse of the military and therefore the collapse of the empire.

Going into further detail, it can be seen how the Roman population came to have such a decline within their empire, due to their lack of proper education and their large slave population which provided a smaller need to improve technology. With slaves, no hardship could be seen, as in something that could be improved to help out the common man, since the slaves were used, the work was already taken care of. The failure in education of the common Roman brought various implications, one of which was the inability for any of the thousands of Romans to accomplish any major advancements in their various technologies, such as a lack of improving the harness that would "half strangle a draft animal." This was also furthered by Barbarians becoming familiar with Roman military ways and the Roman Army becoming barbarian in the sense that the personnel within the army became a large and large population of Barbarians. This all provided for a very ineffective army that could easily be beaned by the fourth century by an army of “Goths, Vandals, or Huns.” However, Crippling taxation, inflation, additional harassment by “incessant demands for loans,” and various other reasons also contributed to the collapse by reducing the average citizen to a “helpless individual to whom the state and its agents were not responsible.” Furthered by similar conditions in the East, these all brought about a push towards the collapse of Rome.
There is also evidence to say that the collapse was a result of various unpredictable events such as a depopulation and the practice of “elevating Germans to the highest points in command in the army.” It is suggested that Christianity also had a roll in the break down of the Roman Empire, however, this was faulty since Augustine had argued that Christians were to protect Rome as much as the Pagans due their equal bound to Rome, thus providing evidence that they were not so much as a threat, but a minority that was seeking rights. Germans that were elevated to high points of command in the army also provided aid to the collapse due to the implications afterwards since now Rome was not only fighting Germans outside of it's empire, but in addition, leadership within. This created an opportunity to change the western provinces into Germanic Kingdoms, which they evidently were. This, in turn, was furthered by the dependence of barbarian employment in the army in order to protect the borders. These issues created a “decline in military spirit.” in addition to a depopulation in the older and more civilized Mediterranean Countries. Therefore, a collapse of Rome could become apparent due to Germanic leadership within Rome's Army.
Therefore, due to various aspects of the Roman Empire's Army, such as a lack of volunteers and implications brought about by foreign leadership and recruitment it can be seen as to why the Roman Empire faultered. This can be furthered by the military's citizenship being deleted and provided to the common freeborn man.