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A comment on Rome: Decline and Fall? Part III: Things. Parent comment

Re:Rome: Decline and Fall? Part III: Things by tablespoon on Friday February 11, 2022 @06:12PM (#30308140)
> Yes much was built by slaves, but other empires also had slaves. So what was the comparative advantage of Rome?

Did it have any advantage? Rome has a special place for Europeans because it's "our" ancient empire, but that doesn't necessarily mean it was superior all of its peers. Also, maybe those peer empires didn't build aqueducts, but they built different but equivalent projects instead.

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Re:Rome: Decline and Fall? Part III: Things by barry-cotter on Friday February 11, 2022 @09:50PM (#30309474)
Yes. It had a much, much better system of military organization than any rivals in the legion. It was radically better at incorporating its conquests politically. That’s what “friends and allies of Rome” was. Its system of laws was probably also a real source of comparative advantage or there wouldn’t still be many countries using direct lineal descendants of it.
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