Pax Romana

[Tsuyu]

Pax Romana, or "The Roman Peace", was a period at the height of the Roman Empire which eventually lead to it's downfall. They had conquered most of the known world and as a result enjoyed peace for the first time. This lead to them, among other things, dismantling their military. When the "barbarians" sensed their growing weakness they tested the borders and were easily able to push through. The Romans could do nothing, peace had made them "lazy" and their economy could not support a sudden re-establishing of their military. When their leaders as a result tried to quickly raise an army their economy crumbled as they tried to tax their citizens up the wazoo and the "barbarians" conquered Rome and what we like to popularly "The Roman Empire" was brought to it's knees and defeated.

In truth it didn't, only the western parts did. The eastern parts had a much stable economy and as a result could fend for themselves. Eventually the eastern remnant of the Roman Empire became the Byzantine Empire.

So why am I talking about this? Well, I just realized that we've grown complacent and weak. Just the other day Russian jets were able to enter Swedish air space and do a little dance. Sweden hasn't been involved in a major war since, like, 1600-1700. Our military is crap right now. Not just Sweden but most of the civilized western world. America on the other hand; you guys have been waging wars almost constantly and look where it got you; leading the current arms race and weapon technology!

So. Once the Chinese inevitably come for us all give 'em hell, is all I'm saying....

 

[HobbeBrain]

So in the near future nearly every country in the world except America will be torn apart by outside forces of some kind and America will just sit back and laugh at how many nukes they have?

 

[queenofdisco]

Well you could join us in Iraq, Afghanistan, and maybe even in Syria & North Korea in the near future for a bit of practice my bearded axe wielding mead drinking friend. How many countries have the 'Muricans invaded in the past few years anyway? To my knowledge it's about sixteen since the eighties. :/

Also I'm quite sure Rome was conquered from the inside when it's empire was split into 3-4 parts to be ruled by multiple leaders. A sound notion but as it turned out it just made the Turks become a bunch of greedy gits making Constantine create the city Constantinople and conquering the rest of the empire from his new throne of Turkey. This lasting until much later until the Byzantines were scattered & the Ottoman Muslims turned up a few centuries later to rule that territory.

 

[Tsuyu]

Yeah as I said, at the time of Rome's fall there was, at the very least, a clear distinction between West Rome and East Rome. In the eyes of history, East Rome's legacy lasted a very long time. From the fall up until the Muslims finally got 'em. That was a relatively long time for an empire to exist.

As for internal conflict: another factor was that the military class, who up to that point had had their status lowered due to their apparently uselessness during Pax Romana, suddenly found themselves in high demand and as such could extort a lot of power. You had a different general being the ruler each week pretty much. Your average foot soldier could demand an outrageous pay which definitely did not help their economic woes.

 

[ScareCrowReturn]

The logic behind america is f*cking stupid, blah blah blah

And I suppose so is this post.

 

[Tsuyu]

My point is that they've been at war almost constantly. Long enough to at least go down fighting.

 

[queenofdisco]

So we are going to ignore the West Roman legacy? I mean, the Holy Roman Empire, Arab Invasions, the hundred year war, Teutonic Order, Spanish Inquisitions obviously these things aren't as interesting as the Byzantium. Gosh, you are worse than my Greek history textbooks.

I doubt he means that it's any more interesting than the eras you mentioned, both the Byzantium and Holy Roman Empire Empire were very interesting parts of history as well as the ancient roman empire of pagan faiths, and empires prior. He just means that they're interesting long lasting dynasties, not that they were the most interesting of all so please take a chill pill Donnie no ones ****ting on Leonidas or Alexandra just yet.

 

[ScareCrowReturn]

So we are going to ignore the West Roman legacy? I mean, the Holy Roman Empire, Arab Invasions, the hundred year war, Teutonic Order, Spanish Inquisitions obviously these things aren't as interesting as the Byzantium. Gosh, you are worse than my Greek history textbooks.

Aren't you talking about what you find interesting? Thus meaning your opinion?

 

[SelfAppointedGunslinger]

I've seen a lot growing weakness in our side of the world since my early teens to be honest, thought it was just puberty making me pessimistic for a time because people just said I was paranoid or overly negative. But looking at Rome, it shows that every prosperous civilisation has a decline then (sometimes) a great fall, only a matter of time until ours crumbles really. Good luck getting people to realise in time though, usually they just stick their heads in the sand and ignore the dangers until it's too late.

I remember reading a BBC news report about China saying that we shouldn't be threatened by them because their struggles have always been internal and they've never had any interest in conquering the outside world, .......:wat:.....yeah that was before they became the industrial superpower that they are now. Of course they had no interest in conquering us, mainly because they were until the recent half of the last century a stagnant society that hadn't even sorted their own problems. Just because they had no priorities of invading in the past doesn't mean they can't and won't steam-role us now BBC....*sighs* really... :ermm:

^ This if anything shows just how complacent the West is in general nowadays, not a care in the world!

 

[Tsuyu]

You're reading too much into what I wrote. I never said we should ignore West Rome's legacy, where did you get that notion? All I was saying is that East Rome existed for pretty much a thousand years after the fall. That is fairly impressive back in those days when people got conquered left and right.

 

[queenofdisco]

You mean "Take a chill pill Donnie no ones ****ting on Barbarossa or Joan of Arc"

No I was just referencing some of your nation's great rulers.... :ermm: why would I mention those guys? Are they in the same era as the byzantines or something?

 

[Purple Nurple]

an interesting idea. its a shame there will always be a desire for power over others. that said, if China did manage to usurp the American empire, I wouldn't mind necessarily trading McDonalds for hilariously cheap knockoff products. not like my job would get any worse, either.