

The Blood of the Nation 



that she grew proud, luxurious, corrupt, 

 and thereby gained a legacy of physical 

 weakness. We read of her wealth, her 

 extravagance, her indolence and vice ; 

 but all this caused only the downfall of 

 the enervated, the vicious, and the in- 

 dolent. The Roman legions did not 

 riot in wealth. The Roman generals 

 were not all entangled in the wiles of 

 Cleopatra. 



"The Roman Empire," says Seeley, 

 " perished for want of men." You will 

 find this fact on the pages of every 

 history, though few have pointed out 

 war as the final and necessary cause 

 of the Roman downfall. In his recent 

 noble history of the " Downfall of the 

 Ancient World" ("Der Untergang der 

 Antiken Welt," 1897), Professor Otto 

 Seeck, of Greifeswald, makes this fact 

 very apparent. The cause of the fall 

 of Rome is found in the "extinction 

 of the best" {"Die Ausrottung der 



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