Peter Jones

Ancient and modern

Nowadays we tend to favour economic imperatives, and the argument is a persuasive one

issue 03 February 2007

Last time we saw how the Athenians always reverted to type when they established large-scale alliances with other Greek states: what started off as a free union of states pursuing mutual interests slowly turned into an empire run by the Athenians pursuing their own interests. The parallels with the EU were all too clear. How, then, do we finish the whole thing off once and for all? Very simply, if we look at what happened to the Roman empire in the West.

Some three years ago this column listed the 210 reasons for Rome’s collapse that the German scholar Alexander Demandt had unearthed in the literature — everything from earthquakes to female emancipation via hyperthermia, marriages of convenience and public baths. Nowadays we tend to favour economic imperatives, and the argument is a persuasive one. It goes, broadly, like this.

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