Re: The United States in Full Thrust

Don M wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <steve@pugh.net>
> To: <gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu>
> Sent: Friday, April 27, 2001 9:02 AM
> Subject: RE: The United States in Full Thrust
>
> >
> > I'm sure that a Roman would have said similar things if you'd
> > predicted a collapse of his empire.
>    Rome had no constitution so every time an Emperor died 4 to 6
>    generals with there armies would scurry toward Rome.It is a wonder
>    that it lasted as long as it did.

Rome did have a body of law that suited many of the same purposes as a
constitution, based on the "Twelve Tables".  If we restrict ourselves to
the
western roman empire, there were only three periods of civil war after
the
establishment of the principate (Augutus' rule), and only three episodes
of
civil war before that (excluding the "Conflict of the Orders" which was
really a
civil rights movement).  As I can easily name more than six emperors
(Augustus,
Claudius, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius, Septimus
Severus),
your statement is patently false.  In fact, there were only two
occassions when
4 to 6 roman generals marched on Rome after the death of the Emperor: 
After the
revolt that drove Nero to suicide, 68 AD became the "Year of Four
Emperors" when
four generals (Otho, Galba, Vettelius and Vespasian) successively held
the
title.	The Barracks Emperors describe a period when even historians
don't
bother to keep track of who was emperor (most of the time).

Up until the early eighth century, a townsman anywhere in the former
roman