The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome: The History of a Dangerous Idea

As this book intriguingly explores, for those who would make Rome great again and their victims, ideas of Roman decline and renewal have had a long and violent history. The decline of Rome has been a constant source of discussion for more than 2200 years.Everyone from American journalists in the twenty-first century AD to Roman politicians at the turn of the third century BC have used it as a tool to illustrate the negative consequences of changes in their world. Because Roman history is so long, it provides a buffet of ready-made stories of decline that can help develop the context around any snapshot. And Rome did, in fact, decline and, eventually, fall.An empire that once controlled all or part of more than 40 modern European, Asian, and African countries no longer exists.Roman prophets of decline were, ultimately, proven correct-a fact that makes their modern invocations all the more powerful.If it happened then, it could happen now. The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome tells the s