The roman empire fell for 2 reasons.
- The capital was moved to Constantinople, leaving the west out of their circle of influence.
- Constantine adopted Christianity as the official religion of the empire.
So keep a look out for someone suggesting to move D.C. to the other side of the country.
Both of your reasons are wrong.
Now, excuse me, I’m lobbying Congress to move to LA.
Move it to Seattle!
Fuck that leave us alone
That’s the official motto of Seattle.
I’ve assimilated!
Hell to the no. We already have to deal with the cost of living increases due to tech. Seattle would become the most expensive place in the country if we were the political center too.
Oh god no.
Constantine created Constantinople/Byzantium as a second capital. At that point, there was an Eastern and a Western Roman Empire. When people talk about the fall/decline of the Roman Empire, they usually mean West Rome. East Rome is more often called the Byzantine Empire.
The Byzantine Empire declined over the centuries, but Byzantium remained unconquered for 1000 years after the official “fall” of the western empire. In the 15th century, it was taken by the Ottoman Empire and is now, as Istanbul, the capital of Turkey.
Not to ummm ackshually you, but Istanbul is the largest city and economic/financial hub of Turkey. The capital is a city called Ankara.
I only know this because years ago I heard a news report refer to the Turkish government as “Ankara” the same way they refer to the US as “Washington”.
Thanks. The correction is welcome.
Constantine adopted Christianity as the official religion of the empire.
That kept the empire alive for a couple more centuries and gave the Byzantines another millennia of time to fuck around. Christianity was central to Constantine’s continued control of the military, which had stopped being an elite profession of the nobility and transitioned into a proletarian wage labor position.
Absent a strong socially cohesive force to keep his armed forces loyal, the Roman state would have disintegrated a lot sooner.
Not sure if bait or not
Say… Florida? In the Mar-A-Lago vicinity?
Rome fell for a lot more than two reasons and it took at least 200 centuries during which they suffered civil war after civil war between emperors fighting for power, severely weakening the empire over this long time.
So while the US currently might have a few facets similar to Rome during it’s decline, it differs in a lot of other points. So I’d say it’s simply not comparable.
That’s an opinion, not a fact. Here’s another opinion.
Constantine adopted Christianity because the people adopted Christianity and if he didn’t follow suit, bad shit would’ve happened, mostly to him.
And the capital was moved to Constantinople to account for the growing asian influence that was beginning to threaten the empire. The west fucking up after that would have happened regardless of the capital being there.The Abbasids fucked up the same way and no one gives them shit about it.
Constantine adopted Christianity because the people adopted Christianity
Most estimates have ~10% of the population as Christian (and some of them only dubiously so) when Constantine adopted Christianity.
They were concrete roads that were straight she had drainage. They were meant for horses, carts and foot traffic.
Also some of America has good roads. You can often see the difference moving across state lines which states spend money on infrastructure.
Pennsylvanians cry when they read this.
But seriously, everyone thinks they have the worst roads. I’ve lived in more than a few states (and visited even more) and Pennsylvania has the worst roads I’ve ever seen. No other state I’ve seen has been even close. WTF PA?
There are neighborhoods in Indianapolis where kids have to walk to the end of the block because the bus can’t drive down the street.
There are potholes in Michigan you can actually get lost in.
Sometimes in New York whole months go by where they’ve covered the road in uneven metal plates.
If you’ve ever been to Mississippi, you can be forgiven for thinking they must not have cars there yet, either that or their roads were designed for hovercrafts or something.
Visited all those states (and loved in NY), I agree that they’re roads aren’t good. PA has all those problems sometimes on the same roads. Try driving somewhere outside of Philly. There are “main” roads it’s faster to walk
You should write for comics, or thank the one you borrowed from. A pothole joke that actually made me laugh out loud… Wonderful
Los Angeles, at least when I lived there, basically ignored all potholes. There were huge potholes in my North Hollywood neighborhood that were so old that they had lots of plants growing out of them.
Even New Jersey? Every time I have to pass through Jersey it’s like offroad travel, but with asphalt.
To be fair the places with good roads generally don’t experience checks notes Winter. Or didn’t until climate fuckery.
Gotta fall to empire from 500 year republic first.
Wait oh shit.
Does it count if it’s only 250 years?
Speed run any %?
We have another 200 years or so as a republic, this is our… [checks notes] Second Punic War.
Tbf Rome also has shit roads nowadays
Rome’s “good roads” would be shit by todays standards. They didn’t have to deal with thousands of heavy cars and trucks driving over them daily.
America’s roads are shit because maintaining roads is expensive and suburban sprawl means you need to maintain a hell of a lot of road mileage per capita.
Fuck car dependency.
Their roads didn’t have to cope with yank tanks pummeling the everliving shit out of them all day.
Not going to be satisfied until a horse wins a US Senate race.
And they knew what to do with a bad ruler.
THROW HIM FROM THE TARPEIAN ROCK!
only empire wannabes like Russia ask questions like that
