[The Fall of the Roman Empire]

by Daniel Lapin

Historian Will Durant, in A History of Roman Civilization, points out some

fascinating elements of the collapse of the once great, seemingly invincible
Roman Empire. Toward the end of its horrifying descent into oblivion, it
was briefly propped up by a return to those values that endure. It was too
late. Secularism was so entrenched that the effort to instill sanity was soon
rejected by a [mistaken] intelligentsia.

In the third century, emperor Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander [born

208, died 235] made the Roman Empire flourish and prosper for the last
time. He recommended that the Roman people embrace and live by the
morals of the Jews and the Christians. He frequently quoted the Judeo-
Christian counsel, “What you do not wish a man to do to you, do not do to
him,” and had it engraved on the walls of his palace and on many public
buildings. He [encouraged decency and] public morals and [encouraged
the people to stop engaging in prostitution and homosexual activities]. He
reduced taxes, forced down interest rates and loaned money to the poor
to enable them to purchase and own land.

He didn’t last very long. His enemies derisively referred to him as “head of
the synagogue,” and soon [his enemies achieved their goals:] “The
majority of the industrial establishments in Italy were brought under the
control of the state. Butchers, bakers, masons, builders, glassblowers, iron
workers, engineers were all ruled by detailed government regulations”
[Durant].

By the beginning of the fourth century, the empire had instituted wage and
price controls, effectively eliminating people’s ability to trade freely with one
another. Says Durant: “this edict was until our own time the most famous
example of an attempt to replace economic laws by governmental
decrees. Its failure was rapid and complete.”

The weakness of this managed economy lay in its administrative cost,

Durant observes. He adds that the required bureaucracy was so extensive
that some estimates pin its size at half the population.

To support this bureaucracy as well as the “dole” (the traditional name for
a system that took money from some citizens to give to others), taxation
rose to unprecedented levels. Since most taxpayers sought to evade
taxes, the state organized a special force of revenue police to examine
every man’s property and income and exact sever penalties for evasion.
Durant makes the point that this was not because citizens were evil; it was
Will Durant and Daniel Lapin, page 1
because a government that had lost its moral soul had become the enemy.

In a chapter entitled “Why Rome Fell,” Durant writes that a great civilization
is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.
Excessive regulation, excessive government size and intrusion, and
excessive and abusive taxation policies were only the tip of the iceberg.
The essential causes of Rome’s decline lay in her people, her morals, her
bureaucratic despotism, her stifling taxes, and fall in population. Sexual
excesses may have reduced human fertility. Contraception, abortion, and
infanticide had a dysgenic as well as a numerical effect. The dole
weakened the poor and luxury weakened the rich. Immigration brought
together a hundred cultures who differences rubbed themselves out into
indifference. Moral and aesthetic standards were lowered by the
magnetism of the mass, and sexual “freedom” ran riot while political liberty
decayed. Government no longer attracted first-rate men.

As we have seen, it is impossible for a culture to equally emphasize two

different philosophic approaches. One has to decide which approach is
more important; great consequences will attend that decision. For
instance, we either believe it more important that children learn to honor,
respect, and serve adults, or we believe the reverse. It is hardly an
accident that during the final years of the old Roman Empire, [they]
emphasize[d] what adult society must do “for the children.”

Will Durant and Daniel Lapin, page 2