The Romans wish to push their world view on the rest of the world.
Read the whole thing Mr Gurr, for some reason, must have too much idle time,
However:
Apologetically taken out of your context, but the whole reason that the Roman Empire lasted so long and was so successful, and was such a mighty human achievement, was exactly opposite of what you cite in this example.
The Romans, very specifically and very consciously administered their conquests by allowing the endemic cultures to continue in their own traditions, and politic. It was their great understanding, and a magnificent insight. It was a sort of flexible and tolerant protection racket.
A perfect example, in the nature of the season, is Pontius Pilate, asking the Pharisees, why do you want to this Man executed? (He really had no intrinsic motivation to do so). But alas did so, according to what they demanded. Likewise Herod, the Jewish King, in sending out a decree to all the land (Roman dominion).
This is a fairly agreed understanding among more informed historians.
Sorry if your simile was an idle one so that we're nitpicking here, but the Roman reference is inappropriate for such profound pontification.
Johnny Suntrade
Actually, I think you’re quite right and I should have been a bit more careful with that analogy. I do however believe strongly that the collapse was somewhat, not entirely, due to inflation and maintaining of the empire. The Romans did in fact lessen the value of the coinage in order to increase the money supply without resorting to actually finding more silver. This is a tricky one because although there are some similarities vis-a-vis monetary policy, I don’t believe the United States can fairly be compared with other empires. We exact no tribute from nations we protect, or otherwise have a presence within their borders. It was a bad simile and I forced it emphasize the time line and add historical context. Instead I think I inadvertently exaggerated the time line and the comparison.
Ultimately however we still are left with the power play on the part of the Romans. Why did they build an empire in the first place? The expansion of trade was not anywhere near what one would consider saturated, yet the politicians yearned for conquest.