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The Berlin Wall was built to keep people from getting out, and certain people from getting in. People still got through despite soldiers at the wall(with more powerful weapons), land mines, and a wall built from concrete and barbed wire. People still got through, and eventually, the people(not the government) tore it down. I don't think building a wall in Rome would have kept people out so easily.
Yeah,I forgot history and politics aren't interrelated
I believe that you actually understood the point.
This board is a relative oasis, not plagued by the unending agenda wars of the left and the right. The Fall of Rome is history, the state of our existing government is politics. Placing the latter in the context of the former is...politics. Starting a thread along the lines of "Who Was Worse, Atilla The Hun or George W. Bush"....would really be a thread about whether or not you supported Bush, not about history.
I dislike the politics board because it seems largely composed of people with set in stone agendas screaming at one another and indulging in what I think of as "Relativity Wars." (i.e......If a Democrat had said that then there would have been hell to pay, but because it was a Republican etc etc.)
I very, very much would hate to see that mentality spreading to this board, it is dogs barking at one another and little more.
Something that I have not seen mentioned, is the fact that as Rome lost and gave up territory, the tax base shrank. They had much less money to pay the hired army. They also lost their "bread basket" when the Vandals took North Africa. There is no one answer as to why Rome fell. It was a combination of events over a very long time, not just one lost battle or any one event.
This board is a relative oasis, not plagued by the unending agenda wars of the left and the right. The Fall of Rome is history, the state of our existing government is politics. Placing the latter in the context of the former is...politics. Starting a thread along the lines of "Who Was Worse, Atilla The Hun or George W. Bush"....would really be a thread about whether or not you supported Bush, not about history.
I dislike the politics board because it seems largely composed of people with set in stone agendas screaming at one another and indulging in what I think of as "Relativity Wars." (i.e......If a Democrat had said that then there would have been hell to pay, but because it was a Republican etc etc.)
I very, very much would hate to see that mentality spreading to this board, it is dogs barking at one another and little more.
What????? You're reading alot into my post,I'm not taking a pro-Republican or Democrat stance,only pointing out the divisiveness they engender could equate to Roman Generals fighting amongst themselves while larger issues,such as the Barbarian incursions go unanswered,merely looking to provoke thought,not controversy.
What????? You're reading alot into my post,I'm not taking a pro-Republican or Democrat stance,only pointing out the divisiveness they engender could equate to Roman Generals fighting amongst themselves while larger issues,such as the Barbarian incursions go unanswered,merely looking to provoke thought,not controversy.
I understand, but did you consider how such an issue could be discussed without it inevitably leading to the type of brawl I have described?
The pattern would be...
Yes, the US faces the same sort of dangers that the Roman empire faced..
...it is because of the devisiveness in our political structure...
...and of course that devisiveness is all the fault of....fill in opposition party
...oh yeah? well what about this example of devisive behavior by...fill in other party
and on and on
Why do I think this? I think this because it happens every single time.
So while your intentions may have been noble, the outcome would not have been under your control.
To keep enemies out, Babylon built a huge wall, wide and strong....
an invincible wall to defend an invincible city.
Or so they thought.
Cyrus was a new king in the east.
Cyrus' Persia was not as wealthy, not as strong as Babylon.
Cyrus knew his army could not breech Babylon's powerful wall,
so a direct, frontal assault was out of the question.
The city of Babylon was literally built over the Euphrates river...
the river was Babylon's valuable asset and its final undoing.
Cyrus' army spent a year building canals north of Babylon.
Then one night when the timing was right, Cyrus' troops
diverted the water of the Euphrates river. This allowed
Cyrus' army to enter the city of Babylon secretly along
the dried up river bed.
The city of Babylon was conquered before it realized it
had been invaded.
The most powerful empire of the ancient world fell instantly
to a less powerful Persia.
Cyrus' army conquered Babylon by going UNDER a wall
that was built too strong to fall.
Oh... and by the way... next time you read Revelation 16:12...
you will understand the analogy [the Israelites spend 200 years
under Persian rule, so they knew the history well.]
Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage;
If I have freedom in my love,
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone that soar above
Enjoy such liberty.
The opening sentences of one of my favorite books How The Irish Saved Civilization by the superb writer Thomas Cahill...
"On the last, cold day of December in the dying year we count as 406, the river Rhine froze solid, providing the natural bridge that hundreds of thousands of hungry men, women, and children had been waiting for. They were the barbari--to the Romans an undistinguished, matted mass of Others, not terrifying, just troublemakers, annoyances, things one would rather not have to deal with--non-Romans. To themselves they were, presumably, something more, but as the illiterate leave few records, we can only surmise their opinion of themselves."
A magnificent book
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Of course Rome wasn't kilt in a day.