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A Speech in the Roman Senate
- 412 A.D. |
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SPQR Gaius Vinicio rises to speak “Senators and citizens of Rome, I rise to address the most pressing issues of our times. Our beloved Rome is engaged in an endless series of foreign wars which consume the men of our legions. We are dependent upon foreign auxiliaries to fill our ranks. Rome long ago saw the demise of the family farm from which we were able to recruit the most sturdy and dependable youth to march into battle under our legion’s standards. We are dependent upon foreign sources for food and fiber and upon the doubtful allegiance of foreign troops. Far too long has the Senate of Rome engaged in deficit spending resulting in the debasement of our currency and price inflation which places Roman citizens in constant financial distress. We allow Roman merchants to engage in one-way foreign trade importing more than that which is exported thereby accumulating massive trade account deficits with merchants in Egypt, Syria, Parthia, India, and China and nations even unknown to us. Our frontiers, though equipped with walls, mile forts, and watch towers are constantly violated by a rising flow of barbarians flooding into the Empire for a life better than that which they leave behind in their native regions beyond the River Rhine and the River Danube. We cannot fault the desire for a better life in Rome, but we must stem this human tide or Rome will lose its identity with our Latin language and culture falling into disuse and foreign tongues dominating. Germanic Barbarians tend to be poorly educated and tend to produce greater numbers of offspring than produced by Roman families. This can have no salubrious effect upon the life of Rome.
In addition public morals
have deteriorated to such an extent that a Roman may not walk in his own
city without being constantly made aware of the most base and shameful
public exhibitions. The most bizarre behavior is now the standard of our
day. Nothing is so base as to be excluded from public view even in the
Forum in the very heart of our beloved city of Rome. |
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