reply to post by CosmicEgg
Rome fell too because of her decadence.
Not really. Rome fell because it overstretched it's Empire and political infighting lead to long periods of sporadic... ahem... Civil Wars. The
recalling of the Roman Legions to fight these power squabbles left the border territories defended by mercenaries and brigands who's loyalty ended
when the money stopped flowing. This is, of course, well after the Empire had been split between East and West. Rome saw unification between East and
West in the 4th Century under the rule of Constantine who used conversion to Christianity to ally forces among the various sects and barbarian tribes
to fight in his campaign. After which was established the Council of Nicaea, an effort to bring all the major sects of Christianity together under a
single unified banner - and establish the Church in his single unified Empire. However, soon after his death, the Empire again descended into Civil
War over who should succeed him.
Constantius II saw a brief reunification, as did Theodosius I - under whom the empire split for the final time. Successive raids by northern tribes of
now militarized Visigoths, Huns, and Franks wore at Rome's outer territories, pushing in the territories already weakened by years of strife and
stagnation due to Theodosius's promoting Christianity as the state religion and authorizing the persecution of Pagan temples and sects. Rome was
sacked by Germanic hordes twice, with the final time in 476 when Odoacer usurped Emperor Romulus Augustus. By this time, Europe was already well on
it's way into the Dark Ages.
The Eastern Roman Empire lasted under it's classical identity until 610 and the assent of Emperor Heraclius. Though Eastern Empire didn't end, it
transitioned into the Byzantine Empire. This continuation of the ERE lasted nearly a thousand years after the fall of the Western Empire. This was
largely because the Eastern Empire contained the greater portion of wealth, and was spared the razing the Western Empire did. However, aside from a
successful, but short, attempt to reconquer the Western Territories by Justinian I in the 5th century, the Eastern/Byzantine Empire never regained
it's former unified glory. It endured long periods of conflict with neighboring empires, such as the Persians, the Arabs, the Bulgarians, the
Crusades... but the final end came in 1453 when Constantinople was conquered by Ottoman Turks. Mehmed II, who led the invading forces, declared
himself Caesar of Rome.
So... yeah... the Roman Empire didn't fall due to decadence and hedonism. It fell for a wide variety of reasons. Invasion by Barbarian tribes from
the north, power struggles and Civil War, the strife of Pagan persecution by Christianity/Invasion by Islamic Arabs, Plague, War with neighboring
Empires, etc... etc...
I really don't see how Rome's fall parallels contemporary American domestic and foreign policy. If America loses it's top spot on the world stage,
it will not be because we didn't learn the lessons of Rome.
What a comedian. 
