In the last centuries of the empire, educational standards and literacy had fallen. In the dulled heads of the masses, distracted by cheap food and the barbaric spectacles of the coliseums, the values on which Rome had been founded and the ancient rationalism of the Greeks had been replaced by mysticism and superstition. It was—Honorius had explained to his pupil—as if a whole culture was
losing its mind. People were forgetting how to think, and soon they would forget they had forgotten. And, to Honorius’s thinking, Christianity only exacerbated that problem.
You know, Augustine warned us that belief in the old myths was fading—even a century and a half ago, as the dogma of the Christians took root. And with the loss of the myths, so vanishes the learning of a thousand
years, which are codified in those myths, and the monolithic dogmas of the Church will snuff out rational inquiry for ten more centuries. The light is fading, Athalric.”
We were supposed to collaborate once, and along with Kurosawa make one love story each for a movie produced by Dino de Laurentiis. I flew down to Rome with my script and spent a lot of time with Fellini while we waited for Kurosawa, who finally couldn't leave Japan because of his health, so the project went belly-up. Fellini was about to finish Satyricon. I spent a lot of time in the studio and
saw him work. I loved him both as a director and as a person, and I still watch his movies, like La Strada and that childhood rememberance…
Looking back on Rome's success, it is all too easy to conclude that its victories were preordained. It is almost as if Rome arose with consummate certainty from the seven hills, gaining such a height that seemingly it could not be challenged. But in almost every phase of Rome's history there were crises.
Perhaps the Church of Rome was but consistent in choosing as her titular founder the apostle who thrice denied his master at the moment of danger; and the only one, moreover, except Judas, who provoked Christ in such a way as to be addressed as the "Enemy." "Get thee behind me, Satan!"
Une chose étrange se produit parfois parmi les nations qui sont à l'apogée de l'ordre de préséance. Le superorganisme tombe avec suffisance dans un piège fatal, pensant que sa position supérieure est un don de Dieu, que son sort heureux est éternel, que son statut imposant est gravé dans la pierre. (…) Rome ne fut pas la première superpuissance à être renversée par les rebuts du
tiers monde. Le pouvoir politique de l'Égypte des pharaons a été stable pendant 1300 ans avant que les Hyksôs ne les écrasent; ces derniers étaient d'excellents cavaliers qui se délectaient de la violence et avaient un don pour l'invention d'équipements militaires.
En employant la force, parfois de manière sadique, Rome réunit une masse stupéfiante de cités et de tribus. Elle permit ainsi un échange d'idées et de biens qui accéléra radicalement le rythme du progrès. Au cours des trois cents ans entre Auguste et Constantin, elle introduisit le pluralisme qui permit à des cultures extrêmement diversifiées de vivre pacifiquement. (…) Lors de la
chute de Rome, la moitié de la population du continent européen mourut au cours des deux cents ans qui suivirent. Car Rome était un oppresseur mais aussi la source de la nourriture et de la paix.