Re: The United States in Full Thrust

> > Up until the early eighth century, a townsman anywhere in the
former roman
> > empire would be flabbergasted to be told that it had ended in
576AD.

John vehemently denies this:
>  In the first place, 476 is the year of the deposition of the last
> Emperor of the Romans in the West (proper title, thankyou).  In the
second
> place, all these obnoxious German noblemen lording it around and
calling
> themselves 'rex' and so forth kind of give it away.

   Sorry John, you're mistaken.  Oh, the people actually living in
Rome undoubted figured it out earlier (when all the Germanic lads kept
marching through), but there were people in the western Empire who
would have denied that the empire had fallen.  IIRC Charlemagne was
crowned as Roman emperor on Christmas Day in 800 -- it was the idea
that was important, perhaps, rather than the strict line of
succession.  (and it may have been helped by the fact that people
aren't very observant of mere facts that fly in the face of Truth).
Later on, the Byzantines claimed to be Romans, the German head honcho
of the moment was in charge of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Russians
decided to call their leader "Czar"--I don't know the derivation but I