Quote Originally Posted by Philipvs Vallindervs Calicvla
I will criticise the Romans up to the point I believe it is justified. You are of course right, the various Makedonian powers were just as bad but they are acknowledged as monarchies while Rome is usually held up as some precursor to the modern nation-state.

I never thought the Romans had a more complex political system, I only thought initially that Macedonian armies didn't posses a permanently integral bureaucratic and logistic corps that would outlive whatever conflict or campaign it was involved in. On the subject of Rome being widely considered a for-runner of modern nation-states, I know damn well that it actually only shares that distinction with the Greeks, the Phoeniciens, the Persians, the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Chinese, and any other culture or country I haven't bothered mentioning. Its within human nature to be industrious and inventive. Anyone else really had the potential to achieve what they did. Genius doesn't favour any one group of people.