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The Leaden Fall of the Roman Empire
One colleague's message on lead poisoning as the cause of the fall of the
Roman Empire has provoked responses showing that history raises passions.
Gus Breene of San Antonio consulted his "Structuring of History" and
wrote:
"The lead-pipe theory is reminiscent of the theory of a few years
ago that Caesars went loony from drinking wine from lead cups. This theory
had one serious drawback: eliminating Caligula, Nero, Elagabulus, and
Commodus, there weren't all that many loony Caesars. The lead poisoning
business may, like any number of other hypochondriacal paranoias, be 'highly
overrated'."
Which brings us back to our project on history textbooks on which I am
working. It would be interesting to compare Italian history textbooks from
the fascist period to the present
Ronald Hilton, 12-12-97
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