Fall Of Rome And Dark Ages

[premeginia]

I find it stunning to think that after the and during the fall of the empire that europe as a whole managed to destroy and forget nearly a 1000 years of technological advancement, At some point shouldnt some have said something, My question is How did rome mange to hamstring itself so spectacularly?

Edited December 7, 2005 by Ursus

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

Sure, you can speak out if you want yourself to get persecuted. Things that brought down Rome:

1) Barbarian incursions

2) A society decaying

3) The legions weren't well-trained at all, it was so bad that even Aetius could not rally together an army during Atila's second invasion.

4) Plenty of reasons

5)+

Edited December 6, 2005 by FLavius Valerius Constantinus

[eggers]

Besides, this stuff happens.

When the minoan civilisation fell, it brought around a dark age in greece a couple of centuries before the roman empire, when rome was a farming community with a few wooden huts.

history repeats itself. It'll most likely happen again.

Edited December 6, 2005 by eggers

[premeginia]

So in reality, they just left it too late to re-group their main military strength,

Edited December 7, 2005 by premeginia

[Ursus]

Please direct all gaming questions to the Colloseum forum. And while we're at it, let's not mistake a computer game as a template for history.

[Zeke]

The reason that 1,000 years of teconological advances were forgotten durning the Middle Ages was because of the Fuedal Kings and the Christian Bishops kept the normal people illerterate. The Middle Ages was a time period where everyone thought that the second comming of Jesus was very near, and science and technology was useless to the Kingdom of Heaven. The Middle Age people were bent on appeasing god and making the Earth ready for his comming. Earthly things were usless...the Kings of the Middle Ages used this to their advantage to keep the people in virtual slavery.

 

Sorry about spelling,

Zeke

[Neos Dionysos]

Besides, this stuff happens.

When the minoan civilisation fell, it brought around a dark age in greece a couple of centuries before the roman empire, when rome was a farming community with a few wooden huts.

history repeats itself. It'll most likely happen again.

 

 

The Minoan Civilization fell because of a huge natural disaster that wiped out many of the Creten seaside cities and towns.

 

So in reality, they just left it too late to re-group their main military strength,

 

I argue that the Late Roman Army was not as bad as people claim since the Eastern Army performed thier task quite well and we need to remember many of the barbarian peoples who settled in Rome were either invited in or in a treaty were allowed in and given land, and not after a defeat but after a victory. Two of the most famous settlements, the Visigoths in Aquitaine in 418 and the Burgandians in eastern Gaul in 443 were made from a position of strength. The most lacking element of the Western Roman Army was not equipment but more so a cohesion problem. It did not help that Romans would attack thier own troops and Foederati who were loyal to Rome, such was the case following Stilicho's death. 30,000 Roman troops, (barbarians), left and went to Alaric because they had no where else to go. Many left following persecution and attack by thier Roman comrades and many of thier own families were attacked. You can chalk that all up to Roman arrogance.

[Guest mattlreese]

While everyone can agree that some time in which advancements could have been made was lost during the middle ages I believe that many advances would have never been made if the empire had not fallen.

 

The printing press, considered the invention that began the entire scientific revolution, would have unlikely been invented in roman times because there were plenty of scribes around who would be paid to write for people.

 

Also Rome had access to a very cheep and very large labor force, slaves. Why invent a new and perhaps better way to do things when slaves can do it for very cheep and if you have enough of them in a relatively short period of time.

[Neos Dionysos]

The printing press, considered the invention that began the entire scientific revolution, would have unlikely been invented in roman times because there were plenty of scribes around who would be paid to write for people.

 

Well there really wasn't a major demand for printed works outside schools of learning like Athens and Alexandria.

 

Some argue that the black plague actualy helped make the printing press, because there are so few people around right after that something needed to be done to copy manuscripts, before hand there were plenty to do the work from abby's and monks but now with the lack of manpower they had to create a new way to print. Just some food for thought.

[Lo-Lo]

The reason that 1,000 years of teconological advances were forgotten durning the Middle Ages was because of the Fuedal Kings and the Christian Bishops kept the normal people illerterate. The Middle Ages was a time period where everyone thought that the second comming of Jesus was very near, and science and technology was useless to the Kingdom of Heaven. The Middle Age people were bent on appeasing god and making the Earth ready for his comming. Earthly things were usless...the Kings of the Middle Ages used this to their advantage to keep the people in virtual slavery.

 

Sorry about spelling,

Zeke

 

Fuedal kings and Christian bishops come quite a way after the fall of Rome in Britain at least. I kind of object to the term dark ages, it was dark because of the lack of historical evidence, not because of there being a backwards society or anything - look at the sutton hoo treasures, the kingston brooch etc., these societies had a whole range of highly developed skills and technologies they just didn't really care to write it all down. They didn't forget the romans technological advances, they had no need for them - the successor societies were totally different set ups, they didn't look to the same centralisation and need to maintain this central authority. Yeah, roads are useful, but they had enough communication routes in existence for their needs - in UK we are talking predominently about agrarian small scale communities. So it's a different kettle of fish I reckon.

Edited December 7, 2005 by Lo-Lo

[eggers]

Besides, this stuff happens.

When the minoan civilisation fell, it brought around a dark age in greece a couple of centuries before the roman empire, when rome was a farming community with a few wooden huts.

history repeats itself. It'll most likely happen again.

 

 

The Minoan Civilization fell because of a huge natural disaster that wiped out many of the Creten seaside cities and towns.

 

Yep, u tell the truth my man, and im not disputing that. I was just illistrating that a dark age has happened before the famous middle ages dark age.

Edited December 7, 2005 by eggers