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Thread: The Roman Empire as a synthesis

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    Default Re: The Roman Empire as a synthesis

    Quote Originally Posted by Picenian View Post
    I think the Imperial phase is simply the natural prosecution of a "winning" culture. An Empire forged by sheer military power will collapse instantly, but a lasting Empire must have some culture behind. For example, the Islamic Empire spread from Morocco to India and had a lasting legacy cause it had a well-formed culture behind it. The same can be said about Alexander's empire. Rome was different (and in my opinion better) cause its culture grew and grew with every conquest. Romans were intelligent conquerors, they knew how to exploit both the riches and the knowledge of the people they vanquished.

    And, well, one can be anti-imperialistic as much as he wants, but (and I'm only giving what I consider the finest example) if it wasn't for Romans who conquered Greece we would probably not have heard of ancient Greek culture at all :) Sadly, the lasting of a culture requires military power and political stability, that's almost a universal fact in history
    Why is it 'natural'? That's the question that Ca Putt asked, and the idea of it being 'natural' appears to be seen as an axiomatic truth. If you look at the history of Empires , much as we're given to believe that they sustained themselves they are actually more nuanced than that. They are plagued by social upheavels and in-fighting. Was there really a Muslim Empire that lasted? Was there a Macedonian Empire that lasted?

    In Rome there was the on-going conflict of the orders, civil wars, political violence, rebellions. The Principate is very different in original form from the Dominate, which were themselves different from the Republic (which went through many substantial alterations through its existence). In both Rome and Athens we see the subversion and then destruction of democratic institutions - accompanied by violence against their own people. Empires require a great deal of military expenditure - that makes certain people wealthy (by means - in both the Roman and modern Western models - of money leant to the state at interest). All Empires require forms of slavery; that slavery is based upon the notion that such is 'natural', is the way things 'are meant to be', which is where religious institutions come into play as a part of the machinery of state.

    Did the Carthaginians, then, not have 'culture'? Did the Aedui not have 'culture'? Did the Samnites not have 'culture'? I don't know what you mean by saying that Empires succeed because they have 'culture'? Did pre-Islamic Arabia, or Egypt, or India etc. not have 'cultures'?

    As for the Romans being responsible for us knowing anything about Ancient Greek culture??! The early church destroyed (at worst) and discarded (at best) 'heathen' material. It is throughthe various Islamic Empires that most of the Greek writings survived. We are told the Gauls (a very vague and wide ranging concept) were illiterate, yet we have Gaulsih inscriptions dating from the 4th Century BC; we know that the Aedui had a complex Senatorial system and elections, magistrates; they auctioned the rights to taxation. How do you implement such administration without writing? We know from Caesar that the Helvetti kept written records of everyone on their migration. Everything was destroyed. Every sign and symbol of their culture has been buried by the Romans, just as they did with Carthage.

    Empires (and the Imperialists behind them) do not care for history as truth, they care for a history that defines their power as reasonable, rightful - here and now.

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