[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

Very interesting ....but what’s the bottom line? IOW...Why did they fall? er ..devolve?... in ten words or less.

[Billthedrill]

Heck, I couldn't answer that in ten chapters. They changed. Ideas - great ones - came along. Peoples - huge numbers of vigorous, martial peoples - came along. Rome wasn't isolated, it simply found itself standing still in a rising tide of change.

I think about this sometimes in the context of our current geopolitical situation. Is it not the wisest policy for a United States in what historically must be a temporary ascendancy to provide for a world wherein it will be safe not to dominate? That would be something altogether new in history.

Some see that as an argument for globalism. Some others - myself, for one - see it as an argument against. Food for thought, I guess.