Donald Trump's America: A Roman reversal?
Donald Trump's America: A Roman reversal?
- THE CONNECTION one can draw between the United States and the ancient Roman Empire are hard to miss.
Military power in every corner of the known world. A currency used as the standard for all forms of trade. One unifying language. A seemingly intractable empire.
Powers like this are hard to forget. Every day, there are fewer and fewer Australians alive who remember what it was like before the United States was our big brother that could scare off bullies. The same was probably true for Western Europe in the 5th century CE. I have no doubt that before the collapse of the Roman Empire's western half, no one would remember life before the existence of the Empire or the Republic that preceded it.
Rome's collapse wasn't sudden. Years of barbarian invasions, corrupt bureaucratic practices, a shrinking population (perhaps due to the movement of the Imperial capital to Constantinople in 330 CE), and a rapidly deteriorating economy caused by massive inflation all contributed. Death by a thousand cuts, over centuries.
- THE CONNECTION one can draw between the United States and the ancient Roman Empire are hard to miss.
Military power in every corner of the known world. A currency used as the standard for all forms of trade. One unifying language. A seemingly intractable empire.
Powers like this are hard to forget. Every day, there are fewer and fewer Australians alive who remember what it was like before the United States was our big brother that could scare off bullies. The same was probably true for Western Europe in the 5th century CE. I have no doubt that before the collapse of the Roman Empire's western half, no one would remember life before the existence of the Empire or the Republic that preceded it.
Rome's collapse wasn't sudden. Years of barbarian invasions, corrupt bureaucratic practices, a shrinking population (perhaps due to the movement of the Imperial capital to Constantinople in 330 CE), and a rapidly deteriorating economy caused by massive inflation all contributed. Death by a thousand cuts, over centuries.