And was it really decadence that led to the fall of Rome? Who knows? But with all the bushfires and smoke, it does kind of feel like 'Rome' is burning.

We must confess, the fall of Rome has been popping up in our thoughts. Must be all those apocalyptic images and stories we've been absorbing.

Plus, Elermore Vale's Tony Davis told us a story about a toga party.

Tony read our piece on New Year's Eve, titled Partying Into The Roaring Twenties.

Tony and his wife Elaine partied a bit in their day. They still do.

"My wife and I have been thinking how parties have changed for us over the years," he said.

He recalled one party in which people dressed in "old Roman garb".

"One of the guests [Noel], who was 6 feet 5 inches tall, stopped for petrol on the way out," he said.

"He began to explain to the station attendant what was happening. The man just smiled, sighed and said, 'Yes sir, we get 'em all in 'ere!' His wife was still laughing when she got to our place!"

Another party they went to with a Probus club was called "P Night".

"We had pirates, a priest, a pregnant lady and many more," he said.

"During the evening the pregnant lady left the group, had the baby and brought it back [a doll of course]. The priest then, very tastefully said a prayer for both of them."

Nowadays, at their retirement village, Tony and Elaine still like to party.

"We've had pie, pea and poetry nights and street parties for Christmas," he said.

We're not too sure how Tony's parties compared to those in ancient Rome. But a party is a party. We're talking feasts, flowing wine and obviously a bit of decadence.

Yep, comparisons between modern life and ancient Rome are just too easy to make at the moment.

But it turns out that Nero didn't really fiddle while Rome burned. It's just a myth. But apparently the infamous emperor did get mightily peeved about the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD.

He deflected attention by blaming Christians for the fire. And he burned some unlucky souls to death in night pyres that provided light for his garden parties.

Tony's parties, we're certain, were a lot different to those.

Mount Hutton's John Ure knows his Roman history.

"The Roman Empire could be a lesson for us at the moment," John said.

"It didn't fall, it just sort of slowly slipped away. There was infighting, the economy was stuffed, they just extended themselves."

The empire was afflicted by "unholy alliances".

"The wrong people got control," he said.

"The Romans allowed it to happen. They sat by and allowed their empire to fall. They had their own reasons. In those days it was sloth, gluttony and maintaining their wealth.

"They were shedding things they felt were less important, the outer provinces and so on. In doing that, they were exposing themselves to so many more dangers."

He recounted the story of Theodoric the Great, a Goth king.

"Theodoric killed Odoacer, cutting him nearly in half," John said.

Odoacer's reign marked the end of the Western Roman Empire.

Thankfully, political leaders today don't tend to cut their enemies in half.

"But they do stab them in the back," John quipped.