[Modernman]

You talk about the lifestyle of 0.1% of a civilization that was decadent on the verge of collapse as if it were the norm of the day, or any other day. And this article talks as if we could draw some generalizations from that.

To say the average Roman was any more decadent than the average American is ignorant. Orgies and uber-decadence were the province of the incredibly rich layabout class. For the average man on the street, life consisted of hard work and a fairly boring family life.

When was Roman society on the verge of collapse due to decadence? If anything, one of the main causes of collapse of the Western Empire was the spread of Christianity.

[Antoninus]

For the average man on the street, life consisted of hard work and a fairly boring family life.

If Roman family life was anything like modern Italian family life, it was anything but boring...