Quote Originally Posted by fallen851 View Post
The classical Greeks were at times one battle away from being assimilated into an empire. And when Rome came along, they were assimilated. In this sense, Empires are necessary. Independence and safety are only guaranteed in force supported by numbers.

Today, some small nations don't have a standing army. They know that any power that has the force and resources to mount an offensive and cross over their borders would defeat their army even if they had one. Their independence and safety are simply not guaranteed.

This is the Imperial apologia I was referring to. In what way were the Greeks better off having been 'assimilated' by Rome? Their battle against assimilation into the Persian Empire is seen as a victory over Imperial oppression; they retained their freedom. So, what - in terms of retaining freedom - was that freedom from? From taxation, from exploitation. Your argument seems a little self-contradictory; they were a battle away from assimilation by the Persians, but were 'saved' from having to face those battles again by the security of assimilation into Rome's Empire?

Were Rome, then, doing this as a favour to the Greeks? Of course not - they were exploited and taxed by the Romans, as they would have been under any other hegemony. The Romans - wily politicians that they were - worked on internal divisions between the various Greek 'states'; forming alliances. Once you have alliances then - whether your own borders are at risk or not; whether your own security is in danger or not, you can always justify your involvement as being for those allies.

Empires exist because there is an elite who benefit from that exploitation. They require a strictly hierarchical society, which requires people to accept a 'rightness' to that hierarchy. The 'rightness' of rule is bolstered by myth, and usually at the base of those myths one will find gods. Our own modern histories (those taught in our schools, those histories as understood by the great majority of people) are simply mythical creations ascribing some great pre-now period where truly kingly kings and lords were of great beneficence to their people; and where current regimes align themselves with that 'great history'. That, to me, is the value of true historical research; to get under the mythical 'truths' and understand the real patterns of human behaviour. How else can we learn from history if we don't truly understand it?

It seems an odd argument, in short, that says Empires must exist because otherwise you will be absorbed by an Empire.