Free Republic

At its peak, the Roman Empire held up to 130 million people over a span of 1.5 million square miles. Rome had conquered much of the known world. The Empire built 50,000 miles of roads, as well as many aqueducts, amphitheatres, and other works that are still in use today. Our alphabet, calendar, languages, literature, and architecture borrow much from the Romans. Even concepts of Roman justice still stand tall, such as being “innocent until proven guilty”. How could such a powerful empire collapse? The Roman Economy. Trade was vital to Rome. It was trade that allowed a wide variety...

New scientific analysis of the composition of Roman denarii has brought fresh understanding to a financial crisis briefly mentioned by the Roman statesman and writer Marcus Tullius Cicero in his essay on moral leadership, De Officiis, and solved a longstanding historical debate.Researchers at the University of Warwick and the University of Liverpool have analyzed coins of the period and revealed a debasement [sic] of the currency far greater than historians had thought, with coins that had been pure silver before 90BC cut with up to 10 percent copper five years later...The reference is part of an anecdote describing self-serving behavior...