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Comment by Wowfunhappy | Hacker News Reader

> The sacred fire of Vesta burned for over a thousand years in the same spot. Within 15 years of it being extinguished, Rome did a hard pivot toward decline, and began, basically, a freefall. The ancient prophecy—that Rome would fall if Vesta’s fire went out—thus came true.

I am not a superstitious person, and so of course I don't actually think the Flame had anything to do with anything...

...but wow is that spooky!

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I think you misunderstand. Those who wrote the prophesy understood that freedom of belief was key to the existence of the empire. They knew that the flame would only be extinguished if that very freedom was extinguished. The flame would thereby be the canary in the coal mine, and they were right. In this sense, there’s nothing superstitious about it - it only makes sense that the empire should fall after the flame is extinguished.

> Those who wrote the prophesy understood that freedom of belief was key to the existence of the empire

No. Don’t project American ideals on the past.

There was no freedom of belief like we would consider it. You were mostly free to belief what you wanted, but certain rituals and offers were a huge deal that had to be done. If you didn’t do that or participated in it you were considered a danger to the stability of society. It’s what the Christians found out.

> Those who wrote the prophesy understood that freedom of belief was key to the existence of the empire.

I find that a little hard to believe, you think that's true?

It was not a continuously burning fire, sometimes it would go out and the Vestal virgin who was responsible at that time would be punished. The Zoroastrian flame is thought to be neverending but that's not verifiable of course.

Correlation is not causation.

Oh I know, but some correlations are fun. Like a good ghost story.

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