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To: The Blitherer

All these comparisons to ancient Rome ignore a few realities. The Roman Empire thrived when it assimilated the peoples of conquered territories. Those who served the army for a specified period of time became Roman citizens. Many Imperial generals were not Italian. The Emperors Trajan, Hadrian, and Flavius Theodosius was born in Spain (though some were from families originally from Italy) and Constantine was born in Serbia.

The real troubles with foreigners coming into the Empire began with the treatment of the Goths, who were fleeing the Huns and pushing to move West. They were mistreated by by the Emperor, and shunned by Roman society. Instead of assimilating them, the Romans bred an enemy within their own ranks.

As much a factor in Rome's decline was their own internal decay and infighting. Finally, the Eastern Roman Empire survived another thousand years after the fall of Rome, and the peoples of the West, even the Germanic tribes, tried to live as Romans, or revive the Roman Empire in different forms for hundreds of years to come.


19 posted on 06/13/2006 2:11:09 PM PDT by SoCal Pubbie
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To: SoCal Pubbie
All these comparisons to ancient Rome ignore a few realities...

A few??

20 posted on 06/13/2006 2:53:58 PM PDT by yankeedame ("Oh, I can take it but I'd much rather dish it out.")
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To: SoCal Pubbie

Those are all very valid points. Like I said, this article is a bit alarmist, but it does present a very interesting point of view.


21 posted on 06/13/2006 2:55:53 PM PDT by The Blitherer ("These are not dark days, these are great days." – W. S. Churchill)
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To: SoCal Pubbie

You really ought to reread your convoluted analysis and try to prove you are not a liberal. You argue that the people who actually destroyed Rome were not responsibile. They had bad childhoods due to imperial policy.


23 posted on 06/13/2006 4:12:32 PM PDT by ClaireSolt (.)
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