Fall of Rome, 476 AD, unknown artist.

How is the fall of Rome (often compared to the demise of the “American Empire”) like the extinction of the dinosaurs? Not a trick question, just something that came up a couple of days ago as I was listening to a lecture on the end of the Roman empire. The analogy goes like this:

Rome (476 A.D.) : Constantinople :: Dinosaurs (65 mya*) : Birds

* mya = million years ago

Rome and Constantinople

The sack of Rome by the Germanic leader Odoacer in 476 AD is a convenient way-point in history, dividing the Latin civilization under the Romans from the subsequent Dark Ages. Of course, it was nothing like as clear-cut as that. The 500-year old Roman empire had been crumbling for over 100 years, while Odoacer and his immediate heirs were better rulers than the ineffective Roman ones who preceded him. The politics changed in 476, but not much else.

But Rome was only the capital of the Western Roman Empire, while Constantinople, present-day Istanbul, was the center of the Greek-speaking Eastern Roman (or Byzantine) Empire. The otherwise-conservative emperor Diocletian had split the empire in two in 285 AD, the better to administer what had become a sprawling and ungovernable mess of provinces and territories. The sack of Rome (the final one, following a series of temporary occupations) made very little difference to the Eastern Empire—in fact, the Christian Odoacer initially paid nominal allegiance to the Byzantine leader, Zeno. Constantinople lasted until the successful Ottoman siege of 1453.

So: In 476, the main branch of the Roman empire fell, while its “cousin” Eastern empire survived for nearly 1,000 years.

Dinosaurs and Birds

Don’t Feed the Wildlife, Michael Carroll, used with permission

Sixty-five million years ago, the last of the terrestrial dinosaurs died out in the space of a few decades, following a massive asteroid (or comet) impact in the ocean north of the Yucatan peninsula. Geologists refer to it as the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. Until then, over a span of about 160 million years, dinosaurs had proved to be a particularly successful group of creatures.

Birds evolved from a branch of saurischian dinosaurs known as theropods during the late Jurassic, about 160 million years ago. You might think of birds as the cousins of those dinosaurs that went became extinct: same lineage, but somehow able to escape the fate of their kin when disaster (“bad star”) struck.

So: 65 million years ago, the main branch of the dinosaur group died out, while their cousins, the birds, survived until the present day.

Conclusion

I just asked Louisa, over a glass of Steve and Dave’s best (and only) Chardonnay, if this was all B.S. “Well, yes,” she said, “but it’s creative bullshit.” OK, so it’s not much of an analogy (today there’s no Roman Empire, east or west, while there are about 10,000 species of birds). But if we’re going to compare the end of the USA as a global power with the fall of Rome (and we are, right?), then surely, we have to start somewhere. And if not 65 million years ago, then when?

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Barry Evans gave the best years of his life to civil engineering, and what thanks did he get? In his dotage, he travels, kayaks, meditates and writes for the Journal and the Humboldt Historian. He sucks at 8 Ball. Buy his Field Notes anthologies at any local bookstore. Please.