Quote Originally Posted by Sir Moody View Post
As a Total war gamer you should be ashamed of yourself!

While the Germanic tribes hammered the last nail into WRE's coffin, Rome had been in decline for over a century and had almost torn itself apart several times - they were doomed mostly due to their own politics and if the Germanic Tribes had not raided Rome someone else would have.
I suppose it depends on your perspective, you can look at Rome as perpetually falling, or you can see it as virtually indestructible - what with the formation of the Empire, the year of the Five Emperors, the Crisis of the Third Century, the fall of the ERE, the Sassanids Wars, the Rise of Islam, the Turks, the Fourth Crusade...

This society survived for two thousand years, even though the centre eventually migrated from Rome to Constantinople that's still extraordinary. Then, on top of that, when the political structure collapsed then the West the society didn't. Despite waves of invasions and immigration the only province of the WRE where people do not speak Vulgar Latin today are Britannia where society actually DID collapse and Illyria.

I would also argue while the SPQR had a big effect on our culture, Christianity had a much bigger effect and it is a shared religion that ties us culturally together with the Germans and the rest of "Europe".
Well, the form of Christianity that survived was the form officially sponsored by the Emperor, and that Christianity was a vehicle for Roman ideas and even Roman technology, so I'm not sure they can be separated.