-=> Bob Ackley wrote to DAVE DRUM <=-

 DD> "No state has an inherent right to survive through conscript
 DD> troops and in the long run no state ever has. Roman matrons
 DD> used to say to their sons: "Come back with your shield, or
 DD> on it." Later on, this custom declined. So did Rome." --
 DD> Excerpt from the notebooks of Lazarus Long

 BA> Heinlein was wrong, it was Spartan mothers that told their sons to
 BA> come back with their shield or on it.  Just a few centuries before
 BA> Rome...

It works no matter who/what/when it was uttered. Lacedaemeon (Sparta) was
broken in 371 BCE at the Battle of Leuctra. It was never able to regain its
supremacy and was finally absorbed by the Achean League in the 2nd century BCE.


I'd say that was a pretty effective decline ... and before the Roman
empire/decline.

In Admiral Bob's defence - I had heard that quote from other sources long
before I read "Time Enough For Love".

ENJOY!!!

From Uncle Dirty Dave's Kitchen
Home of YAHOOOOAHHHH Hot Sauce & Hardin Cider 

 

... We are none of us infallible - not even the youngest of us. - W H Thompson
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