[a sad character is slouched on a couch, looking at their laptop, looking depressed, while their coffee mug leaks on their carpet] I’m tired of living in the “Decline and Fall” section of the future Wikipedia article
[a sad character is slouched on a couch, looking at their laptop, looking depressed, while their coffee mug leaks on their carpet] I’m tired of living in the “Decline and Fall” section of the future Wikipedia article
Yeah I think the Romans around 400 AD felt very much the same.
is there any evidence that they were already aware besides their barbians-at-the-gate diatribes?
The common people? Hardly. To them it really didn’t matter all that much as long as they were protected from war and famine.
But eventually that happened and they couldn’t ignore it anymore.
The elites of society will have been much more aware of the situation (and acted accordingly).
As always…