It's a wonderful little book--less than 200 pages of actual text--that delivers just what the title promises, written with concision and clarity. Perhaps it's not an easy read, but it certainly isn't a boring one. I picked the Kindle edition, which was a mistake. The book contains lots of maps and figures that don't reproduce all that well. I'd recommend a dead-tree version.
History, it turns out, often depends on the present as much as on the past. Immediately following the Second World War, French scholars portrayed the invading Germanic tribes as barbarians, who "had achieved the remarkable feat of living for centuries on Rome's frontiers 'without becoming civilized.'" The fall of the Roman empire was uncannily similar to the fall of the French Republic in 1940.
A few years later, as Germany was being tamed to bring about the EU, historians in North America and northern Europe played down the event. Rome didn't "fall" as much as it gradually "transitioned" into a medieval culture. The tribes cease being "invaders" and gradually just become migrants. Late Antiquity (as the era from 400 - 800 AD is called) was not a dark age, but rather a passage to another way of life.
Further, there is a reluctance to use the word civilization, implying that Romans were somehow morally superior to the barbarians. While Mr. Ward-Perkins rejects any moral superiority, he asserts that a civilized society is both richer and far more sophisticated than the more primitive sort.
Mr. Ward-Perkins mostly condemns this modern point of view as being not true. He documents the catastrophic decline in living standards across the empire, with many peoples reduced to an iron-age existence. It was many centuries (until the dawn of the Renaissance, or even longer) before wealth in the West exceeded that of Roman times.
He draws heavily on archaeological evidence, notably pottery. Roman pottery is found practically everywhere, even in homes of very modest circumstance. It was certainly not restricted to the wealthy. It came as tableware, cooking pots, and was used in transport. For example, olive oil, a staple Roman commodity, was shipped in amphorae.
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| Amphorae used in shipping (Wikipedia) |
While pottery vessels can break, the shards are nearly indestructible. "It is a reasonable supposition that, somewhere in the soil, almost all the pottery vessels ever made survive in fragments, waiting to be excavated and studied."
There is a huge wealth of information: the chemical composition tells where it was made; the design says when; the shape suggests what it was used for; and the location says something about who used it. Further, it often comes with inscriptions which inform about who made and traded it, and also the extent of literacy.
Pottery was an industrial art and produced in high quality on a massive scale. Amphorae carried grain from North Africa (the empire's granary) and olive oil from Spain to the farthest reaches of the empire: Hadrian's Wall in Britain, and the banks of the Rhine and Danube. There it provided for the soldiers who defended the empire, who in turn spent their income in local communities on the frontier. The result was Pax Romana.
This is something akin to today's globalization. Just as we can buy cheap, high quality clothing made in Bangladesh, Romans acquired fine goods and foods from hundreds if not thousands of miles away.
The Vandals sacked the city of Rome in 410, and went on to conquer the Iberian Peninsula and most of Roman Africa. The rest of the Roman empire was divided among various Gothic and Frankish tribes. Anglo-Saxons and Celts ruled previously Roman England.
Despite the occasional sacking, pillaging and looting, the tribes did not want to destroy Rome, but instead they wanted to share in its wealth. They were quite conscientious about this, retaining Roman nobility as administrators. They gradually even converted to the Roman religion.
The problem was not their intent. The problem was by divvying up the empire into so many competing principalities, it made trade impossible. This was especially painful at the frontier, which no longer had access to quality pottery from abroad. Instead they had to make do with hand-formed (not wheel-thrown) pots, made from crumbly, substandard material. Plus they had to grow their own food, since that trade, too, had disappeared. No more olive oil for you!
The result, by 450 AD, was a reversion to an iron-age economy.
Mr. Ward-Perkins traces the same history not only in pottery, but in building materials and even in the size of farm animals! He suggests that human populations dramatically declined during the 5th Century (though he can't prove that).
Trade allows for specialization: specialized potters, builders, writers, soldiers, farmers, etc. Without trade, each household has to do all those things on their own--that's the very definition of an iron-age world. Our modern society is so rich precisely because we have hugely sophisticated global trading networks and therefore highly specialized job titles. But lots of people are--to one degree or another--against trade. President Trump apparently sees it as a zero-sum game, which it isn't.
Our most celebrated congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggests we should abolish airplanes (to protect the climate). This would immediately put tens of millions of people out of work. But worse, it would destroy tourism. Think of all the countries that depend on tourism for a large part of their income. Without tourists they lose access to the world market and can't buy anything but what they produce themselves. Which likely will not include things like electricity, computers or pharmaceuticals.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez's supposed solution to climate change will condemn hundreds of millions of people to a miserable existence--assuming they survive at all.
Many people look into the abyss, and somehow they see utopia down there. If you want to find out how people of good intentions and good will can destroy the world, then please read Mr. Ward-Perkins' book.
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