United States. Nietzsche’s distinction between nations that are plants that climb (Greece) and those that are like plants that spread (Rome) …
Ancient cultures and ethnic diversity. How ethnically diverse was Rome? If it was more diverse when it was decaying than when it was growing, or the opposite, what would that speak to? [I.e., how does diversity track against the rise and fall of the Roman Empire — against the rise and fall of other nations and empires.]
— Was Rome more or less diverse than Greece? Than Persia? The Parthians? Were ancient states “diverse” in the same way modern ones can be? (Are modern states, on the whole, diverse?) Was there an ancient conception of diversity? Does diversity mean different things among different cultures or races? (Did diversity in Ancient China mean the same as in Ancient England)
— If Rome was never as diverse in the same sense as the United States (another “spreading plant”) has become, does that provide the United States with a different set of opportunities? might be a somewhat different variety of ‘plant’?
— And races comparable to City-states? Are “spreading plants” more or less diverse than climbing flowering ones […]
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