The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization Quotes

“In my opinion, the key internal element in Rome’s success or failure was the economic well-being of its taxpayers. This was because the empire relied for its security on a professional army, which in turn relied on adequate funding.”
― Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization

“The almost total disappearance of coinage from daily use in the post-Roman West is further powerful evidence of a remarkable change in levels of economic sophistication.”
― Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization

“A hung jury, however, suggests that any decline was not overwhelming; and, in common with most historians, I believe the empire was still very powerful at the end of the fourth century. Unfortunately, a series of disasters was soon to change things.”
― Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization

“There is, however, an obvious problem in imposing, on the basis of eastern evidence, a flourishing Late Antiquity on the whole of the late Roman and post-Roman worlds. In the ‘bad old days’ western decline at the end of Antiquity was imposed on the eastern provinces. Now, instead of all the different regions of the empire being allowed to float free (some flourishing in the fifth to eighth centuries, others not), a new and equally distorting template is being imposed westwards.”
― Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization

“The new Late Antiquity is in part a deliberate corrective to a previous bias, which assumed that the entire Roman world declined in the fifth century, because this is what happened in the West. Relocating the centre of the world in the fourth to eighth centuries to Egypt, the Levant, and Persia is a stimulating challenge to our mental framework and cultural expectations.”
― Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization

“In southern and central Italy, for example, both the Greek colonies and the Etruscan territories have provided much more evidence of trade and sophisticated native industries than can be found in post-Roman Italy. The pre-Roman past, in the temples of Agrigento and Paestum, the tombs of Cerveteri and Tarquinia, and a mass of imported and native pottery and jewellery, has left enough material remains to serve as a major tourist attraction. The same cannot be said of the immediately post-Roman centuries.”
― Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization

“For the Germanic peoples, unity or disunity was the crucial variable in military strength; while for the Romans, as we have seen, it was the abundance or shortage of cash.”
― Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization

“Für den Niedergang des Römerreiches sind bisher die folgenden 210 im Register nachgewiesenen Faktoren herangezogen worden: Aberglaube, Absolutismus, Ackersklaverei, Agrarfrage, Akedia, Anarchie, Antigermanismus, Apathie, Arbeitskräftemangel, Arbeitsteilung, Aristokratie, Askese, Ausbeutung, negative Auslese, Ausrottung der Besten, Autoritätsverlust, Badewesen, Bankrott, Barbarisierung, Vernichtung des Bauernstandes, Berufsarmee, Berufsbindung, Besitzunterschiede, Bevölkerungsdruck, Bleivergiftung, Blutvergiftung, Blutzersetzung, Bodenerosion, Bodenerschöpfung, Versiegen der Bodenschätze, Bodensperre, Bolschewisation, Bürgerkrieg, Bürgerrechtsverleihung, Bürokratie, Byzantinismus, capillarité sociale, Charakterlosigkeit, Christentum, Convenienzheiraten, Degeneration des Intellekts, Demoralisierung, Despotismus, Dezentralisation, Disziplinlosigkeit des Heeres, Duckmäuserei, soziale Egalisierung, Egoismus, Energieschwund, Entartung, Entgötterung, Entnervung, Entnordung, Entpolitisierung, Entrechtung, Entromanisierung, Entvolkerung, Entvolkung, Entwaldung, Erdbeben, Erstarrung, unzureichendes Erziehungswesen, Etatismus, Expansion, Faulheit, Feinschmeckerei, Feudalisierung, Fiskalismus, Frauenemanzipation, Freiheit im Übermaß, Freilassungen von Sklaven, Friedensromantik, Frühreife, Führungsschwäche, Geldgier, Geldknappheit, Geldwirtschaft, Genußsucht, Germanenangriffe, Gicht, Gladiatorenwesen, Glaubenskämpfe, Gleichberechtigung, Goldabfluß, Gräzisierung, Großgrundbesitz, Halbbildung, Verlagerung der Handelswege, Hauptstadtwechsel, Hedonismus, Homosexualität, Hunnensturm, Hybris, Hyperthermia, moralischer Idealismus, Imperialismus, Impotenz, Individualismus, Indoktrination, Inflation, Instinktverlust, Integrationsschwäche, Intellektualismus, Irrationalismus, Irreligiosität, Kapitalismus, Kastenwesen, Ketzerei, Kinderlosigkeit, Klimaverschlechterung, Kommunismus, Konservatismus, Korruption, Kosmopolitismus, Kulturneurose, Lebensangst, Lebensüberdruß, Legitimitätskrise, Lethargie, Luxus, fehlende Männerwürde, Malaria, moralischer Materialismus, Militarismus, Ruin des Mittelstandes, Mysterienreligionen, Nationalismus der Unterworfenen, Nichternst, kulturelle Nivellierung, Orientalisierung, panem et circenses, Parasitismus, Partikularismus, Patrozinienbewegung, Pauperismus, Pazifismus, Plutokratie, Polytheismus, Proletarisierung, Prostitution, Psychosen, Quecksilberschäden, Rassendiskriminierung, Rassenentartung, Rassenselbstmord, Rationalismus, Regenmangel, Reichsteilung, Angriffe der Reiternomaden, Rekrutenmangel, Rentnergesinnung, Resignation, Rhetorik, naturwissenschaftliche Rückständigkeit, Ruhmsucht, Seelenbarbarei, Selbstgefälligkeit, Semitisierung, Seuchen, Sexualität, Sinnlichkeit, Sittenverfall, Sklaverei, Slawenangriffe, Söldnerwesen, Schamlosigkeit, Schlemmerei, Schollenbindung, Staatsegoismus, Staatssozialismus, Staatsverdrossenheit, Niedergang der Städte, Stagnation, Steuerdruck, Stoizismus, Streß, Strukturschwäche, Terrorismus, fehlende Thronfolgeordnung, Totalitarismus, Traurigkeit, Treibhauskultur, Überalterung, Überfeinerung, Überfremdung, Übergröße, Überkultur, Überzivilisation, Umweltzerstorung, Unglückskette, unnütze Esser, Unterentwicklung, Verarmung, Verbastardung, Verkrankung, Vermassung, Verödung, Verpöbelung, Verrat, Verstädterung, unkluge Vorfeldpolitik, Wehrdienstverweigerung, Wehrlosmachung, Weltflucht, Weltherrschaft, Willenslähmung, Wohlstand, Zentralismus, Zölibat, Zweifrontenkrieg.”
― Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization

“Indeed, in the rich developed world (where historians flourish), well-made objects have become so much an accepted part of existence that their importance tends to be overlooked, particularly by intellectuals, who often see themselves as somewhat above such mundane things. However, these same high-minded intellectuals record their elevated thoughts on the latest laptop, in a weatherproof room, comfortably clothed, and surrounded by those mass-produced items known as ‘books’. Our own experience should teach us every minute of every day how important high-quality functional objects are to our well-being.”
― Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization