XI WK V: Quill (1-3) vs. Pharaohs Army (1-1) (PHARAOHS ARMY WINS)

[Frank]

Season 11 XI

VERSES: Monday, January, 16th, 11:59 P.M. Western / 2:59 A.M. Eastern / 7:59 A.M. UK. 24 Hour Ext: Mod/Opponent Discretion

VOTES: Wednesday, January 18th, 11:59 P.M. Western / 2:59 A.M. Eastern / 7:59 A.M. UK. 3 Vote Requirement Enforced/Penalty

MAXIMUM: 48 Lines: 64 IF AGREED UPON!

Goodluck! @Quill @Pharaohs Army

TOPIC:

[Frank]

@Quill @Pharaohs Army

[Pharaohs Army]

Check. GL @Quill. Request 24 hr ext pls.

[Pharaohs Army]

I saw the fall of Rome in the eyes of a woman. Her name was not important. Yes, she was of high society. She claimed she fucked the Emperor.

...And the enemies target the aqueducts.
Fresh, running water is underrated. Especially 1,700+ years ago.

Rome needed good roads for its military. This benefited trade too—dramatically. Even a regular citizen could buy goods and crafts from far away.

“The Roman Empire of the first and second centuries A.D. was just such a superpower.” – J. Rufus Fears
What this Heritage Research Fellow meant to say was: “The Roman Empire of the first and second centuries A.D. was, like, just such a superpower.”

In 1776, Edward Gibbon published his first volume of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbons work was the standard for almost two centuries.
“Modern historiography diverges from Gibbon.” –Wikipedia
Nevermind then.

We can all “Google” the historical cumulative reasons for the fall of Rome. I already have. Some distill it to a list of 8 huge problems. I contend that the main cause was the woman above in the picture. I have no hard evidence. I just know. Those attractive, high-society women are always behind it all.
NOT saying she fucked the “barbarian” leader too, and gave him the Roman military's battle plan. Not saying that, but it's a big maybe.

There must be something the U.S. of A. (and the modern world) can learn from the fall of Rome.
In 2018, New York Times writer Yascha Mounk critiqued Edward J. Watts’ book Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell Into Tyranny.
To quote Mounk, who quotes Watts:
“If we are to avoid the fate that ultimately befell Rome, Watts cautions, it is ‘vital for all of us to understand how Rome’s republic worked, what it achieved and why, after nearly five centuries, its citizens ultimately turned away from it and toward the autocracy of Augustus.’ In a sense, the book fails in this ambition.”
Alright, nevermind. Again.
Na, I’ll quote the reason she gives:
“(Watts) abandons a careful analysis of the larger trends for a blow-by-blow account of the many conflicts that divided the republic in the last century of its existence.”
She then goes on to analogize Donald Trump as a farcical reincarnation of Tiberius Gracchus*, which is a reach. Because while both tried to game the system, Gracchus acted as a true populist, whereas Trump…[you can finish this sentence].

Needless to say, the standards for writing in the modern era have certainly fallen.

Gracchus was murdered by a violent mob influenced by his political opponents. Long story short: he wanted to distribute public land to landless male citizens and was bending the civil system to do it.

“The tribunate of Tiberius Gracchus marked the beginning of the ‘Roman revolution.’ With the disappearance of the traditional respect for mos maiorum—the system of compromise and restraint handed down from the past—legal chicanery and outright murder became the standard. The days of the Roman Republic were numbered.” –Encyclopedia Britannica

[Frank]

@Pharaohs Army
WINS!