Thread: IS AMERICA BECOMING ANOTHER ROME? by Congressman Ted Poe

The man is right on point! Couldn't be a better example!

Interesting, but the one thing it misses is the fact that the number of actual Romans in the Roman army had dwindled to the point that it was almost entirely made up of barbarian mercenaries

Immediate citizenship for joining the military by executive order.

Originally Posted by CrocketsGhost

Originally Posted by jean

Interesting site on the fall of Rome:

http://killeenroos.com/1/Romefall.htm

Interesting, but the one thing it misses is the fact that the number of actual Romans in the Roman army had dwindled to the point that it was almost entirely made up of barbarian mercenaries. Even the Roman general Stilcho, who was long the only thing standing between Alaric (a Goth king who followed Frithigaern a couple of decades later) and Rome, was half-barbarian.

It is difficult to maintain a loyal army when the army is largely of a different ethnicity and heritage.

Primarily, though, Rome declined because the true seat of power was moved closer to the crossroads of the world in Anatolia. Rome became a backwater city midway down a long peninsula with a mountain range between itself and most of the rest of the civilized world. The relative isolation that had earlier allowed Rome to grow into a serious naval power capable of defeating the Carthaginian Phoenicians and dominate the Mediterranean became a hindrance as civilization pushed northward and inland.

The Eastern Roman Empire countinued with the Byzantines which outlasted the old Roman Empire by 1000 years until the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople. They failed to learned from the old Roman Empire and started hiring Mercenaries from the Asian steps when they could not replenish their indigenous Cataphrach Calvary Army and it contributed to their downfall.

Deja-vu? And still with a group that has a thing about heads on sticks.