I no longer wonder at the fall of the Roman Empire. Clearly, it only takes a few powerful incompetents to bring empires down. - ThreadSky

tadethompson.bsky.social • 10 days ago

I no longer wonder at the fall of the Roman Empire.

Clearly, it only takes a few powerful incompetents to bring empires down.

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djl.bsky.social•10 days ago

Senator Horse (R-KY) neighs in agreement.

victoriadecapua.bsky.social•10 days ago

to be fair it took a pretty darn long time for that sucker to go. The 3rd century was an absolute trip.

tadethompson.bsky.social•10 days ago

That's maybe because they transitioned into a theocracy, softening the boundaries of empire. Hail Constantine.

victoriadecapua.bsky.social•10 days ago

the Roman Empire never really went away. It just got Jesus.

finch4077.bsky.social•10 days ago

Also Veniatian Empire seems an apt comparison. A huge empire that was "democratic" run by Oligarch and basically spent a few centuries fire fighting and then basically voted itself out of existence because it couldn't be a**ed /didn't have the will to fight back.

finch4077.bsky.social•10 days ago

Also iirc The Founding Fathers were influenced by Venice in writing the constitution apparently.

tadethompson.bsky.social•10 days ago

I was reading Mary Beard on how the Jesus of the matter made splitting the powers into three so easy. Helena (Constantine's mom)'s trip to the holy land was a lot more consequential that previously thought, especially since she found the True Cross.

It was wild.

victoriadecapua.bsky.social•10 days ago

I recently listened to her book on the Emperor (mostly a general overview) which was fun because it's like having British History Auntie read to me.

I'm mostly grateful to her for rendering the nickname Caligula as "Bootikins"

tadethompson.bsky.social•10 days ago

Judith Herrin's Byzantium is also instructive on the fall.

sillysyntax.bsky.social•10 days ago

Someone recently was saying re something I wrote that the collapse of the economic system was too easy and I thought, do you know how precariously balanced everything is? We are dependant on ppl "doing their part" things are "esssntial" because the stop and things deteriorate. Entropy is fast.

sillysyntax.bsky.social•10 days ago

Sure, it can take time irl but chaos is always a heartbeat away.

tadethompson.bsky.social•10 days ago

Entropy is with us always. You stop adding energy to the system, it flies out of control.

sillysyntax.bsky.social•10 days ago

100

usmansmith.bsky.social•10 days ago

All they left were the salt pans, what will we leave?
Walking in the sun today. Wandering on an island where its history predates the Pyramids.
Will it outlast the 21st Century?
Soon!

jlkaufmann.bsky.social•10 days ago

I'm very slowly reading through Gibbon's Decline and Fall, and once you edit out all the beautiful orotund rhetorical flourishes, it's basically, 'and this emperor was a dicksplash, and THIS emperor was a dicksplash, and the next emperor was a dicksplash, and the one after that was a dicksplash...'

lifeisamazing.bsky.social•10 days ago

Interesting! I feel like the historic analogy is the transition between the Republic to Empire. The democratic population of small landowner farmers who spoke in the senate were replaced by a cadre of magnates who bought the farms and influenced policy. Musk, Zuckerberg et al are those magnates.

lifeisamazing.bsky.social•10 days ago

Then, on another level, the collapse of the Empire led to a splintered Europe where the 'Comes' (adminstrators) localised power, drawing retired soldiers into their estates, many of whom surrendered freedoms for security. The Comes became Counts, and that was the start of feudalism.

lifeisamazing.bsky.social•10 days ago

So we're seeing historical analogies at both ends of the Empire. I guess it depends how much longer the USA lasts as an entity to know where we are - or if something completely different will happen that isn't precedented. Like a revolution, for example.

lifeisamazing.bsky.social•10 days ago

But who knows? It's all speculation. What the last few years has answered for me is something I was puzzled by for years about interwar Germany: how a democracy ended up voting for fascism. I could never understand it, till now.

jazzmanjay.bsky.social•10 days ago

Interesting. Hitler never got a majority, despite hyperinflation caused by tariffs, depression and WW1 punitive repayments. Hitler invited into a coalition he insisted on being Chancellor and then used the power of the office. We are are also using historical hindsight. We know where fascism leads.

lifeisamazing.bsky.social•10 days ago

That's fair. Of course, on another level, trump also didn't get a majority of all votes... but there the similarity ends. It was a different political system.

navalairhistory.com•10 days ago

I have to say, in recent weeks I've been rather wondering that it took the Western Roman Empire as long as it did to collapse.

jameslatimer.bsky.social•10 days ago

And a whole lotta apathy (and relative powerlessness).

tadethompson.bsky.social•10 days ago

Yep. That's what the streaming TV is for.

dobbyjog.medsky.social•10 days ago

Complacency, that’s all it is

This guy knows

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