Definitely not a cult.

Interesting graph i thought that depicts the decline of silver convent in coinage as the Roman Empire devolved and eventually collapsed.

Printers go BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

im not sure if total currency printed was inflated, or if the romans kept excess silver in bar stock in their coffers. and im not sure if inflation played a role in the downfall of the roman empire.

this graph has me jonesin to research.

As the empire grew, centralized welfare (egyptian wheat), mass immigration combined with an increasingly corrupt military, and draconian taxes and regulations (at one point it was made illegal to renounce your citizenship to become a slave to avoid paying taxes) all caused the empire to go bankrupt. When the empire went bankrupt it kept raising taxes, which caused all of the wealthy producers of society to leave and join other tribes.

In the late stages of the empire, the emperor used foreign mercenaries as the praetorian guard. These guardsman demanded expensive real silver/gold as payment. This led to a death spiral and a replacement of emperors about every five years (by violence of course).

ty summary.

all ive ever really known is that they overextended themselves. the old adage of strategy games holds true, expanding your holdings doesnt take an addition relationship with cost to maintain, its multiplication. for rome, multiplying multipliers was their doom.