One of my book groups recently read The Fall of the Roman Empire by Peter Heather. It was a bit of a slog getting through the book but it lead to an unusually animated discussion about whether the peasantry was better off under the Romans or their successors. One group held that it didn’t matter very much to the peasants and the other was that the Pax Romana was very good for everyone.
David A. subsequently sent out this YouTube clip from the Monty Python movie The Life of Brian. John Cleese thought that the Romans were no good at all except for the roads, water, peace etc.
An attempt at embedding:
it didn’t work yet click the link above.
The Movie cover:
