When did the Roman Empire fall (your thoughts)?

[Titus Manlius Verus]

No, actually, I was questioning whether there were any 'benefits of empire' for most people, especially in its later days.

As previously said, the primary benefit in both the west and east was the protection against foreign enemies. For the west, I believe, the primary threat was the Germans making raids into German territory. And in the east, the Sassnids (forgive my spelling) threatned the entire East. There was, however, no one cause for the empire's collapse. The main reasons that I can see are the increased attacks by barbarians, plagues in Rome, and the introduction of Christian morality that lessened the Roman's appetite for blood. I'm a Christian, and I can see the validity of that argument. I also heard one interesting theory: The use of lead pipes over the course of centuries led to many birth defects which further weakened the pool of manpower available to the Romans and contributed to disease. I thought that was a rather interesting idea. Opinions?