Re: topic 3 -- Early World History, Level I

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Date Posted: 07:53:58 03/08/02 Fri
Author: Jean Ritucci
Subject: Re: topic 3
In reply to: j curboy 's message, "topic 3" on 05:21:40 02/26/02 Tue

>Every civilization to come down the pike has visions
>of lasting for a thousand years. This is especially
>true of the Romans. Investigate why the romans were
>so successful for so long and what finally caused
>their downfall. Compare this to any more modern
>culture to see if there are any reasons why the more
>modern civilizations are not able to LAST. Use
>specifics when making your arguement.

I beleive that the reason that the Roman civilization lasted for so long was becuase they had a very strong government and they had rulers that ruled for long periods of time, so the emperors were able to "break-in" the government....(just testing...not my real answer)

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[> Re: topic 3 -- Colin Roux, 09:21:30 03/08/02 Fri

The Romans led one of the longest lasting successful civilizations known to man. Many don't give the Romans credit for their own civilization because they were known to copy other aspects of other civilizations. Although this does hold true, that can't possibly be the main reason why they survived for so long at the power and control they did, otherwise the civilizations they copied would have also lasted just as long.

The Romans did copy other civilizations; such as the structure of their buildings which they obtained from the Greeks. They used other civilization's inventions and made them better. But one of the bigger reasons why the Romans were successful for such a long period of time was their significant form of organization.

Unlike other civilizations of its time, Rome worked with a base 10 number system. They used this number system to help set up their military. The unique way that the Romans used to set up their army enabled them to send a message quickly from one officer to the next. Their military grew and became more powerful enabling Rome to take over many territories. They may have been led to do so by their nature. The Romans always wanted to get even, and they did.

At the time, the popular form of government was a monarchy. One person, a king, ruled over his people. Rome did use this form of government, but they did change it when they realized it wouldn't work out as well. They became a Republic so that more people were involved and one single person didn't make all the decisions for the empire.

Another major factor that helped Rome survive as long as it did was how they disciplined those for breaking the law. Although some may argue that the punishments were harsh, it was needed so that others wouldn�t follow the same execution ending path. Their form of punishment probably wouldn�t work out as well today, but for its time it was essential in order to keep a civilization from falling.

The Roman Empire didn't fall for one specific reason. Like most failures, many different lapses led to its eventual downfall. First of all, there was much political instability. In a short period of 28 years there were 23 emperors. The Romans economy was also severely affected. The same soil and minerals had been being used for the same farming for years and eventually turned to no good. Because they also spent most of the money on the military, they had to raise taxes. Those who couldn�t pay the higher taxes just up and left. This caused prices of goods to rise and this was simply too much for the Romans to handle. They eventually fell completely when they suffered from invasions from the Germans.

The United States can be compared to the Romans because of their status in the world. Although we are one of the most advanced countries, any other country could easily take over the world like the Romans did because we all share pretty much the same technology. Hopefully the U.S. will last as long as the Romans and be as prosperous and by the way we�re headed I believe it is entirely possible.

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