Edinburgh Napier University

  This paper examines the ways in which the trope of Roman declinism was used by media and political commentators during the period 2003-2008. It considers how, during the Iraq War, both the political Left and Right in the United States seized on a narrative of moral, political and military decline that was predicated upon an explicit comparison of the USA under George W Bush to the Later Roman Empire. The paper concludes by demonstrating that Roman declinism has been a part of American political discourse since the foundation of the country and that the Roman empire has come to serve a semiotic warning role that is routinely used and abused to serve political ends.