Similarities Between Ancient Rome And Modern Day America

A notable similarity between Ancient Rome and modern day America lay in their military. Both Rome and America, according to Cullen Murphy, have a military that is too small for the tasks given to it. Murphy also pointed out a similarity in each empires government. Rome began to give all the power into the hands of the executive which left the government not functional, and he sees this happening in the United States government and fears that one day America's government will end up like Rome's.

Issues concerning the multiculturalism and borders of the two empires also appear to be similar. Both Rome and the United States became multiculturalist societies, but for different reasons. Rome needed people to do the work that they didn't
want to do, so they hired people outside of their land, barbarians, to do that work. At the time this was necessary, but in the long run ruined the integrity of the empire. The borders of both of these empires are also not sealed and, in the words of Murphy, acted as "assimilation machines," meaning they accepted many people who were not Romans or Americans.

I personally believe that, at some points, history repeats itself, and I can see what happened to Rome happen to us. I think that we should worry about our decline so that we are prepared and be able to stop it at the source. So yes I believe we are in decline and that we should be worried about it.