Is Europe repeating the Roman history?

Submitted by Civis Romanus (Lithuania), Jun 7, 2016 at 04:38

The situation in Europe nowadays closely resembles the situation of the Roman Empire in its decline phase(3-5 centuries CE), slowly penetrated by an alien religion (Christianity) and hardly pressed by Germanic tribes at its frontiers. In the middle of the 3rd century when the Empire seemed almost defunct, a capable leader - Diocletian - arose and was able to rescue the Empire and prolong its life for some 100-150 years.

It is hard to predict whether Europe of today would be able to produce its own Diocletian. And let's not forget that although Diocletian was able to repress the barbarian forces at frontiers, despite all his efforts he nevertheless failed to repress the alien religion which continued its progress under Diocletian's heir Constantin.

So if a "nativist movement" takes place in Europe and starts persecution of Muslims in Europe would be it able to root out the Islam from Europe, or will it have to capitulate as Rome did under Constantine? Nobody could predict.

One of problems is that modern Europe is an elderly society whose members shy away from violence(just as Romans did in 3-5 centuries). So that a nativist movement could be unable to muster enough forces among its own population and will have to pit one part of newcomers against another if it wishes to have any chances of success.

A clear disadvantage for the modern Europe: while Rome, albeit in decline, nevertheless represented the formidable humanitarian civilization, and many barbarians wanted to maintain the Roman culture rather than destroy it, Europe of today is purely technocratic civilization having much wealth but little culture to offer. Europe produces many skilled artisans in many branches but no sages. Those "barbarians" who enter Europe now are attracted exclusively by European wealth, not by its culture or values.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".