Aberdeen
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Too many to list...when considering how to spend the money from refunds on returned Christmas gifts, (you know...that hideous sweater or tie) I would recommend...The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization-Bryan Ward-Perkins...excellent read, and not too academic.
Aberdeen...is that kind of rudeness really necessary? It was a long time ago, you know...
And you're talking about different levels of civilization...
http://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Acy-Romance-rec.jpg
http://vimeo.com/32038695
Then there's literacy, an essential requirement of civilization, and I could go on, but I won't...it's o.k...every group has its time in the sun, and every group gets eclipsed...look what happened to the great British Empire and what is continuing to happen to Britain...it's wise to keep that in mind and take the long view of history...actually, perhaps we should all consider learning Chinese.
I don't think modern Italians should feel as if their nationality is being slighted and get all Spanish about it when people criticize the ancient Romans because, culturally, the ancient Romans and modern Italians are completely different people. And comparing someone's imaginary version of imperial Rome and a Celtic village doesn't really tell us much about the level of development of the Latins versus the Celts. If we could compare Rome during the days of the early republic to a Celtic city like Lyon during that same time period, it's the Latins who would appear to be primitive, IMO. And yes, the Roman conquest of western Europe happened a long time ago, but we're still suffering the consequences. For example, the Roman empire made the rise of the christian religion possible, and that's a pretty big negative in my books. But I think we'll have to agree to disagree about this subject. I still believe that the greatest achievement that Romans can legitimately claim as their own is the invention of concrete because everything else they either borrowed from other people or were able to do only because of the wealth that having an empire creates. The Roman Colosseum is the illegitimate stepchild of Greek and Etruscan architecture.