There will always be happiness; there will always be pain. We must still maximize and minimize the two, but they will always vary with time. You will not stay in joy or sadness. Breathe in the moment, as it will always be temporary.
— me ;3
Mood. Lest the doom become too strong, though, let me just note that Rome also survived a lot of insane incompetents at the helm.
Literally survived Tiberius, Caligula and Nero in the span of a few decades.
The fall of the roman empire was a great thing for many people who didn't get to lament their woes on a medium that could survive the centuries.
"God I love rampant brigandry and not having clean water. Oh, if only trade routes would shut down and feudalism would grow from the ashes of our society! It's really too bad that ethnic supremacist polities didn't rule over my people sooner, I love being excluded from legal protections due to an insufficiently pure bloodline."
The decline and fall of the Roman Empire was fucking horrible for normal people, and it's bizarre to me that people think otherwise.
I apologize if this comes off as tetchy. I'm in an ill mood today.
What about those on the periphery, with minimal protection from the state both before and after the fall? For them, the only real difference was the tax collector stopped showing up.
Please don't take this as analogous to the modern day in any way. A modern village/town will break down rapidly without access to modern logistics, which was not the case then.
It took Rome anything between one and five centuries to fall. Damn, if you ask some people today it's possible to argue that the Roman empire still technically exists.
