What would the Romans do now?

[caesar novus]

I can't locate a recent thread here about what the Romans might do about the problems of today. Feel free to move this post to the bottom of that thread or where ever it might belong.

 

Not sure if the focus was on violence or economics. The former is a bit easier to compare, and I think Steven Pinker gives a good framework http://www.booktv.org/Watch/12923/The+Better+Angels+of+Our+Nature.aspx . It is about his latest book, but I bet he has his background data online estimating violence of various kinds in Roman days. In general he makes the surprising conclusion of a huge decreasing trend of killings and violence - especially hunters and gatherers were in no peaceful paradise.

 

He talks about the formation of states and their ability and motivation to quell internal violence. As the Roman domination spread, I think this entailed the famous Pax Romana. He talks about the enlightenment period where the ruled get influence over the rulers, and this tends to quell violence from the rulers against the ruled. Maybe we see that in the Roman Republic although it unraveled. Not sure if it happened with King John's Magna Carta in Britain because didn't he later abrogate that because it came under duress? American revolution made the decisive move here, with other efforts such as French revolution having bumpy but eventual progress.

 

Anyway, it appears we are already succeeding well in reducing violence thru the very means trailblazed by Romans in their republic and pax romana. Although you would hardly know it because the way the press is ever more efficient in sensationalizing such problems.

 

I don't know how the Romans dealt with economic cycles, but I think the current distress has some silver linings in putting the brakes on unsustainable entitlements, borrowing and excessive green spending. They really came from an excess of naive democratic power (populism) with no adults at the controls. Was that how the Roman republic unraveled? I think if we keep to our principles like the Romans in the face of Hannibal's rampage, this storm will abate and pave the way for realistic progress.

[caldrail]

Nero had an interesting (and ultimately self defeating) means to solve his financial woes. I can't quite see an american president resorting to such measures, but then, that's because the similarity between ancient and modern is very tenuous.

[Emperor Goblinus]

I would be curious to see how they would handle Europe's current economic crisis.

[caesar novus]

I would be curious to see how they would handle Europe's current economic crisis.

Wouldn't they start with political integration to match the currency integration? Then they can either impose money transfers from strong to weak regions. Or better yet impose structural labor reforms which would let the weak regions grow their way out of trouble.

 

But I wonder if that is too brute force. Maybe it is right that west Germany suffers anything to integrate east Germany, yet not so much for Greece. And north Italy will suffer to carry along south Italy, but not so much for Portugal. Maybe US states shouldn't all carry their weakest peers along. There is maybe a subtle hierarchy that might work best (zone, country, subregion, municipality) which I don't think Rome would use for taxes or whatever.