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Quote:Check my birth certificate. :wink:
Besides, when you speak to me, do I sound like a N'Zelnda (for something a bit closer to the local pronuciation).
Crispvs
What!!!! You takin the mikey out of my NuuYoik accent then?
hock: :twisted:
:lol: :lol:
No, I just thought it was a product of your upbringing in Brum...and your Uni education etc....
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
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For me the Romans were truly "Roman" as long as they conceived themselves to be the natural lords of the Earth, superior to all others in valor, piety and dignity, with an innate capacity to govern other peoples better than those peoples could govern themselves. During this time they were willing to absorb others, but they were intolerant of the very existence of a rival power any closer than, say, China. Once Carthage, their last rival in the west, had been destroyed, they enjoyed this happy status for several centuries. Those pesky Parthians were at least not expanding westwards, and while the Romans admired Greek art and culture, it never occurred to them that they should not govern the Greeks, who were political imbeciles.
To use the American analogy again, the US became a superpower in 1945, when the rest of the world lay shattered and prostrate in the aftermath of WWII. In time the Soviet Union became a rival, but only militarily, not politically or commercially, and it was never the fearsome power the military-industrial complex made it out to be. That is all changed now. What is happening now is what Fareed Zakaria has called "the rise of the rest," i.e., America is not in decline, but other nations are becoming wealthy and powerful as we enter the "post-American era."
I think the Romans lost their "Romanness" when they stopped believing that they were the sole power on the Earth and they had to accept the existence of rivals. Like the Spartans after Leuctra, their own national myth had been broken and could not be restored.
Pecunia non olet
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Quote: , and while the Romans admired Greek art and culture, it never occurred to them that they should not govern the Greeks, who were political imbeciles.
.
Hmmmm, a bit strong there!
But the rest of what you say makes sense.... :wink:
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
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I mean the Romans themselves considered the Greeks to be political imbeciles, not me!
Pecunia non olet