How Civilizations Die: (And Why Islam Is Dying Too)

by David Goldman

Rome worked its slaves to death and required fresh supplies through new conquests (unlike the American South, where the slave population rose through natural increase). A high proportion of recently captured slaves came from the same barbarian tribes that were about to invade Rome, and they deserted their Roman masters to join the invading Germanic tribes. As archaeologist Brian Ward-Perkins reports, “Even as early as 376-8 discontents and fortune-seekers were swelling Gothic ranks soon after they had crossed into the empire—the historian Ammianus Marcellinus tells us that their numbers were increased significantly, not only by fleeing Gothic slaves, but also by miners escaping the harsh conditions of the state’s gold mines and by people oppressed by the burden of imperial taxation.” Ward-Perkins cites a contemporary Roman source who observed that during the Goths’ siege of Rome in the winter of 408–409, “Almost all the slaves who were in Rome, poured out of the city to join the barbarians.”