Comment by awakeasleep
2 days ago
If you’ve ever read science fiction about life in the ruins of an advanced culture, but you were irritated with how it skimmed over what the process of the fall was like— well, we sure have a wealth of those details now.
'advanced culture' is in the eye of the beholder. At the time, Rome was an advanced culture and we have a bunch of details of their fall.
Not to take away from your point - I agree and the current fall makes it more tangible.
The fall of Rome also took centuries, historians can't even agree on exactly when it began.
True for the empire, not true for the republic (which still took decades but not centuries)
7 replies →
In the case of Rome, it depends how you define "fall". There were certainly some military setbacks and also some bad climatic conditions (which affected central America and China around the same time.) Probably better to say that Rome was in decline for a long time.
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I like Discworld's take on "advanced culture" - Ankh-Morpork is simple built on top of the skeletons of the original city multiple times over.