[Williams]

Of course the world didn't "go dark" for a millenium after Rome, whatever that means. Gibbons' history continues for about 1000 years after what we generally accept as the fall of Rome

Agree that popular theories and analogies to Rome are almost always simplistic BUT

There are great lessons about history, war, leadership, morality, and human nature to be learned from Gibbons (The great historian, not the monkeys).

[farlander]

Compared to the height of Roman civilization, the world did really ‘go dark’ for quite some time, as de-facto warlords ruled small patches of territorry constantly warring amongst each other. It was not until the reneissance that the light of civilization truly emerged agian.

[VR-21]

"There are great lessons about history, war, leadership, morality, and human nature to be learned from Gibbons (The great historian, not the monkeys)."

Tell that to our Congressional Democrats.

[buwaya]

A lot of the civilized world did, however, go quite dark -

I found this fascinating -

http://www.amazon.com/Fall-Rome-End-Civilization/dp/0192807285