Quote:
Originally Posted by striperman36
sounds like a repeat of the fall of the Roman Empire
|
yes, and our Nero will be celebrating "HIMSELF" on the day that he claims all will crash down...
Obama Plans Pricey Birthday Bash on Default Day
Saturday, 16 Jul 2011 01:25 PM
By Martin Gould and Abigail Walls
As America’s poorest wait for Social Security checks that may never come on Aug. 3, President Barack Obama will be out celebrating a milestone birthday at a party where tickets cost up to $35,800 each.
Obama has chosen the first day of the potential default to throw his 50th birthday bash, combining it with raising money for next year’s election. His actual birthday is Aug. 4.
Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson is expected to perform at the birthday bash at the historic Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. The event will be one of the president’s biggest fundraisers of the year. Publicity literature featuring a red, white and blue Happy Birthday logo has already been produced.
The event will be “multi-tiered,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The Hudson concert would cost $50; admission to the party $200; a premium seat $1,000; a souvenir photo with the president $10,000; and VIP seating and dinner with Obama $38,500.
........................
In 64, most of Rome was destroyed in the Great Fire of Rome, which many Romans believed Nero himself had started in order to clear land for his planned palatial complex, the Domus Aurea. Nero's rule is often associated with tyranny and extravagance.
He is also infamously known as the emperor who "fiddled while Rome burned".
Few surviving sources paint Nero in a favorable light. Some sources, though, including some mentioned above, portray him as an emperor who was popular with the common Roman people, especially in the East.
Over the course of his reign, Nero often made rulings that pleased the lower class. Nero was criticized as being obsessed with being popular.
"STIMULUS"Nero built a number of gymnasiums and theatres. Enormous gladiatorial shows were also held. Nero also established the quinquennial Neronia. The festival included games, poetry, and theater.
Some questioned the large public expenditure on entertainment.
In 64, Rome burned. Nero enacted a public relief effort as well as significant reconstruction. A number of other major construction projects occurred in Nero's late reign. Nero had the marshes of Ostia filled with rubble from the fire. He erected the large Domus Aurea. In 67, Nero attempted to have a canal dug at the Isthmus of Corinth. Ancient historians state that these projects and others exacerbated the drain on the State's budget.
Nero devalued the Roman currency for the first time in the empire's history.
The economic policy of Nero is a point of debate among scholars. According to ancient historians, Nero's construction projects were overly extravagant and the large number of expenditures under
Nero left Italy "thoroughly exhausted by contributions of money" with "the provinces ruined." Modern historians, though, note that the period was riddled with deflation and that it is likely that Nero's spending came in the form of public works projects and charity intended to ease economic troubles.