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24 August 410: the date it all went wrong for Rome?
BBC ^ | August 24, 2010 | David Willey

Posted on 08/24/2010 3:47:47 PM PDT by decimon

Tuesday marks the 1,600th anniversary of one of the turning points of European history - the first sack of Imperial Rome by an army of Visigoths, northern European barbarian tribesmen, led by a general called Alaric.

It was the first time in 800 years that Rome had been successfully invaded. The event had reverberations around the Mediterranean.

Jerome, an early Christian Church Father, in a letter to a friend from Bethlehem - where he happened to be living - wrote that he burst into tears upon hearing the news.

"My voice sticks in my throat, and, as I dictate, sobs choke me. The city which had taken the whole world was itself taken," he said.

Although Alaric was a Christian ransacking a Christian city, there was an ominous feeling that the world structure built by pagan Rome was disintegrating.

The Roman Empire survived for a few more decades, and later other armies sacked the city again, but this was the date which marked the beginning of the end of Rome's grandeur.

Centuries later, the city which had at the height of its power boasted a population of more than a million people, was reduced to a lawless, ruined village of no more than 30,000 residents.

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs
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To: decimon

No matter how it happened, I’m sure it was somehow Bush’s fault.


21 posted on 08/24/2010 7:10:10 PM PDT by Bratch
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To: jnsun

>>> The USA fought and triumphed in WWII with 187 million citizens. Today we have over 300 million residents with a good percentage of those being illegal “mercenaries.”

History books are good things. I recommend them.

Good American gold bought many fighting allies that helped those 187 million Americans. It always has back even to the Indian wars and the Shores of Tripoli.


22 posted on 08/24/2010 7:10:21 PM PDT by tlb
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To: decimon

>>> 24 August 410: the date it all went wrong for Rome

I’ve always been of the school that the time it went wrong was when the Empire split into the western and eastern divisions. The economic and intellectual center of gravity shifted to the Eastern Empire, leaving the original Western Empire a hollow shell.


23 posted on 08/24/2010 7:15:28 PM PDT by tlb
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To: sinanju

The History Channel looked at this. Compared the Roman soldier of Caeser’s times with that of 400 years later. No comparison. Caesar’s soldiers were heavily armored brutes, trained to ruthless efficiency and armed to the hilt. 400 years later they were conscripts from outside Rome, equipped with straw armor and joke swords. Kind of like what Obama is doing to our military now.


24 posted on 08/24/2010 7:51:39 PM PDT by pabianice
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To: Fingolfin
The Dark Ages: Were They Darker Than We Imagined?
25 posted on 08/24/2010 8:13:28 PM PDT by blam
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To: mamelukesabre

you forgot a couple of diseases that depopulated the country, from the smallpox epidemic that killed Marcus Aurelius that depopulated the entire Roman Empire to the introduction of malaria into the swamps near Rome, that made women have sponatenous abortions and their children die at an early age.

Indeed, Alairic died of one of these diseases shortly after he sacked Rome.

Without the depopulation, Rome might have gone on for a couple more centuries...and because of the depopulation, they welcomed the Barbarians, who didn’t get hit as badly, because their smaller villages for cattle raising (rather than city dwelling) made the disease hit them less severely.


26 posted on 08/24/2010 10:19:47 PM PDT by LadyDoc (liberals only love politically correct poor people)
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To: LadyDoc

And america depopulating with abortion and the pill. Our invaders are not.

Even one more similarity. Thanks for reminding me.


27 posted on 08/24/2010 10:54:12 PM PDT by mamelukesabre (Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum (If you want peace prepare for war))
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To: Lucius Cornelius Sulla

Hey, thanks general. I’d forgotten about Cinna. I guess the day I’m seeking is the date Sulla defeated the Marians. It was notable because that date could have been a turning point in reviving the republic, but it did not pan out that way. Roman culture had already declined too much. Has America’s? [shudder]

O/T: IIRC, the young Julius Caesar was chased into exile under Sulla’s dictatorship. Do you recall if that was the time Caesar was held by pirates? In my dim memory, I think it was.


28 posted on 08/25/2010 1:41:09 AM PDT by Avoiding_Sulla (Yesterday's Left = today's status quo. Thus CONSERVATIVE is a conflicted label for battling tyranny.)
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To: Lucius Cornelius Sulla

Never mind. Caesar was taken captive in 75 BC, after his return from exile. There was an earlier capture (82?) by pirates, but it was minor and over quickly.


29 posted on 08/25/2010 2:43:29 AM PDT by Avoiding_Sulla (Yesterday's Left = today's status quo. Thus CONSERVATIVE is a conflicted label for battling tyranny.)
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To: decimon

Anchor Babies!


30 posted on 08/25/2010 4:18:01 AM PDT by wolfcreek (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsd7DGqVSIc)
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To: decimon
August 24 was just a bad day.
On August 24, 79 AD Vesuvius erupted burying Pompeii
31 posted on 08/25/2010 4:27:03 AM PDT by MrsEmmaPeel (a government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take everything you have)
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To: decimon
(Eric Idle in blackface): "Der's a whole hoard o' dem maraudin' Visigoths here t' see y'all!"
32 posted on 08/25/2010 4:43:43 AM PDT by Renfield (Turning apples into venison since 1999!)
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