Great nations are only great until they fall. Rome fell on August 24, 410.
Who exactly were the Visigoths, the barbarians from the North who marched unopposed into Rome?
Mr Von Rummel says the latest research reveals a very different picture from that held as recently as 50 years ago.
“Today we know the group consisted of different people, it was mainly an army with a successful leader. People joined this group inside the Roman Empire. They sacked a lot of towns but they acted in different ways, they also were a sometime partner of the Romans,” he said.
“The moment the Roman emperor did not pay any more they changed sides and sacked the town just to tell the emperor: ‘You should pay us’.”
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When the city gates were opened by slaves, Alaric’s ragtag army rushed inside to loot and pillage. The sack lasted for only three days, after which Alaric withdrew and marched south to set sail for North Africa, an important and wealthy Roman province.
We’re not Rome, we’re not even an empire, and our modern details are very different, but are we not seeing some of our own switch to the side of lawlessness and looting now?
There is a fairly recent book about the fall of Rome which highlights your point. The barbarians who sacked Rome were not distinct tribes of foreigners who appeared out of the darkness. The Goths, the Vandals, and even the Huns were semi-barbarian, meaning they were part Roman. Most of their Romanization came through service in the army of the Empire, and through trade at the borders of the Empire. But they were mercenary armies and would sack Roman towns and cities to convince the Emperor to pay up. But even after the sacking, a semi-barbarian, mercenary army would think of itself as still Roman. The book is by James O’Donnell, and is a bit too friendly toward those barbarians, but is also an interesting look into that period of time. Your post is certainly timely. I wonder if the West is not growing into a similarly post-civilized, semi-barbarian empire.
Actually, the parallels between the late Roman Empire and the US are stunning; imperial overreach, decadence, apathy; bread and circuses. We even have our own Visigoths to our south, beyond the Rio Grande. A major reason behind Rome’s fall was that the Romans couldn’t, or wouldn’t, keep the Visigothic hordes from crossing into Roman territory at will. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
every “progressive” has already switched sides from being an American to being a barbarian looter.
Heck, isn’t that what being a progressive is all about? Taking the other guys stuff. Except for the occasional (very occasional) misguided librarian kumbaya peaceandlove type, all they do is steal and grant themselves power over other people who are too stupid to know what they are doing.
– has failed, just as in Rome. Hope the next pope take the name Peter II to fulfill the end times prophecy and end this farce.
Rome didn’t fall, it was pushed.