Edward J. Watts - The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome: The History of a Dangerous Idea

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Watts, Edward Jay, 1975 author.

Title: The eternal decline and fall of Rome : the history of a dangerous idea / Edward J. Watts.

Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2021] |

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021009498 (print) | LCCN 2021009499 (ebook) |

ISBN 9780190076719 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190076733 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: RomeHistoriography | RomeHistoryEmpire, 30 B.C.476 A.D.

Classification: LCC DG205 .W38 2021 (print) |

LCC DG205 (ebook) | DDC 937.0072dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021009498

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021009499

DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190076719.001.0001

To Manasi, Nate, and Zoe

This book grew out of a conversation that Stefan Vranka and I had at the Society for Classical Studies meeting in January 2019. We were concerned about how alt-right figures and white nationalists used events from the fourth- and fifth-century Roman Empire to attack immigration in the twenty-first century. We originally planned that I would write a short essay about the use and misuse of the Roman past, but, as I started digging into this topic, I realized that the rhetoric of Roman decline, the promise of Roman renewal, and the identification of people to blame for Romes problems appeared repeatedly in sources ranging across the past 2200 years. The essay grew into a bookand the book quickly grew nearly twice as large as we had planned. Im extremely grateful to Stefan for both the conversation that led to this book and for bearing with me as it expanded so much.

I am also grateful to the many friends, colleagues, and institutions that supported me over the past year as I put this project together. A great deal of initial work took place at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens in the summer of 2019. I am grateful to the staff there for their support and to the many colleagues who helped me hash out ideas over lunch at Loring Hall. This project also developed through engagement with audiences at Harvard University, Amherst College, Indiana University, Pomona College, UC San Diego, and the University of California Berkeley. I particularly benefited from personal conversations over the past year with Susanna Elm, Peter Guardino, Eric Robinson, Deborah Deliyannis, Colin Elliott, Cynthia Bannon, Giovanni Cecconi, Adalberto Magnelli, Carlos Norea, Chris van den Berg, Alexander Riehle, Dimiter Angelov, Laura Nasrallah, Susan Harvey, Diliana Angelova, Richard Lim, Jason Moralee, Ben Keim, Bronwen Wickkiser, Tim Shea, Albert Joosse, Jeroen Wijnendaele, Peter Van Nuffelen, Cathy Gere, Denise Demetriou, Maren Niehoff, and Alfons Frst. Scott Jones gave me the great honor of previewing some of the books ideas on his Give and Take Podcast. Michele Salzman, Nate Aschenbrenner, and Jan Willem Drijvers each shared portions of upcoming books with me. These books will be spectacular and Im thrilled to have gotten a sneak peak at them. Leslie Safford and Rick Delaney did excellent copy editing work on the manuscript while Aishwarya Krishnamoorthy helped coordinate production.

A range of friends and colleagues from around the world have read chapters and offered suggestions on them. These readers include Anthony Kaldellis, Cristiana Sogno, Jeremy Schott, Andrew Devereux, Jan Willem Drijvers, and Nate Aschenbrenner. I would never have had the comfort to cover such a broad range of material without their comments and important suggestions. Mira Balberg read multiple drafts of multiple chapters and helped me understand why a discussion of Isaac Asimov and rockets probably was best left to the side.

Jamie Marvin worked tirelessly in tracking down materials, sorting out footnotes, compiling the index, and sharing portions of her dissertation. These efforts would have been greatly appreciated under any circumstances, but her help was vital as COVID-19 disruptions shut down libraries just as the books first draft neared completion.

I also want to give a special thanks to my students in the COVID-19disrupted undergraduate seminar I taught on this material in the spring of 2020. Despite the remarkably difficult circumstances they were a wonderful, critical audience who challenged my ideas and helped me to think in new ways about the Roman material and its implications for the present.

My work has also benefited greatly from the generous support of Carol Vassiliadis and from ongoing, stimulating conversations about antiquity and our current world with Alexia and Paul Anas, Jeanette Rigopoulos, and other members of San Diegos Hellenic Cultural Society.

The final word of thanks goes to my wife, Manasi, and my children, Nate and Zoe. Writing a book like this in a little more than a year is difficult under any circumstances. Doing it while chairing a university department amid a pandemic was harder than I imaginedespecially when access to research materials stopped toward the projects end. I cant say how much I appreciate the sacrifices they made so that this project could be completed. Each of them served as a sounding board for my ideas and a source of support throughout the books writing, editing, and revising. They also kept me going in those dark spring days when it seemed as if the world were coming undonea challenging time indeed to write about decline. I love the three of you more than you know!

Carlsbad, California

July 10, 2020

MAP OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE AT ITS GREATEST EXTENT IN THE SECOND CENTURY AD.

On January 20, 2017, Donald Trumps inaugural address laid out an apocalyptic scene of American Carnage amid poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation, and a faltering education system. Then he pivoted. From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. Trump bellowed, all Americans would now hear the following words:

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