Friday, February 13, 2009

Some Patterns Just Keep Repeating

Some Patterns Just Keep Repeating

I'm reading Kenneth O. Morgan, ed., The Oxford History of Britain at the moment. The first essay, about Roman Britain, by Peter Salway, has some eerie similarities to other periods and places:
Fourth-century legislation repeatedly tried to prevent members of the class that now had the hereditary obligation to serve from moving their main residences away from the towns, while those in higher social classes were exempt from municipal obligations. The new element in society was the vastly-expanded bureaucracy, and it in their direction that we should probably be looking. Five governors, their staffs, households, companies of guards, and the many others connected with them needed housing; and there were numerous other officials with inflated establishments and life-styles supported by substantial allowances. At each level in the hierarchies, expectations existed which in the end filtered down from the lavish grandeur of the Late Roman court. Large areas of fourth-century capitals such as Trier or Arles, once normal municipalities, were given over to palaces and other associated official buildings. [pp. 53-54]
Fortunately, that could never happen here.

By the way, is Nancy Pelosi flying to Rome in that fancy 200 seat airplane that she uses to go back and forth to San Francisco with her staff?

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