I look at what is happening in Greece right now, and I see what Scipio Africanus meant when he allegedly said 'And some day, Rome...' as he watched Carthage burn. We are spending ourselves into unsustainable debt with the 'bread and circuses' to appease the Low-Information Voters. And things like 'free health care' are going to do us in in the end.
I think the deviancy that Johnny is referring to came mostly from the Roman Emperors. Nero played while Rome burned to the ground allegedly and appointed a horse as one of his ministers... Now why does that sound familiar?
Nero was emperor from 54-68 AD. The most commonly accepted end date of the Western Roman Empire was in 476, 408 years later (the Eastern Roman Empire existed until the fall of Constantinople in 1204).
408 years.
King Putt ****ed our country more thoroughly than any Roman emperor ever did, in only 7 years. Nero playing the fiddle (which did not exist in Rome in the first century) and appointing horses as ministers was better for the Romans, than King Putt playing Reggie's skin flute and appointing horses' asses as ministers has been for us.
The "bread and circuses" era was in the second century, and was a populist move by the tribune Gracchus to gain favor of the lower classes. Juvenal wrote about it in one of his
Satires. It was not a factor in the end of the empire 350 years later.
The Western Roman Empire declined over a period of 100 years, with military over-extension, defeats, and invasions by Vandals, Visigoths, and Huns; economic losses; and high taxes to pay for military and government administration.
The Roman government didn't give away free shit- it took the wealth of its citizens. The sexual preferences and acts of its citizens, politicians, and emperors had nothing to do with the end of the empire.
