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Comment on Was the fall of Rome this stupid?

unconsequential@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

Yes. Marked by opulence and a distracted upper class, depending on foreign born nationals and the impoverished to defend them from the mob. A military class they eventually spit on and denied access to anything “Roman” which wasn’t a great incentive for you know, defending them from their own disgruntled citizens or enemies at their door. They cared more about their money and orgies and pedophelia than they did at maintaining the cogs of Empire of which their lifestyle depended. Bread and circuses and a whole lot of arrogant prejudice.

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snooggums@piefed.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

They cared more about their money and orgies and pedophelia than they did at maintaining the cogs of Empire of which their lifestyle depended.

Well, the US was greatly inspired by Rome ao why not follow the fall?

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- Manjushri@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Money, orgies, and pedoohelia? Why does that sound familiar?
  
  Embattled Republican leader Matt Gaetz who will become the attorney general if cleared by the Senate, which is unlikely, has now been accused of attending at least 10 sex parties between 2017 and 2018 when he was serving his first term in Congress.
  
  ….
  
  Lawyer Joel Leppard representing two women who already testified before the House Ethics Committee said his clients informed the probe panel that drugs were consumed at those sex parties. One of the women claimed to have seen Gaetz having sex with an underage friend up against a games table.
  
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AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

“Marked by opulence and a distracted upper class, depending on foreign born nationals and the impoverished to defend them from the mob.”

I’m not sure how linked to the Fall of Rome these things are when they existed throughout basically the entire history of the Roman Empire (and even the Republic before it). The “secession of the plebs” was effectively a general strike of the commoners that happened multiple times between the 5th venture BCE and the 3rd century BCE — many centuries before the Fall of Rome.

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CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
I would also assume that over time, a lot of the idiotic day-to-day shit probably gets forgotten about and as successive historians retell the events they naturally focus on the bigger, more important sounding stuff because it makes for a better read, so things probably get puffed up to sound loftier than they actually were.

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