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From: shebs@utah-cs.UUCP (Stanley Shebs)
Newsgroups: net.motss
Subject: Re: downfall of the Roman Empire
Message-ID: <2191@utah-cs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 7-Nov-83 17:00:25 EST
Article-I.D.: utah-cs.2191
Posted: Mon Nov  7 17:00:25 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 8-Nov-83 23:25:28 EST
References: bbncca.267
Lines: 21

I am presently in the process of reading Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire (about halfway through the unabridged - just after the end
of the Western Empire, and continuing with the Eastern), and there's
not much evidence that homosexuality or whatever caused the decay, nor
that civil wars were responsible.  Gibbon asserts that a primary cause
was Christianity, also a relaxation of the "martial spirit" that was
instrumental to the formation of the empire, and many other occurrences.
Arnold Toynbee argues that the very *act* of creating the empire was
a sign of decay in the civilization, and that the collapse was inevitable.

So enough on this "homosexuality will cause the collapse of Western
civilization" foolishness.

							stan the l.h.
							utah-cs!shebs

ps The decay happened so slowly (5 centuries) that nobody was really
aware of it.  The final end of the Western Empire was anticlimactic -
the senate issued a decree that the Emperor was no longer necessary,
and asked the Eastern Emperor to appoint the barbarian king Theodoric
(who had taken over Rome) as the count of Italy.  Anyone for net.history?