[Verginius Rufus]

"Robbers of the world...if their enemy have wealth, they have greed; if he be poor, they are ambitious; neither east nor west has satiated them; alone of mankind they covet with the same passion poverty as well as wealth. To plunder, butcher, steal, they call with false names empire. They make a desolation and call it peace."

From the speech of Calgacus in Tacitus' Agricola.

[marktwain]

With the fall of the Roman Empire, and the rise of Islam, the population around the Mediterranean sea fell to much lower levels. Exact numbers are very difficult to find.

Evidence of much lower populations exists from about 500 AD to 1700 AD.

[SunkenCiv]

It shows that, either Calgacus was a sore loser, or that the speech was made up by Tacitus, the ancient version of the myth of the noble savage.