Why did Rome fall?

Very well put ETWolverine! Thank you!

Assuming that's true, then we must avoid partisanship, over-confidence, asolutism and fawning to please authority... All of which seem to me to be liberal "virtues" rather than conservative ones. We should instead stick to "imperialism, militarism, and fascism", as you describe them. (I see them as strong national identity, military strength and a willingness to fight for our national interests. You say "to-may-to", I say "to-mah-to".)

Elliot

At this time the Roman Empire was beginning to crumble and, not wishing to lose its grip over the populous, needed another instrument of control, and quickly. To accomplish this they needed a central figure to rally people around. Until then the Romans had mostly worshipped the pagan God Mithras. Mithras could not be used as the central "power" because he was so well known to the populous, and the Roman emperors could add nothing more to Mithras to make Mithras the centre of power. A new "power figure" was therefore required. Of course the Romans were aware of Jesus and the considerable powerhe wielded over people, in the most positive possible way of course, and realised that this person would be a most convenient icon as a starting point for a new "religion" and power base, especially as at that time early Christianity was already taking a hold in the region. This early Christianity was probably the first and only true Christianity before the Romans perverted it. And so over the next 300 years or so the Roman emperors looked atways in which they could leverage Jesus and his teachings into anew Religion to exert control over the masses.
Adrian Cooper

I might blame it on Mithras!

Here is a different theory:


The Lost Sex Study - Christianity Today magazine - ChristianityTodayLibrary.com

Seeking to test the Freudian notion that civilization is a byproduct of repressed sexuality, the scholar J. D. Unwin studied 86 different societies. His findings startled many scholars - above all, Unwin himself - because all 86 demonstrated a direct tie between monogamy and the "expansive energy" of civilization....

For Roman, Greek, Sumerian, Moorish, Babylonian, and Anglo-Saxon civilizations, Unwin had several hundred years of history to draw on. He found with no exceptions that these societies flourished during eras that valued sexual fidelity. Inevitably, sexual mores would loosen and the societies would subsequently decline, only to rise again when they returned to more rigid sexual standards.




Grace and Peace

I came out of the woods and into civilization after years of wandering aimlessley because hey, that's where the chicks are.