8 striking parallels between the U.S. and the Roman Empire - History Repeats Itself

Originally posted by intrptr
reply to post by tothetenthpower

 

History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes?

Something about the guage of rail road tracks and the Roman chariot...

Ruts

The Colosseum or stadium, the Senate, Capital dome. Of course we are an Empire. The worst yet. Bigger than all the ones preceding it, combined.

And the bigger they are...

Actually the UK railroad track gauge came from the coal mines, that width is for two horses side by side pulling a coal cart.

man I've seen alot in my time, but this thread is some narcissistic *. i just vomited in my mouth.

The same can be said for any country, especially Western...

Originally posted by orangutang

Originally posted by Shuye
reply to post by tothetenthpower

 

The Roman Empire also dictated the course of the world by their worldviews, culturally expanding themselves to wherever they could.

The Romans even came up with the term "Bread & Circuses", which means low cost entertainment was being used to distract the populace from the issues around them.

No doubt there are much similarities, history does repeats itself countlessly.

S&F

in oz at least they are pushing "free tv" and i often wonder if thats the bread and circuses to keep our minds off the inhumane politicians and their policies. its free and yet they keep pushing the ads to promote it.

and another poster mentions lead poisoning. well, depleted uranium comes back to bite the military on its collective rectum. and the radioactive material from japan blows all the way to the usa. ironic is it not.

In Israel there's a free newspaper (Pro-establishment of course) that you can pick up in many places during the mornings, people take and read throughout it, since of course... It is free... But they don't know they pay with their minds in return.

I wondered when people will start paying to get their minds brainwashed, but I figured it's happening all around us already. Even the Romans payed to watch men kill each other in the arenas, just like many people pay to watch men punching each other's skulls nowadays.

Maybe the Roman Empire didn't fell after all.

The USA can't even be compared to the Romans in terms of an Empire.

The definition of Empire is:

An empire is a state with politico-military dominion of populations who are culturally and ethnically distinct from the imperial (ruling) ethnic group and its culture

en.wikipedia.org...

In this sense, the USA is a pretty poor excuse for an Empire. What culturally or ethnically distinct populations does the USA rule over? American Samoa, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and a couple of other little islands. Hardly an Empire...

Better excuses for a modern Empire (and some which could actually be compared to the Romans) would be Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan (especially during WW2).

reply to post by daaskapital


Really ? It fits the bill EXACTLY as to what an empire is

In fact it is so far beyond any of the others it needs a new word and category for description I suppose.

It is a collection of many different empires, which is evolving and looking for new ways to play games, again.

And now , US is letting gay people marry legally and with no shame like how roman people used to.

Link

BTW , they are fulfilling their dreams.

It is the Utopia . Get used to it or travel.

Another point , Have you ever thought that how much they talk about gays. They don't even count lesbians. They naturally talk about their main desire and ignore the rest.

The US is the largest empire on the planet right now and it has been extending it's reach.

reply to post by tothetenthpower


The United States has no empire apart from Cuba and Puerto Rico, and/or other dependencies.

The Colosseum or stadium, the Senate, Capital dome. Of course we are an Empire. The worst yet. Bigger than all the ones preceding it, combined. And the bigger they are...

Of course you aren't an Empire. An empire requires colonies and dominions. Bigger than the one preceding it?

Best get started then.

reply to post by randomname

Ron Paul consistently compares US foreign and domestic policy with Rome's. Here are a couple of more well know references, one about our overseas empire and another about the devaluation of our currency.

"But he wants to go back 1,000 years or 2,000 years just as the Romans and the Greeks and all other countries debased their currency.

“What did the Romans do to their currency? The Byzantine Empire had a gold standard for a thousand years and they did quite well and they didn’t fight wars. But the Roman empire eventually destroyed their currency. They put in wage and price controls before they diluted the metals. They inflated. They thought wealth could come by fooling the people.

source

Even "they" "get it".

OP, you nailed it!
Excellent summation of what is happening to our freinds in the US
I hope they recognize these signs and deal with these problems soon in order to head off their demise.
History though, inevitably repeats itself.

reply to post by tothetenthpower

The Roman Republic, with which these 'parallels' are drawn, ended (as your link states) in 45BC, when the Roman Senate handed dictatorial powers to Julius Caesar. However, the Roman Empire did not end with the Republic, but grew greater in size, as well as much wealthier and more powerful, under the dictatorship of Julius's successors, starting with the Emperor Augustus.

The Roman Empire reached its greatest geographical extent around 250AD, three hundred years after the effective end of the Republic.

Many centuries of gradual decline followed. Rome itself fell in 476AD, but the Empire continued. Its new capital was called Constantinople, after the Emperor who founded it in 330AD.

Constantinople at last fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 (less than forty years before Columbus discovered America), bringing to an end the 1,498-year saga of the Roman Empire.

Patriotic Americans should rejoice to see parallels between the end of the Roman Republic and events today in the modern American Republic; they could be interpreted as showing that America is only just getting started...

reply to post by Astyanax


I agree with Astyanax. The parallels are definitely there in my opinion, but we still have yet to see the transition from Republic to Empire, the establishment of a true dictatorship, and the military expansion that comes with it. If we truly fear this potential scenario, we should probably look for moves to eliminate term limits, render permanent the edicts of one person or party, and the sort of existential crisis - real or manufactured - that might lend urgency to such steps. While it could be argued that something of that nature happened and is happening in the wake of 9-11 (and I oppose those things,) it could be much worse, and in my opinion would have to be before we finally entirely ceased being a constitutional republic.

I do feel that we aren't headed in the right direction to avoid that potential scenario, however.

Peace.

Empire did not fall, they create and destroy read the interview Rosenthal

Most empires fall from within...And when that is anticipated to happen,there are always some wolves sniffing the wounds from a distance,and they get ready to strike the last attack...Persia for example was an empire at four separate periodic eras during the history...First one the Achaemenid ruled from 550 BC to 330 BC was over thrown by the Alexander just before he was so great!...A man a horse and about 10 000 soldiers!....Second the Parthians ruled 247 BC to 224 AD,succeeded by Ardeshir Babakan,a man from Shiraz with about 20 000 soldiers!....Third was the Sassanid,224 -651 CE ,they were defeated by an Arab man with a sword! and an army of almost 10 000! ...And the last one Safavid,1501-1722,Was finally replaced by a gay! king of Qajar dynasty Agha mohammad khan with a support from British and Ottoman empires...So it is not too hard to crumble an empire when the time is right and they are at their most critical last stages.

Originally posted by MrSpad
These things are fun but, of course completely inaccurate. For every parallel you can find a hundred ways the differ, Even the parallels are only that at first glance. Fun exercise but that is all it is.

It's nice to see someone with perspective and not a doom and gloom attitude around here.

For reference (speaking in general not to you specifically) there were only 3 major Republics in Antiquity that one can draw parallel to America, and they were -

1. Classical Athens (508 BC – 322 BC) under the reforms of Cleisthenes
2. Roman Republic (c. 509 BC – 27 BC)
3. Ancient Carthage (308 BC – 146 BC)

All of them typically lasted around 200 years, with the exception of the Roman Republic which lasted almost 500 years.

Now, given that we have much more advanced technology - Communications, Media, Global Information Grids and a plethora of other advancements I find it a stretch of the imagination to even draw any sort of parallel with Antiquity. The era was so long ago and so many things have changed in contrast to the similarities one can draw.

Also keep in mind, there were a grand total of THREE Major Republics in Antiquity. Three. Of these three, Carthage and Athens were eventually conquered by the Romans. They did NOT fall apart due to corruption.
So, in Antiquity, we can really only compare our system of Government/Country (which only shares AT MOST half of our system of Government...remember we are a Democratic Republic) to Rome.

Looking at the odds of ending up like the Romans I'd say (without taking our technological and sociological advancements into consideration) a 50/50 chance of survival. Now, taking into consideration our technological and sociological advancements, I'd say that number drops remarkably to around 80/20 in favor of America.
I like those odds.

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Good thread, you forgot to mention the massive influx of unassimilable immigrants who threaten the stability and cohesiveness of the nation.

reply to post by olaru12

Lead in gasoline emissions springs to mind eh?

First, lead has not been an addtive in gasoline for something like thirty years. Second, we don't drink from containers made of gasoline. We do, on the other hand, drink from plastic containers. Hmmmm.

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Yes, the U.S. has gone down the path of ancient Rome, walked right in it's shoes. I've said it several times even before coming to this site. All you gotta do is a comparative history between the 2 to see it. We're right about at the part where we should be getting a Caesar anytime now, and it's looking to me like Obama is going to be the first one since he likes to pride himself on being related to royalty which denotes that there is someplace in his own mind that believes he is entitled to the throne. The man's narcicism is nauseating.



He's got the melodrama down pat. Aw gee, see that crocodile tear? What an actor.

This observation has been being made for years.

All Western powers are modelled on the ancient Greeks and Romans.


QV.