Rome. A once powerful and awesome superpower in the ancient world. One of the greatest empires to ever exist on the face earth, and yet still; it fell. Today the new roman empire is not known as an empire by name but more in spirit, and how it conducts itself in the world. This empire is the United States of America, and just as Rome did, we have the potential to fall, and we’ve already begun to slip. In order to stop this downward spiral, and send the United States back to the top, Rome must be examined to see why we, as a nation, are following in its footsteps. Rome fell for a number of reasons, but the main issues come from a mixture of social, military and economic actions and policies.
These three combined brought Rome to ruin and if we don’t spread the word and learn from the mistakes of the past and see how close they are to the issues of today, we cannot sustain a future. And history will repeat itself.

In society, the most prominent flaws always come from the most prominent people, so let’s begin with the government. To anyone who thinks that the United States government is nothing like the Roman Empire’s because we are a democracy, we are not a democracy, we are a republic. If you don’t believe me say the pledge of allegiance, go ahead, and take your time. What’s that line? “And to the republic for which it stands.” Just like Rome we have a senate with senators who balance out the powers of the executive branch, where the people elect people to represent the people. And just like the Romans, our government is corrupt. Probably not as much as back then, but think back to 2008 when Senator Blagojevich tried selling his senate seat, but also in the days of Rome, the senators where only looking out for their best interests and where continuously quarrelling. Today its essentially the same thing, except now the house is simply split in two, but everyone is still looking out for themselves. In the end there was so much in fighting that the entire bureaucracy of Rome was halted, and nothing got done. See a connection yet? No? Let’s continue then. You can argue we’re a much more civilized society than Rome. Not necessarily they had gladiators, we have boxers, wrestlers, UFC, MMA, we love to see a good fight, and now every kid knows what type of gun comes from where and how to use it from video games. Who’s to say we didn’t just modernize their love of violence because we love it too, same blood, just digital. Inviting other nations to question how civilized we really are, leading to global stereotypes and dislike. An unnamed source once told me “Are you kidding? If I go to Europe I’m Canadian…eh”, once we are ashamed to call ourselves Americans, something is wrong, something needs to be changed. Rome had become a cesspool of people only concerned with blood and sex. What are today’s kids obsessed with? This can’t be healthy for the future. See a connection yet? Well let’s move on to the military, shall we?

From the military perspective, Rome should have been fine. It had the most organized soldiers in the world, the Legions were legendary, the Centurions were awesome and the generals great. Rome could hold its own, essentially, against any threat, like a modern day country we all know and love. So what happened? It was too spread out; Rome was continuously annexing more land, getting bigger and bigger, her soldiers were always campaigning. Now the United States hasn’t done this exactly but in an effort to spread democracy, (If you still think this is a democracy please re-read the second paragraph) and the American Dream. So how did we do that? Through war. The entire Cold War was just a way to stop Communism and spread the American way of life, ultimately both sides failed. A good waist, I mean use of American recourses right? Not like there was any debt left over. Ultimately all the campaigning left the Rome a hated and weakening state. As will it leave the United States, if we continue to mesh ourselves in the affairs of the world we will grow weak and vulnerable. Worst of all, further in debt just like the Romans, and that transitions us into economics. War and greed had brought the empire to bankruptcy. Without anything to pay for the War Debt taxes rose, business slowed, halted and in many cases abandoned the republic all together, angering the people of Rome. Remind you of anything? Our actions in the middle east, the national debt of sixteen trillion, wall street, out sourcing, public protest of debt, all of it! The rich lived in glorious estates, lavish and luxurious in every sense, the middle and poorer classes did not live so well, causing a hate and anger towards the rich. If you think the occupier movement was just a coincidence, please refer to the French and Russian revolutions. Then, in order to increase the supply of coins, the denarius was worth less, causing inflation, and then their currency was worth even less. Inflation is a huge problem in today’s world as well, when there is less to back up money the economic system collapses. If you need another example look at pre-Hitler Germany, where the Mark was worth so little literally wheelbarrows of the worthless paper was used to buy a oaf of bread. After Rome had reached its peak of expansion and when it started to lose land it lost money. Colbert had said colonies were necessary for raw materials, Rome had no colonies, she was losing her territories and so fewer materials were coming in to help the economy. Now President Obama is shutting down oil drilling we don’t have colonies for raw materials and now we can’t even get our own. Rome’s economics were far before the ideas of Smith or Colbert, but the fact that our economy today and that of an ancient civilization are so similar is worrying.
Rome lasted for twelve centuries, and while it was a great empire it fell. The fact that we are emulating Rome’s collapse after only two is perturbing. We are duplicating the mistakes made thousands of years ago, even hundreds of years ago. Rome fell. Who’s to say if we won’t as well? Just because the road was walked a long time ago does not mean it leads to a different destination. This formula for an empire has been used for thousands of years, each time plugging in a new nation as the variable. The purpose of this article however was not to fear monger in order to have the readers agree with me, on the contrary it was meant to educate the reader and connect the dots through history in hopes that if your reading this and your part of my generation you’ll recognize the problem as well. Contrary to popular belief I do love this country, it has been a good home, to me as well as you. I probably couldn’t write this article in a different country, but I digress. My point is that together as a generation, if we spread the word, can put a stop the loop that is history. Ultimately promising a prosperous America for the generations to come. Because as the Romans said “A wise man learns by the mistakes of others, a fool by his own.”