This is another T-Rex Talk podcast edition, and once again, we are tackling the topic of building

community. In the last, actually two weeks ago, we talked about why communities need to have

backbone. They need to have a solid, central, unmoving, unchanging thing that holds people together

so that you can actually have unity and

commonality of purpose. Community needs that. And then because the topic of building

communities is so big and so expansive, we're talking about it in little chunks. I feel like

we're just kind of nibbling around the edges. So today, talking about community, I'm going to

talk about

a couple of different ways, three different ways that communities have started in the past

in very different circumstances. And I'm also using the term community rather loosely,

because the first community that I'm talking about is actually the Byzantine Empire. Yes, we're talking about Constantine. Constantine 1, Constantine

the Great, whatever you call him, there is a man named Constantine who found himself in more or less

control of the Roman Empire, the entire Roman Empire in the early 300s, which, if you know your history, is also the beginning of the

end of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire declines and falls several times, but this is kind of

the beginning of the end for the Roman Empire. And yet, I think that it's very interesting to

see what it is that Constantine actually does, because in many ways,

he saves the Roman Empire, or the best parts of the Roman Empire. I think that's the best way to put it.

He inherits a thing that has declined and has fallen, is completely crumbling. The money supply,

well, the currency itself has been completely debased. The empire is essentially

bankrupt. The military is overstretched. They're losing their frontiers. There's a lot of infighting.

The tetrarchs are the actual rulers of Rome and they're fighting amongst themselves. Everything

is crumbling. The people themselves have been infandalized and are totally dependent upon the

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