Listening to The History of Rome for the umpteenth time and each time I always scratch my head when we reach the 5th century AD and the collapse of the West. It seems that the one of the main reasons the Western Empire struggled was because it couldn’t pay for an army. Which makes me wonder - why did Romans need to be paid to fight for their country? They’re living in total societal collapse and rather than fight for their country they just chill at home because…. They wouldn’t be paid. Maybe I’m applying too much of a modern perspective on this but the idea of not fighting for your country during its implosion because you wouldn’t be paid seems insane.
Do we know why Romans wouldn’t fight for their country in the end? Was nationalism/patriotism not a thing in Roman times in the 5th century?
I think these previous posts help shed some light into this:
u/toldinstone answer to Did "the 99%" Feel Rome Declining?
u/Steelcan909 answer to Did the people living in Rome during its fall realize they were living in the fall of an empire or was it gradual?
u/bitparity answer to How long after the Western Roman Empire fell did it take for Roman identity to disappear?
and u/GeorgisFlorentius answer to Were the late Merovingian kings really as useless as the record painted them out to be?