Todays podcast lecture was on the Battle of Adrianople and why it is considered to be the beginning of the end for the Western Empire. I believe it plays into my proposed cause of multiculturalism. In the aftermath, rather than resettlement and breaking of the tribal dynamic, which had been Roman policy since the Republic, Theodosius allowed a foreign race to remain intact within the interior of the Empire. He bargained with their king, and allowed their soldiers to serve under their own leaders, not Roman commanders. When they needed something from the Goths, he bribed or capitulated to their demands. They were not Romanized and this flawed system set up how barbarians would be dealt with to the bitter end. The lesson is minorities and other races must integrate and accept the founding nations values. That does not mean they have to forget their heritage, but to allow what happened after Adrianople, was tantamount to cultural, and this case, Empire wide suicide.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 19:35:26 +0000