[lit-ideas] The Rise of the Griceian Empire

From: "Luigi Speranza" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "jlsperanza" for DMARC)
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2016 18:47:39 -0400

When we say an 'empire' (an abstract noun meaning something pretty complex, but
derived from a verb and thus an action) rises and falls we are, according to
Grice, being, via implicature, metaphorical. He proposed to analyse if

i. What goes up must come down.

was analytic a priori and tautological -- and thus an otiose, by his
conversational maxims, thing to say. He found it wasn't. "Why, my empire is
ever expanding!"

On Jul 10, 2016, at 12:28 PM, Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote at the end of a recent post:

I've been reading Peter Heather's The Fall of the Roman Empire, a New History
of Rome and the Barbarians

Oddly, the Greeks thought the Romans barbarians.

The Romans took the offense so seriously that they conquered Greece and use
Greek paidagogoi to teach them the Grecian lingo. Paidagogoi were kind of
slaves.

OTOH, the sack of Rome* was a terrible thing (for the Romans)

Cheers

Speranza

* The Sack of Rome occurred on August 24, 410. The city was attacked by the
Visigoths led by King Alaric. At that time, Rome was no longer the capital of
the Western Roman Empire, having been replaced in that position by Ravenna in
402. Nevertheless, the city of Rome retained a paramount position as "the
eternal city" and a spiritual center of the Empire. The sack was a major shock
to contemporaries, friends and foes of the Empire alike.
This was the first time in almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to a foreign
enemy. The previous sack of Rome had been accomplished by the Gauls under their
leader Brennus in 387 BC. The sacking of 410 is seen as a major landmark in the
fall of the Western Roman Empire. St. Jerome, living in Bethlehem at the time,
wrote that "The City which had taken the whole world was itself taken."

[lit-ideas] The Rise of the Griceian Empire

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