Those who forget the past... (you know the rest)

In 1984, German historian and professor Alexander Demandt published a collection of 210 theories ("Der Fall Roms") regarding the collapse of the Roman Empire.  Other ideas have entered the unending debate since, but many of Demandt's estimations undoubtedly mirror America's present state of affairs.  They include --

Absence of character, apathy, bankruptcy, bastardization, bureaucracy, centralization, childlessness, communism, complacency, corruption, cosmopolitanism, cultural neurosis, decline of the cities, deforestation, degeneration of the intellect, demoralization, despotism, egoism, epidemics, escapism, exploitation, gluttony, hedonism, heresy, homosexuality, inflation, intellectualism, irrationality, mystery religions, pacifism, polytheism, prostitution, rationalism, rhetoric, sensuality, shamelessness, social and cultural leveling, socialism, vain gloriousness and vulgarization.

While reviewing Are We Rome? by Vanity Fair editor-at-large Cullen Murphy, NPR's Linda Kulman drew an ominous, yet undeniable comparison between the United States and Rome when she referenced "...the dangerous blurring of public and private responsibilities, paired with an inflated sense of power that can blind us to what's happening beyond our borders."  Kulman ended on a more sanguine note: "Where Rome was all about self-satisfaction, America prides itself on self-improvement.  It's this optimistic quality ... that may make it possible for us to reinvent ourselves instead of going the way of the ancient empire."

Let us hope that her assessment is accurate.

On This Day in History: March 15

44 BC -- Julius Caesar, Dictator of the Roman Republic, is stabbed to death at the Theatre of Pompey by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus and several other Roman senators.  This violent act set the stage for the end of the Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire.

1776 -- South Carolina becomes the first American colony to declare its independence from Great Britain and set up its own government.  They'd do it one more time about 85 years later.

1783 -- With the end of the American Revolution approaching, many soldiers who were deeply in debt due to their pro bono service to the Continental Army became concerned that Congress would not meet previous assurances in regard to back pay.

Congress derived all its revenue from the States and had no way of paying more than a fraction of the money owed, which resulted in talk among soldiers of enforcing martial law to secure what had been promised.  In an emotional speech, George Washington successfully pleaded with his officers not to support what became known as the Newburgh Conspiracy, and the threatened coup d'état never came to fruition.

1952 -- On the French island of Réunion, 73 inches of rain falls in the town of Cilaos in one day, setting a new world record.

1985 – The first Internet domain is registered to symbolics.com.  Purchased by XF.com Investments on August 27, 2009, the current Symbolics web site is available at symbolics-dks.com.