He Who Did Rome It's Greatest Dis-service

[Germanicus Nero]

If the worst you can say about Antony is that he was a drunkard and he was perhaps a fool for love than he doesn't even deserve mention.

 

Caligula actually had a physical ailment that drove him mad as if having to play nice all those years with the man who destroyed his family wasn't reason enough.

 

If would probably have to be Commodus or Nero. Maybe Livia if she really did whack all those Imp family members though very unlikely.

[Marcus_Aurelius]

Seriously speaking ,I think Jesus ended the Roman Empire.

[Primus Pilus]

Seriously speaking ,I think Jesus ended the Roman Empire.

There are those who would agree with this in some respects, but please elaborate.

[Marcus_Aurelius]

It is quite clear that the spread of Christianity in the core of the Roman Empire which was Rome, itself made Romans leave their old traditions,become less interested in conquering the world and being the greatest empire.Instead,as the first christians were quite fanaticsl,they become more interested in prayers and helping each other.Everybody knows that the Church doesn't agree wars,especially tha Church elaborated by the apostles during the birth of the Empire.The people no longer worshipped Caesar,Ausgustus.Mars and Quirinus, and made the Empire be more fragile.They also didn't agree slavery anymore.(whereas slaves were the base of the Empire in that pre-industrial society)The answer why Christ eneded the empire seems to be very obvious.Of course he wasn't the only one help ending Rome's sovereignity in the Mediteranean world.

[pompeius magnus]

It is true according to my rough theory that Christianity was a primary cause of the fall of Roman West, but Jesus is not to blame, If you can put the blame on anybody it is these men:

 

Constantine: by being baptised on his death bed he became the first Roman emperor to accept Christianity

 

Theodoscius: his doctrines made Christianity legal and the official religion of the Roman empire

 

And, not related to Christianity in this way, the emperor Valens whos carelessness was a major reason adrianople went the way it did and that led to the invasion of Rome several years later.

[Incitatus]

Hadrian or Brutus did the worst. Hadriam gave up parts of the Empire. This gave the tribes courage (wimpy) and , 'the best defence is a good offence' Hadrian caused the collapse that far back!

 

Brutus killed the best man in history this cut short the greatest life ever!

[Ursus]

If the worst you can say about Antony is that he was a drunkard and he was perhaps a fool for love than he doesn't even deserve mention.

13935[/snapback]

 

 

Well, a Roman male being a "fool for love" was honestly a grave offense in the eyes of Rome. We moderns may have different cultural values, but for a Roman male to lose himself over a female - and a foreign ruler at that - was considered the ultimate unmanliness to the Romans themselves. I think that's why many of his troops simply deserted him.

 

That's probably not even the worse you could say about him. He just didn't claim Dionysus and Osiris as patron deities --- he thought he <i>was</i> Dionysus/Osiris, come to rule on earth with Cleopatra, whom he regarded as Aphrodite/Isis incarnate. He was steeped in the worst excesses of Orientalism and Oriental despotism, unlike Augustus who was fairly moderate.

 

If he had won and been allowed to lay the foundations of the empire, Western civilization would be a different place, and probably not for the better.

[Tobias]

As far as Hadrian being "wimpy", Trajan's conquest of Parthia was never complete, and the Roman soldiers were dangerously overextended there. It was quite wise (or rather common sense) for Hadrian to withdraw soldiers from Parthia, as it would only be a matter of time before Parthians or maybe the up and coming Persians or some other group ambushed the Roman province. He also erected a series of large fortifications along the empire's frontier i.e. Hadrian's wall in Britain and a series of wooden fortifications, forts, outposts and watchtowers along the Danube and Rhine.

Hadrian's policy was peace through strength. To maintain morale and keep the troops from getting restive, Hadrian established intensive drill routines, and personally inspected the armies. He was not wimpy, he just didn't believe that Rome needed costly wars to survive. Unfortunately, for an Empire made rich on conquest and plunder, peace did not necessarily mean prosperity. The coinage was repeatedly debased from about 170 onwards, so indirectly, but not from him being a wimp, Hadrian could have the dubious honour of doing Rome it's greatest disservice.