I read the letter by Philip Wasserman (March 3) regarding Cicero, immigration and the Roman Empire. Being a student of Roman history I enjoyed the read, but with one caveat.
I once read the epic 1,200-page book penned by the Englishman Edward Gibbons entitled “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.” In that book Mr. Gibbons cited waves of Germanic “barbarians” flowing south across the Roman frontier, running away from the harshness of their own lands, seeking better lives for themselves and their families among the more “civilized” Romans. Sounds familiar?
The mercenary-minded Germans started entering the ranks of the legions, the backbone of the empire, and gradually eroded their loyalty to the empire, being loyal only to the pay it provided. The various tribes eventually formed their own coalitions that periodically staged rebellions (albeit owing to how the empire treated them) and “contributed” to bringing the empire down, ushering in “The Dark Ages.” This is not so much direct causality as it is correlation — the Roman Empire was already on its way down for many reasons, including internal corruption and costly civil wars (sound familiar?), but the huge influx of “hungry” Germans probably expedited the process.
The moral of the story is this: Once you let (or bring) them in, be careful how you treat them, which might cause one to consider how to eliminate the need for it entirely — cheap labor, that is — and to invest in robots instead.
Arthur Saginian
Santa Clarita
