€¦until they also got their hands on the Silphium plant. The Romans, with greater manpower, built the next empire. Too many hedonistic diversions and the lack of a reproductive desire (aided by Silphium) depleted the ranks. Whether the decline of Greek civilization resulted from an overabundance of philosophical introspection, excessive lyre and wooden flute playing or overzealous wrestling and discus throwing, decline it did. The Roman government went so far as to store a cache of the herb in the official treasury.” The seed of the Silphium plant, as depicted on Cyrenian coinage below, was most likely the template for our contemporary image of a human heart. According to an account by Allan Bellows, “ the seeds …came into such high demand that they were eventually worth their weight in silver.
They came across a local herb – Siliphium – that had both aphrodisiac and pregnancy-preventing properties (hold your excitement – it’s extinct). In the 6 th century BC, the Greeks of Thera (modern-day Santorini) sailed due south and founded the city of Cyrene on the northern tip of Africa. Polybius ascribes this population reversal to “pretentiousness, avarice and indolence.†Whatever the cause, the armies of the future become starved of troops, and the empire is left defenceless. Unfortunately, the city residents become so engaged in commerce and self fulfilment that they neglect to reproduce. Good governance, efficient services, institutes of higher education, a fair judiciary, and a thriving arts and social environment make city life energized and interesting. €œâ€¦men had fallen into such a state of pretentiousness, avarice, and indolence that they did not wish to marry, or if they married to rear the children born to them, or at most as a rule but one or two of them…â€Ĭivilizations thrive when cities gain critical mass and enable the development of institutions that enrich the lives of their inhabitants. €œIn our own time the whole of Greece has been subject to a low birth-rate and a general decrease of the population, owing to which cities have become deserted and the land has ceased to yield fruit, although there have neither been continuous wars nor epidemics.†Polybius, in Book XXXVI, Section V, gives us his take on the decline of Greece – fewer babies. But a process was then set in motion that would weaken the empire just as the foundations of Rome were solidifying. Alexander the Great, King of the State of Macedon in Northern Greece, built his empire 100 years later.
The Temple of Poseidon and the Parthenon were both constructed around 440 BC. Greek power and influence peaked in the Classical period from 500 to 323 BC. The Histories of Polybius focus on the 53 year period from 220 to 167 BC when Rome displaced Greece as the dominant world power. Hidden in the ancient libraries of Byzantium (renamed Constantinople in 340 AD and Istanbul in 1930) are the remnants of a forty-volume opus written by Polybius about 150 years BC. Over the next 30 years, the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent have the potential to form a dominant empire (if they can escape the commodity curse and resolve a few governance issues) and as the 22 nd century draws near, Africa may reign supreme. The eventual demise of the US is less certain as they have cleverly found a way to keep extinction at bay and may be able to continue this evasive action for decades to come. Europe’s diminution comes next, followed closely by disappearance of South Korea and then the marginalization of China 25 years down the road. The global influence of contemporary Japan and Russia are now in the early stages of decline. It happened in ancient Egypt, then Greece and finally ancient Rome. It was indeed a vast empire and many able bodies were available to maintain the domination.īut all empires eventually meet their demise. At the time of Alexander the Great’s death in 323 BC, the Greek empire stretched from modern day Albania in the West to Egypt in the south from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean through Turkey, Iran and Iraq, as far as Pakistan in the East and up through the rugged terrain of Afghanistan to Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in the North. Granted, in modern warfare unmanned (but manually operated) drones reduce the need for front line warriors, but during the times of the ancients, wars were won and distant lands conquered with armies of men. David Munro, Consulting Market Strategist for OANDA Asia Pacific