• unalivejoy@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    The roman empire fell for 2 reasons.

    1. The capital was moved to Constantinople, leaving the west out of their circle of influence.
    2. Constantine adopted Christianity as the official religion of the empire.

    So keep a look out for someone suggesting to move D.C. to the other side of the country.

    • General_Effort@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Constantine created Constantinople/Byzantium as a second capital. At that point, there was an Eastern and a Western Roman Empire. When people talk about the fall/decline of the Roman Empire, they usually mean West Rome. East Rome is more often called the Byzantine Empire.

      The Byzantine Empire declined over the centuries, but Byzantium remained unconquered for 1000 years after the official “fall” of the western empire. In the 15th century, it was taken by the Ottoman Empire and is now, as Istanbul, the capital of Turkey.

      • elliot_crane@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Not to ummm ackshually you, but Istanbul is the largest city and economic/financial hub of Turkey. The capital is a city called Ankara.

        I only know this because years ago I heard a news report refer to the Turkish government as “Ankara” the same way they refer to the US as “Washington”.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Constantine adopted Christianity as the official religion of the empire.

      That kept the empire alive for a couple more centuries and gave the Byzantines another millennia of time to fuck around. Christianity was central to Constantine’s continued control of the military, which had stopped being an elite profession of the nobility and transitioned into a proletarian wage labor position.

      Absent a strong socially cohesive force to keep his armed forces loyal, the Roman state would have disintegrated a lot sooner.

    • Syndic@feddit.de
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      8 months ago

      Rome fell for a lot more than two reasons and it took at least 200 centuries during which they suffered civil war after civil war between emperors fighting for power, severely weakening the empire over this long time.

      So while the US currently might have a few facets similar to Rome during it’s decline, it differs in a lot of other points. So I’d say it’s simply not comparable.

    • Lath@kbin.social
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      8 months ago

      That’s an opinion, not a fact. Here’s another opinion.

      Constantine adopted Christianity because the people adopted Christianity and if he didn’t follow suit, bad shit would’ve happened, mostly to him.
      And the capital was moved to Constantinople to account for the growing asian influence that was beginning to threaten the empire. The west fucking up after that would have happened regardless of the capital being there.

      The Abbasids fucked up the same way and no one gives them shit about it.

      • PugJesus@kbin.social
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        8 months ago

        Constantine adopted Christianity because the people adopted Christianity

        Most estimates have ~10% of the population as Christian (and some of them only dubiously so) when Constantine adopted Christianity.