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In reply to the discussion: "We are doing what the Roman Empire did right before it Collapsed" [View all]markbark
(1,560 posts)98. This de Mattei fellow needs to chill....
Overly simplistic, sweeping judgements about complex affairs in history annoy me. A lot. I suppose its a useful ploy if all your listeners/viewers know about history comes from television and movies. But the "teh gays!/commies!/fluoride! are corrupting our values and making us collapse, just like Rome" argument is just silly. I'm not even going to go into the rather different views the ancient world had about sexuality, but if that Italian scholar was so worked up about Carthage, he should have been apoplectic about Greece--you know that place where the Romans got and looked to for culture and the arts?
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"We are doing what the Roman Empire did right before it Collapsed" [View all]
cthulu2016
Mar 2013
OP
The Romans had the right idea, but they didn't have the will to fully implement the plan
slackmaster
Mar 2013
#3
I remember hearing/reading about a boy/young man being distraught that Socrates would not have him
Ed Suspicious
Mar 2013
#28
Actually he was an "Impertor", which was what a successful General was called in the Republic
happyslug
Mar 2013
#112
well, he wasn't the emperor, he was the dictator, and being every man's "wife...."
Moonwalk
Mar 2013
#96
It's difficult to translate the modern concepts of sexuality to the ancient world
Recursion
Mar 2013
#68
There are many who claim the "Dark Ages" was part of the plan to purge Paganism.
Spitfire of ATJ
Mar 2013
#93
Do you honestly believe the wealthy went away just because religion changed?
Spitfire of ATJ
Mar 2013
#101
Hell no, the empire declined because they outstripped their most basic resource, wood. That's what
xtraxritical
Mar 2013
#110
It is a well known historical fact that teh gays made the Roman Empire fabulous before they
Guy Whitey Corngood
Mar 2013
#13
While I was channel surfing I stopped on Fox for 30 seconds and the topic was-oh yeah
Boomerproud
Mar 2013
#19
Both, the Gothic war of 535-553 were one of the longest, most expensive wars in the history of Rome
happyslug
Mar 2013
#50
Actually the movement to Revanna was in the 400s, the Aqueducts were NOT breeched till 536
happyslug
Mar 2013
#109
There used to be a poster here who thought EVERYTHING was analogous to the "fall of the Republic"
alcibiades_mystery
Mar 2013
#23
I heard there are something like 200 theories for the decline and fall of Rome.
tclambert
Mar 2013
#55
But...But...But, please tell me that Nero at least played his fiddle while the fire burned
Tyrs WolfDaemon
Mar 2013
#30
Many scientists think we didn't even have full consciousness until 2000 years ago or so.
randome
Mar 2013
#75
Read: The Rise amd Fall of the Greatest Powers by Paul Kennedy. We are on the way.
jwirr
Mar 2013
#77
Every great empire that rises up will come down. I remember back in 1966 when my English
southernyankeebelle
Mar 2013
#78
happened to the spanish empire as well. we don't PRODUCE anymore. we just push money around.
pansypoo53219
Mar 2013
#104