The fall of Rome and the fall of the West

"If we could survive without a wife, citizens of Rome, all of us would do without that nuisance.” So proclaimed the Roman general, statesman, and censor Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus, in 131 B.C. Still, he went on to plead, falling birthrates required that Roman men fulfill their duty to reproduce, no matter how irritating Roman women might have become. "Since nature has so decreed that we cannot manage comfortably with them, nor live in any way without them, we must plan for our lasting preservation rather than for our temporary pleasure."

The Romans had no fault divorce. In fact, one spouse could divorce the other without even having to inform the other of it.

Obviously, the solution was to abolish no fault divorce, but they were probably too hooked on being able to enjoy extramarital sex to bother with reforming the law as regards marriage.

It had to be left to Islam to make marriage a contract and divorce a breach of that marriage contract.

The fall of Rome has many reasons attributed to it. Constantine thought he could save Rome by converting to Christianity. I like to think he would have converted to Islam if he had had that option, but when Rome fell, Muhammad was not yet born.

We do not have the same excuse.

The Constantine Option

We all know how the Romans crucified Christ and threw his followers to the lions for refusing to worship Roman gods.

But we also know that the Emperor Constantine eventually embraced Christianity, ostensibly because he saw the light, but really to control it and to harness the power of the Unique Omnipotent God whom he thought would better assist him in the ruling of his empire.

It is both humbling and revealing to learn that even gods are disposable.

Perhaps if Islam had been around for Constantine to embrace (as he embraced Christianity in 312 AD), the Roman Empire might well have lasted another thousand years. But it was the only Abrahamic religion around at the time for the Romans to embrace.

By 476 the Roman Empire had fallen. The Prophet Muhammad was not born until 570 - too late to save the Romans from themselves.

However, it is not too late for the British to part-exchange their Unreliant Robin of a religion for a four-wheel drive with its instruction manual still in the glove compartment.

After all, the journey ahead will be long and arduous.