[BiglyCommentary]

Was really surprised to learn that the Romans were essentally nonstop warmongers.

[Reily]

From the Roman viewpoint they never fought an offensive war. They were merely trying to pacify its borders. There is some truth to that viewpoint. Their borders almost always involved contact with various barbaric tribes. These tribes behaved as tribes the world over do with violence to enhance internal warrior prestige. The Romans go out and pacify them the border moves outward, more tribes process repeats. There were exceptions like the Carthaginians & the Sassanid Persians.

[ought-six]

“Was really surprised to learn that the Romans were essentially nonstop warmongers.”

Yup, they were. They had their setbacks, though: When Hannibal and the Carthaginians kicked their butts at Cannae (but the Romans exacted their revenge at the destruction of Carthage in the Third Punic War) and at the Teutoburg Forest when the “primitive” Germans wiped them out. And, of course, in the 5th century the Germans put an end to the Roman Empire.

[nyc1]

So was everyone else in the ancient world. The Gauls sacked Rome and the Carthaginians weren’t peacefully minding their own business, to take two examples.

And Rome finally collapsed after the idiot Emperor Valens allowed Goths to settle in the Empire’s borders after they fled the Huns.

Something that should have taught the US and Europe a lesson, but clearly hasn’t.