Here is a cool page by a friend of mine that I’ve been meaning to link to. For a great example of this page, check out Empire Fail: Why did Rome Fall http://minimumwagehistorian.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/empire-fail-why-did-rome-fall/
The parrallels are pretty awesome.
”
-Anna-
We can get into education, economics and military prowess, but I believe we are out of time. That’s what this blinking red light means, right.
-Zach-
Crap. How long has that been on?
-Gaita-
A while now.
”
Awesome.
Great blog! Thanks for posting the link. I subscribed to it, because it looks really interesting and I love history.
Larry, you might enjoy the post on Sekigahara! If you’re into the samurai thing that is.
Read that one a few days ago. There is a reason the Chairman is the great great great great grandson of Iesayu Tokugawa. 🙂
Because he’s the freakin’ MAN and one Bad A.
The ‘Roman’ simply ceased to exist. Those short, surly faced, bad-intentioned, single focus creatures disappeared as the Empire grew and families of Roman blood could not produce enough off-spring to deal with it as it could during the Republic and a short time later. One could easily believe they were aliens ( NOT the illegal type ) the way they could field another force of legions after a disaster
( read Cannae, Trasimene et al ) that would have crushed any other society.
So Roman blood was thinned. And as it was thinned so was the single purpose that maintained greatness.
Remember….Alaric was a ‘Roman’ General.
Basically the Empire died because of societal-suicide via lack of population growth.
This is what troubles me most about the U.S. Where long ago families produced multiple off-spring. I believe today the ration is 1.9 or 2. That means no growth in the population. It is static and stagnant. The largest ratio of off-spring ( I believe it is 4. + ) can be found in the Middle East. Guess where the extra kids are being sent……
I love the way Zach is running this blog. MWH is one of my favorite blogs to read these days. I check it every day to see what new and wacky history stuff Zach’s decided to write about next.
Keep up the good work, Zach.
Sweet- another great history nerd site to read!