It’s amazing that with all of the corruption and decadence of the emperors during the imperial era, the people living in the Roman Empire generally prospered as never before.
I guess that despite the corruption and decadence the emperors did not have the means to achieve a totalitarian state. Commerce, agriculture and industry could still thrive in an open economy.
The military kept order and trade flowed throughout the military road system, and piracy was snuffed by the navy. And yet the economic life of the empire actually kicked up a notch during the 3rd c, when there were multiple schismatic emperors, each ruling part of the empire, probably because of “interstate” trade being encouraged. Also the Roman currency system was “debased”, meaning they had a modern grasp of currency as a medium of exchange, knowing that there isn’t enough gold and silver to support economic activity expansion.