Just a partial list: http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/victordavishanson/index:
Just a partial list. Much more at the link: http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/victordavishanson/index
Ping !
Let me know if you want in or out. Links:
FR Index of his articles: http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/victordavishanson/index NRO archive: http://author.nationalreview.com/?q=MjI1MQ== Pajamasmedia: http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/ His website: http://victorhanson.com/
You might be interested - PING
Once again, outstanding insight and analysis from VDH.
Quite true. Not that the choice is "I want to decline," but rather, the choice is to abandon what should be immutable values and principles. See, in the US, the wholesale abandonment of the principles meant to be shored up by the Constitution. Rather than a weak central government, we have a strong one. See too, as James Burnham pointed out in Suicide of the West - when a civilization (and I submit this applies to countries as well) stops asserting itself as superior over other - when diversity is embraced as a strength - then there WILL be declines in order and in standard of living.
The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now concerns itself no more, and longs eagerly for just two things - bread and circuses!
Juvenal, Satires
Roman poet & satirist (55 AD - 127 AD)
Socialism, or rather, the type of cultural thinking, decline, and weakness that Socialism brings. The Romans had their own brand of socialism. Bread and Circuses...
Great!!! I always find it interesting how the Western Roman Empire lasted so long with all the instability and deadly infighting at the top. It would be nice to be Emperor but the minute you were on the throne you had a big bulls eye on you and your life expectancy would be measured in months.
The Romans themselves by the first century AD (cf. Horace to Livy to Petronius to Juvenal) felt that the enormous influx of unearned wealth from conquered provinces had undermined the old republican virtues of small farmers and merchants (e.g. the old yeoman with four kids and a wife on five acres of grain now either devolved into the urban unemployed spectator in the Coliseum at Rome on the dole or evolved into the sterile estate owner with 50 slaves and 200 acres of wine grapes and an expensive pasture with a herd of beef cows.)
___________________________________________________________
Were they more productive than we are today? Because a rancher in Texas with 200 acres is not exactly able to support 50 slaves and be a sterile estate owner.
Hammer meets nail.
Thanks for posting. VDH is always a good read.
I hope for Option 1!
Good analysis, but I would quibble with one small point - “The East certainly had more defensible borders with the Danube and the Hellespont”
The Danube was no barrier. The Goths crossed it with ease, and the Bulgars used it to hit the Byzantines time and time again.
VDH does some really fine writing sometimes. This isn’t one of those.
About here: “One can see the resultant transition in the center of power— emperors mostly were born in the provinces...” I lost patience waiting for VDH to mention the Roman military, which deserves mention and most of the credit for the situation he’s exploring (including the origins and stations of numerous emperors).
By the way, Mr. H., if you’re reading: please don’t preface your commentary with so much disclaimer about what you’re NOT about to comment upon. We’ll figure that out.
A storehouse of knowledge! Thank you, and bookmark.
There is a very ironic lesson to be learned from the Byzantine Empire, the Emperor Justinian I and Empress Theodora, the Nika Riots, that almost overthrew their empire, the factions involved, and the results of having a strong leader.
To start with, there were four major political parties/gangs/gambling leagues in Constantinople. They were called the Blues, the Greens, the Reds and the Whites. While Justinian favored the Blues, the Blues had ambitions to politically achieve rule over the empire.
In this they were joined with the more radical Greens, who wanted to violently overthrow Justinian and seize power. The Reds and the Whites were loyal to their empire and their emperor.
Justinian I was a very able administrator in running the business of the Empire, but he was not a popular favorite. In this he was complemented by his wife, Theodora, who had been a prostitute or dancer, and who had a deep understanding of the mob, and was popular in her own right. She was also a very strong person.
The Nika riots began with the arrest of some of the Blue and Green leaders for murder. And while Justinian was willing to commute their sentence, the Blue and Green factions demanded their full pardon, which would amount to royal approval of the murders they had committed, putting them above the law.
In demanding these full pardons, they laid siege to the palace for a time, and burned almost half the city, then decided to crown their own emperor to replace Justinian and Theodora, in the great Hippodrome (coliseum).
Justinian lost his nerve and decided to flee, but Theodora put her foot down and refused to leave. So other arrangements were made.
With the Blues and Greens assembled in the Hippodrome for the coronation, a single slave of the Emperor appeared, carrying a bag of gold. He went to the section where the Blue leaders were sitting, and offered them the gold. Accepting the offer, the Blues got up and filed out of the Hippodrome. They had been bought off.
Puzzled by this, the Greens attitude was “More for us! Now we will rule!”, not realizing that two large military units with loyal generals had been deployed, surrounding the Hippodrome.
At a signal, then entered the Hippodrome, and the Green faction, about 30,000 of them, were no more.
By this action, the slaughter of traitorous rebels, the life of the Byzantine Empire was extended by perhaps 200 years. To this day, the Empress Theodora, this strong woman, is considered a saint of the Orthodox church.
Once again, it is interesting to imagine the parallels with today’s Blues and Greens.
I’ll throw out another possibility. The rest of the world became wealthier and more advanced militarily — so the Romans with a small population couldn’t surpress other people as effectively anymore.
Sent me to the dictionary for that one!
When I first saw it I thought it was latintifada and Hanson was making up a clever new word, but I guess I'm the one who made it up?
ML/NJ
America has fallen. Scott Brown has heard the call and will start on the way to recovery.
That said, it’s up to the rest of us to make sure we are back on track to be the great country we were.
