helemon
6th June 2005, 09:59 PM
"Had every Roman father been teaching his sons righteousness instead of war, and every mother making a home for her children; had all parents assembled their children in their homes instead of the circuses and public baths; had they taught them chastity and honor and integrity and cleanness; would Rome still be a world power? Certainly it was not the barbarians from the north but the insidious moral termites within that destroyed the Roman world empire."First Presidency Message Home: The Place to Save Society
Spencer W. Kimball, “Home: The Place to Save Society,” Ensign, Jan. 1975, 3
The rise and fall of civilizations according to the alternating righteousness and wickedness of the peoples proclaim the need to hear and to heed the Savior’s divine messages.Fortify Your Homes against Evil
Spencer W. Kimball, “Fortify Your Homes against Evil,” Ensign, May 1979, 4
Jenkin Lloyd Jones said the pathway of history is littered with the bones of dead states and fallen empires. He points out that Rome did not fall because its walls were low, but because Rome itself was low. The sensuality, orgies, and gradually weakened fibre of a once self-disciplined people brought Rome down."Thou Mayest Choose for Thyself"
N. Eldon Tanner, “Thou Mayest Choose for Thyself,” Ensign, July 1973, 7
Or maybe, just maybe, could it be that they were just plain going insane?
http://www.leadpoison.net/general/history.htm
"In ancient Rome, lead poisoning was a disease of the wealthy who used lead extensively: leaden cooking utensils and pots, leaden wine urns, lead plumbing (also to line the aqueducts) (Plumbing is derived from plumbum, Latin for " Lead"), vessels used to concentrate grape juice, containers used to store wine, and lead-based makeup. In those days there were no substances ( like sulfites) to act as preservatives for the wines. Lead is naturally sweet in taste and was found to enhance both the color and bouquet of wine. The Romans shipped wines all over their empire, as far way as northern Germany. A preservative was needed to prevent bacteria from turning the wines into vinegar. The Greeks added pine tree resin to their wines but the Romans preferred sweet Sapa, a boiled down concentrate of grape juice. The problem with Sapa was that the kettle used in boiling unfermented grape juice into a concentrate was made of lead, which leaches into the liquid because of the high acidic content of the grape juice. The final product, Sapa, is a sweet aromatic syrup containing about one gram of lead per liter. Because of its sweet taste, many Romans used it as a sweetening agent in many dishes. When taken together, all the pathways of lead in Roman society, and the intake of lead in Roman times is estimated to have varied from about 35 mg/day to about 250 mg/day, compared to today’s daily intake of 0.3mg in the United states in the 1980’s (National Academy of Sciences 1980).
There are many distinquished historians who now believe that this high exposure to lead was a contributing force in the decline of the Roman Empire. With the more recent scientific research proving that lead is a highly neurotoxicant and analyzing the strange behavior of most Roman leaders and the upper classes, a good case can be made for lead’s role in a declining Roman society. What is ironic is the fact the during Roman times lead poisoning was primarily a disease of the affluent while today it is an affliction of primarily the poorer communities. "
Spencer W. Kimball, “Home: The Place to Save Society,” Ensign, Jan. 1975, 3
The rise and fall of civilizations according to the alternating righteousness and wickedness of the peoples proclaim the need to hear and to heed the Savior’s divine messages.Fortify Your Homes against Evil
Spencer W. Kimball, “Fortify Your Homes against Evil,” Ensign, May 1979, 4
Jenkin Lloyd Jones said the pathway of history is littered with the bones of dead states and fallen empires. He points out that Rome did not fall because its walls were low, but because Rome itself was low. The sensuality, orgies, and gradually weakened fibre of a once self-disciplined people brought Rome down."Thou Mayest Choose for Thyself"
N. Eldon Tanner, “Thou Mayest Choose for Thyself,” Ensign, July 1973, 7
Or maybe, just maybe, could it be that they were just plain going insane?
http://www.leadpoison.net/general/history.htm
"In ancient Rome, lead poisoning was a disease of the wealthy who used lead extensively: leaden cooking utensils and pots, leaden wine urns, lead plumbing (also to line the aqueducts) (Plumbing is derived from plumbum, Latin for " Lead"), vessels used to concentrate grape juice, containers used to store wine, and lead-based makeup. In those days there were no substances ( like sulfites) to act as preservatives for the wines. Lead is naturally sweet in taste and was found to enhance both the color and bouquet of wine. The Romans shipped wines all over their empire, as far way as northern Germany. A preservative was needed to prevent bacteria from turning the wines into vinegar. The Greeks added pine tree resin to their wines but the Romans preferred sweet Sapa, a boiled down concentrate of grape juice. The problem with Sapa was that the kettle used in boiling unfermented grape juice into a concentrate was made of lead, which leaches into the liquid because of the high acidic content of the grape juice. The final product, Sapa, is a sweet aromatic syrup containing about one gram of lead per liter. Because of its sweet taste, many Romans used it as a sweetening agent in many dishes. When taken together, all the pathways of lead in Roman society, and the intake of lead in Roman times is estimated to have varied from about 35 mg/day to about 250 mg/day, compared to today’s daily intake of 0.3mg in the United states in the 1980’s (National Academy of Sciences 1980).
There are many distinquished historians who now believe that this high exposure to lead was a contributing force in the decline of the Roman Empire. With the more recent scientific research proving that lead is a highly neurotoxicant and analyzing the strange behavior of most Roman leaders and the upper classes, a good case can be made for lead’s role in a declining Roman society. What is ironic is the fact the during Roman times lead poisoning was primarily a disease of the affluent while today it is an affliction of primarily the poorer communities. "