Paganism was gone in all of Europe by 1400 after the crusades against Prussia by the Teutonic Knights. And the main goals of these crusades was to convert not to genocide. These numbers are as laughable as the “25 million witches killed” number trotted out by anti-Catholic fanatics (ironically including both rabid ideological atheists and Jack Chick)
Furthermore, recently declassified Hell archives prove only 28% of them were guilty. The rest were victims of a . . . hysteria . . . persecution . . . something.
Theodosius only lived to 48, and was emperor for 15 years, so I’d say it’s a stretch to hold him personally responsible for things that happened “over centuries”. He’s responsible for the choices he made and the things he did, either good or bad, but the fact that Charlemagne forcibly converted the Saxons or the Spanish conquistadors wiped out the Aztec civilization can’t be placed on his head.
It was falling apart before him too, though. He was the last single emperor of the whole empire because he reunified it after it had been divided in three. The empire had been falling apart since the Crisis of the Third Century (if you’re familiar with that), and the best that the emperors could do was to try to patch it back together and hold on to as much as they can.
e didn’t turn the civilization against itself. It had already turned against itself. The Crisis of the Third Century was a 50 year civil war, followed, after 12 years of relative stability by Diocletian, by a 19 year civil war as his tetrarchy concept collapsed and his successors fought to see who would succeed him. Then, after 14 years of stability under Constantine, guess what happens? That’s right. His three sons then start a civil war over the throne and divide the empire up. That sparks war on and off for 21 years, until Julian ascends to the throne. Julian is emperor for an unhappy two years, when he’s killed either by a disgruntled Christian or an enemy soldier, then after 8 months of rule by Jovian, Valentian takes the throne and brings peace. But, of course, he gives half the empire to his brother, and the empire is divided again, and then again by Valentian’s sons, which then brings us to Theodosius, which is where we started.
Meanwhile, while all this is going on, you’ve got barbarians crossing the frontier, you’ve got civil unrest, you’ve got friction between Christians and pagans, you’ve got rebellion, and you’ve got famine. This was all the situation when Theodosius became emperor. It’s not the result of it.
But they didn’t limit religious killing to the borders of the Empire, nor the duration of the Empire. Anyway, I’m not stuck on the 100 million figure. It is just a figure I heard in casual conversation, arrived at by a kind of class-action mathematics.
Except for the Roman Catholic Church.
Julian did a fine job securing Gaul as Caesar in the west. If other emperors had been so practical and less focused on executing heretics things might have gone more smoothly. Yes of course, there are centuries of context preceding Theodosius and he faced a difficult challenge. There may have been no way for him to know the right moves to make, as if a fate or doom were in effect. In the end he couldn’t claim ‘veni vidi vici’ as a motto. Quite the opposite- a huge chunk of the project completely fell apart shortly after his time at the wheel.
In the context of the OP, I’d say America is quite different by comparison. Let’s check back every 50 years or so 
Things might have gone more smoothly if Julian had focused on ruling his own troubled empire instead marching off to conquer Parthia/Persia/Iran. Julian should have known, from the experiences of Crassus, Antony et al.: That never works. Alexander just got lucky.
Hmmyes, but strong determination, ruthlessness and bold tactics (aka “sheer boneheaded stupidity”) also helped.
And what’s more, the “witches” were usually tried in secular courts rather than church courts. Any “witch” with any sense would try to get his case turned over to the church. The jails were much cleaner, the food was much better, the threat of torture was remote, they were much more likely to be acquitted, and anyone who confessed to witchcraft and repented was usually pardoned.
Theodosius is not responsible for every single thing the Catholic Church did throughout its history.
Julian did do a good job as Caesar in the West, but the fact that we even can talk about Julian’s accomplishments as Caesar in the West is a sign of the weakness of the Empire. Most of what he did in Gaul was war against the Alamanni, who had destroyed Colonia Aggripina and were besieging Augustudunum. He spent most of his time in the west fighting the Alamanni and the Franks, and correcting maladministration that was already there. Then, one of his legions mutinied, declared him emperor and started him on his conflict with Constantius.
Julian did well in Gaul, and he did decently as Emperor, even though he, like Theodosius, got himself involved in the whole “pagans vs Christians” thing.
The American empire will fall just like Rome, perhaps in 5-10 years. The most tragic thing is that this time, there will be no people from the North to pick up the baton.
You mean Canadians?
You expect local army commanders to trash the country as they use the troops under their command to attempt to seize dictatorial power?
That seems highly unlikely.
I would LOVE to hear the whole story there.
Hmmm, I think not.
I don’t know. But I do believe in what Donald Trump is saying: “We are so politically correct that this country is falling apart.” 1:18 in this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIDqxbDGlpw
Well, there’s your OTHER problem…
Look at how quickly the Soviet Union fell apart. If you’d told me in 1985 that the Soviet Union would be gone in ten years, I’d have laughed at you. Most other people would have, too.
Certainly no one has a detailed knowledge of the future, but we can take a look at trends and get a general feel for what’s going on.
Suppose you knew someone who was morbidly obese, lived on a diet of junk food, drank heavily, smoked like a chimney, never got any exercise, and hung out in seedy bars in a bad part of town. You have good reason to expect that something bad’s going to happen to him sooner or later. Maybe he’ll have a heart attack or a stroke, maybe he’ll get shot in a robbery, whatever. You don’t know exactly what it might be, but the signs aren’t good, and if you sell him insurance you’d better charge him some whopping premiums. Of course, maybe he’ll get lucky. Maybe he’ll beat the odds.
It seems to me that this is something like America’s present position. We’ve lost control of our borders, our economy has been horrendously mismanaged by both the private and public sectors, there’s a political logjam in Washington like nobody’s seen since 1860, and we’ve got who knows how many military commitments all around the world, any one of which could blow up in our faces.
It ain’t looking good.
Maybe we’ll beat the odds, but that’s not how I’d place my bets.
Do you believe that “political correctness” caused the collapse of the Roman Empire?
Of course I do! Multiculturalism (political correctness) was exactly the reason why the Roman Empire collapsed. They invited too many Barbarians to live on the Italian peninsula; it is as simple as that.
The question is not whether we will suffer the fate of Rome, so much as whether we deserve to. Some of us certainly do.